We're in London!!!

Yesterday: 27.12.06, from Dulles to Heathrow
We left our house by 4:45am and had a perfect drive to Dulles. For those of you who have flown out of IAD before, you may not believe me, but everything was *fast, pleasant, and perfect*!! We got through security faster than I have ever been through it before, and the shuttle to take us to our concourse were leaving seconds after we arrived. The flight was uneventful and arrived 45 minutes early, much to everyone's delight -- people applauded the crew before deboarding :-) Next, we made it through Immigration in *record* time and there no were no Customs officials checking bags (weird, right?). Following the theme of the day, our bags were right there when we arrived at "Baggage Reclaim" and finding the Tube couldn't have been easier. We bought our £4 tickets and were on our way, via the Piccadilly Line to Cockfosters, changing at Hammersmith to Upminster, getting off finally at Victoria, where we got a taxi to take us the last leg to our hotel. You wouldn't believe how many flights of stairs we had to lug up the luggage, but we were in our rooms and in bed shortly after midnight. Oh, and thanks mom for calling us on my new GSM phone and to Candice and Gunther for the SMS/text. Gunther, yours made me laugh out loud ;-) Germany next, my friend!

London, Day 1, 28.12.06
"Take one for the team!" -- that's the tag line for this trip. Whenever anyone has stepped up today and taken initiative or missed out on something, we keep saying "Taking one for the team!"

Thankfully dad and Katie slept last night because I hardly slept a wink. We were downstairs for breakfast by 8:40 and it was such an experience! The room is so tiny and the tables are crammed together. When we left, there was literally a line up the stairs! I had toast, beans, an egg, and some unidentified juice.

We started off towards Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament but decided to check out Buckingham Palace to see if the changing of the guards occured today -- it only occurs on alternate days most of the year. Thankfully today was the day, and we got there around 10:30, too late to get a spot right at the gate. Still, patience prevailed at shortly before 11:30, guards started some type of formation and cameras flashed. Between the 3 of us, I think we have some great pictures. Even though we were surrounded by tourists, none of them spoke English, which was so cool. I've never been in one spot where I've heard so many different languages spoken within a matter of minutes.

Next we walked through Green(?) Park and St. James Park before heading to Westminster Abbey. The line was too long so they told us to come back tomorrow! When we arrived at the Houses of Parliament next door, we were told it was closed to the public until January 8. :-P

We'd been walking for quite some time by this point, so we found the nearest Tube station and paid our 50 pence for the toilets. Let me just say, I am a huge fan of FREE toilets back home.

After the 50 pence pit stop, we crossed one of the many bridges that cross the Thames and headed to the London Eye, were the queue was sooo long that we would have been there for hours! Scrapping another idea for the day, we decided to head down the Queen's Walk, which follow the Thames, until we got to Gourmet Pizza Company, a restaurant I had read about. We all loved it and it was well worth the wait, especially for my Thai Chicken Pizza. For the first time all day, we actually heard British accents while we sat down to eat.

By this point it was actually getting late in the afternoon, so we decided to head back towards our hotel and do some grocery shopping. However, on the way I saw a stand selling theatre tickets, and Wicked was available!!! I hope it's the priciest thing I do here O:-) We had to walk to Covent Garden Station to pick up the tickets, and I think Katie fell in love with the area. Then, we headed back to Victoria, which is where we are now.

I can't believe how much of the city we managed to see on foot today. Not sure about plans for tomorrow yet, but you can bet we'll be mostly walking! Then hopefully Kev and I will get to meet tomorrow, and Katie's friend Jon is heading to London on Saturday to hang out with her.

Okay, off to see Wicked!

Cheers!