Katie and I are safe and sound in London!

Yesterday we had a typical drive up to northern Virginia and met (Super) Dan in Centreville. Dan has been very gracious with his time whenever I need/want to fly out of Dulles. At the airport people amused (annoyed?!) me and Katie greatly. For instance, in the *small* bookstore, this woman asked for assistance in finding a book. Not unusual right? Well the kind folks inform her that they can only look books up by author, not by title. She proceeds to tell them that it's a biography and repeats the title, so one of the "bookstore" employees helps her look on the tiny wall of biographies. As the gentleman at the register is ringing people up, the woman yells back to him, "So is it here?" He patiently reminds her (all the while ringing people up) that he can only look up books by author, which she doesn't know. She then repeats the title again and starts launching into the book's focus, sounding very much like the back of a book. She's talking very loudly and has the rudest tone to her voice. Bah.

On the plane I had a very interesting passenger beside me. He's one of the very last to board, he falls asleep within minutes of sitting down, and an hour later he's laughing very loudly at the movie he's watching, enough to draw attention from everyon around him. Eventually he starts talking to me, and he never stopped for a whole hour until I finally told him I thought I might try taking a little nap. He's from Pakistan and pursing an electrical engineering degree in the states. He's very well traveled and shares stories and experiences with me, most of them much more personal than you'd expect from a stranger on a plane. And he's writing a paper about Islam and translating it to English and asks me "How do you explain prophecy to someone who doesn't understand what that means?" I attempted an answer but then the flight attendants made their rounds.

Immigration was super quick and painless like last time, and customs was non-existent. As Katie and I passed through the duty free shop, we were all smiles, anticipating seeing Robin and Dave around the corner. There they were, holding a sign with our names on it, beaming when we all made eye contact.

Katie and I bought an Oyster card today and quickly put it to good use. After a pit stop for lattes, we arrived at Dave and Andi's flat, took a quick shower, and away we went to the Houses of Parliament, which had been closed during our New Year holiday. Once again, we found ourselves making a change of plans, as we wouldn't be able to get in for another couple of hours. Big Ben rang noon and we decided to play in the nearby gardens before embarking on a favorite walk -- the South Bank path. Using our New Year knowledge, Katie and I were able to find toilets that the guys didn't seem to know about -- clean and free toilets *with* toilet paper is not an easy task :-) Then we actually got to take the guys somewhere new for them, but "old" for us -- Gourmet Pizza Company. Not as good as the two times I went during my last visit, but not bad.

After the meal, we were all pretty tired, but we walked back to the Houses of Parliament to find no queue to speak of (as we got there right at opening at 2:30pm), but we'd still have to wait an hour. No thanks! Moving on to Plan B (or C?), we walked past Buckingham Palace and to my favorite green space, Green Park. It was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day in London today. It was warm with a nice, cool breeze and SUNNY. Not a drop of rain all day, unbelieveable ;-) We found the perfect bench for people watching and relaxing and just sat in silence and contentment for quite a while. Eventually however, we had to muster the will power to get up O:-) A nice stroll through the park to the Underground was a pleasant way to start. After another adventure on the Tube and a pit stop at the largest Tesco we've seen yet, we were finally back to the flat. While everyone's asleep in the next room, I'm writing this entry...hopefully without too many typos, as I've slept one hour in the last 33.

Andi just got home from work, so I'm off to see what the night holds in store!

Cheers ♥