In London

(This should of been posted last night but we had internet issues so we waited till today)

We made it to London. Our flight was good except we cannot sleep on airplanes! We tried and tried but were unsuccessful. So right now we have been up for 32 hours. We are a little testy but are enjoying our time in London.

I love London. It is everything I thought it would be and more. When we arrived into Gatwick we took a train to Victoria station. I was planning on taking the Gatwick Express but a regular train was cheaper so we went with that. It actually worked out well. The Gatwick Express takes 30 minutes and our train took 40 minutes. We were happy with that.

We also have a one day pass for the London underground (subway). We encountered a problem though since the underground station closest to our hotel is closed for construction over the weekend. So people had us going several different ways and it was a mess carry our luggage throughout the underground system. There were places with stairs and no escalators. Oh it was not that pretty, but we did. The strap on the new shoulder strap bag I got before we left broke today. That did not make Brian very happy.

We finally got to Aldgate station and I told Brian we were going to walk to our hotel from there. I had the address to Chamberlain Hotel but did not know for sure where it was. So we walked up and down Minorities Street and could not find it. By this time we are sick of carry our luggage and are thinking does this hotel exist. Finally after Brian suggested we walk it one more time and we found it. It is a nice hotel and we are looking forward to getting some sleep tonight around 10pm or so local time (5pm EST).

Once we dropped off our luggage we went to Tower Bridge. It is amazing to see it person. That got us all excited and helped us make it through the day despite our exhaustion. After Tower Bridge we went Waterloo train station to buy our tickets for tomorrow. We got them without any problems.

Then we took a look at the London Eye. We were unsure if we wanted to go up in into right away or wait until later today or later in the trip. We also walked to see Big Ben after we realized it was off in the distance. It was neat to hear it chime. While walking back from Big Ben, we were hungry and kept seeing people selling fried peanuts (?), so we bought some. It had its own unique taste that either of us can describe.

Then we decided to head to St Paul's Cathedral. We went inside briefly but opted not to spend 10 pounds per person to get in and see everything. We walked the streets of London and found a pub with a fish and chips special. That is what we ate for lunch/dinner.

Finally we went back to the London Eye and took a ride in it. It was amazing to be that high and see how big London is. Once finished, we took a bus back to our hotel. The traffic was horrible and took almost an hour. We would have chosen the underground but several stations are closed this weekend for construction and there was an accident on another line which had it shut down too, so we decided to use the bus instead. Our underground one-day pass covers both unlimited tube and bus transportation. Unfortunately the bus didn't work out too much better given the traffic.

We hope to go out and see Tower Bride at night and then finally get some sleep. I miss everyone at home but am having a really great time. Tomorrow we will leave early and take a train to meet up with our cruise ship.

P.S. We are on the ship now and I plan on writing more blogs later tonight.