Wednesday, June 25, 2014

0842, Wed, 062514. London, England.

Flying out of Sacramento was a bit delayed since there was a storm in the Dallas area. We arrived in Dallas with time to make our connection then sat on the tarmac waiting for our slot to park the plane. Micki had to split out the door of the plane after pushing through the crowd to make the mad dash to the connecting flight in order to hold them. She left instructions with one of the travelers to gather everyone at the exit and bring them over together. As we got off the plane there was no one around so we simply made our way to the next flight. Somehow everyone made it just fine and we were off on our long flight to England.
Our first encounter with the British accent was at Immigration, a very chatty young lady in Immigration, then at Customs we simply walked through without seeing an agent in sight. It doesn't get much easier than that.
Mick found our bus and we headed through town to the Hotel. The houses along the way reminded us of the Brownstones of Boston. Lots of brick is used in construction with a sort of townhouse type of layout. The chimneys are just like in Mary Poppins, a group coming out of the roof in one stack then topped off with a terra cotta tube for each separate chimney. I am reminded of Wind in the Willows, with Toad Hall being such an impressive building since it had so many chimneys. Of course driving on the wrong side of the street was of interest as well.
We made it to our rooms then headed out in mass to the local streets of London. We took the underground to downtown and walked such places as Piccadilly Circus. Piccadilly is simply a down town area much like being in Time Square New York. Circus is simply a slang term for round about I think, no clowns.
The cars are different here with their little "Black Taxies", a funny little car like you would see in Pink Panther. I have watched a Masaratti zoom by as well as a Ferrari and a Lotus. Other than that the streets are full of Mercedes and lots of other little things right down to the small " car.
I zonked out early in the evening with the time change and all and was ready to go early this morning. We shall see how long that lasts. Feeling pretty rested and ready for breakfast, we wait for the sun to rise with our tremendous view over the city from our room on the ninth floor.....more later..