Day 1 in London

Thurs., July 28:

We arrived in London at 9:00 am/ 3:00 pm Iowa time.  Emma helped us go through customs.  I was told I could not take a photo as I waited in line.  But they did not make me delete the border photo.  Once through customs it was time to claim our bags and find Dave & Lynne.

They were waiting as we came out- ecstatic Grandparents.  They had not seen Gruff since January.  Dave helped us get a mini cab and load up all our bags.  We sent 1 bag with Emma of stuff for Wales, but that still leaves one very large, heavy bag and 2 small bags.

Our taxi left us at our hotel, Four Seasons in Gloucester.  We were able to check in and get settled before leaving to find food.  We ate at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen, then walked around a bit and headed back to the hotel to rest.  I haven’t taken a nap and slept that long and hard forever.

Upon waking, we bought a 2-day ticket to the Big Bus Tours (an open top bus)- a narrated tour that you can hop on and off.  This was a perfect way to see London.  We rode the whole route to get our bearings and planned where we would get on and off on Friday.  Unfortunately, the tour stopped before we got back around to our starting off point, which was near the hotel.  So we hoofed it.  It was not a bad walk if you are not dead tired.  We also had trouble finding somewhere to eat.  Mark ended up with Subway and me fruit and snacks I had leftover from the plane, then off to bed. Another glitch- I couldn’t use my sound machine. When I plugged it into the adapter I got in the US we heard a big pop and smelled something hot.  Now what do I do?  Thank heaven for my iPod touch and the white noise app.  J