LONDON Day 1

Bonjour! I'm starting this blog a few days late, but figure that's better than nothing! Wanted to start off talking about our experience in London. Even though we only had about three days there, we definitely managed to see a lot! Our journey started with an exhausting yet smooth plane ride from Chicago. We had a hard time at first after landing with adjusting to the time change. Our plane landed a little before 6 am London time (aka 1 EST) and none of us slept more than about an hour on the fight, so we were ready to crash! First, we rode the tube for the first time. Since it was morning, it was really quiet and just full of business men and people travelling to work. It was funny to see everybody reading something (typically newspapers).

After the ride on the tube, we arrived at Victoria Station and were delighted to find we were only about a 5-7 min walk from our hotel, the Lynton. It was a quaint little B&B owned by some nice brothers, Mark and Simon Connor. Unfortunately, we arrived around 7:45 am and the room wasn't ready until about noon, so we set out with a map and desire to see central London (and stay awake!). After a quick bite at Pret-a-Manger, we walked to Buckingham Palace. Our hotel was only a block or two from Buckingham Palace Road, so in no time we were there. It's a really impressive site. I felt like I was in a dream. I'd just seen this magnificent wedding procession and balcony scene on the tele :) about a month prior and it felt unreal to be in the presence of this exact place. I loved it. Luckily, this would not be the only trip to the palace...

After Buckingham we walked down the Mall to Green Park, which Taylor's cousin told us an interesting background story about. Apparently, some old king used to go to that park to get flowers for his mistresses, so the queen at the time had all the flowers removed from the park and this is why it is called "green"! haha Anyway, we followed the Mall to Trafalgar Square. This is one of Keegan's favorite spots in London. There are some great views, magnificent architecture, and interesting statues. There was also a countdown clock to the Olympics 2012. The Brits seem to have great pride about hosting the Olympics; many buildings are being spruced up for next summer.

After this walk, we were exhausted, so we treked back to the hotel, had an interesting struggle carrying our luggage up to the 4th floor (6+ flights of stairs). We mustered up enough energy to hit up Melissas, a local eatery, and then crashed for about three hours. We woke a bit more refreshed and had our first pub experience!