Off to England!

Well, we made it to England in one piece and without delay on any of the legs of our journey. Considering all of the snow in the Northeast and the disaster at London Heathrow the week before, we counted ourselves extremely lucky.

We had to tour NC before flying across the pond. After a night at the farm in Siler City, Bill Lail drove us to Janice's and Paige's house in Chapel Hill, and Janice drove us to RDU. Here's how we looked packed into Bill's Honda Fit, which he generously lent us for a month before we left. Notice our luggage stacked in the back.

We actually then flew from RDU to Charlotte before flying to London Gatwick, which was cheaper than flying direct from Charlotte. We continue to be baffled by airline logistics! Here we are on the plane from Charlotte to London Gatwick.

When we arrived at London Gatwick, we picked up our bags (they were among the first to arrive on the carousel - a good sign), and breezed through customs. The Border Agent was great - he was disappointed for us that USAirways didn't offer us free champagne to toast the New Year at midnight. In fact, they barely even mentioned that the New Year had arrived!

We took the Gatwick Express train to Victoria Station, then had a ride in a classic black cab to Paddington, the location of our hotel. We stayed in the St Davids Hotels on Norfolk Square. This was a very nice, family-run hotel, and it appeared that they had many return visitors. They even treated us to breakfast when we arrived and gave us our room at 9am! We promptly took a nap and when we woke up, we all referred to the brief morning as "yesterday".

We spent most of our time in London recovering jet lag and getting a feel for London. It is a beautiful city. We wandered around Paddington the first day. We had a great snack in a stellar Victorian pub named, appropriately, "The Victoria",



and then found a "Winter Wonderland" carnival in Hyde Park, where the girls got to have their first ride in a classic double-decker red "bus".

We spent our second day in London walking along Oxford Street and Regent Street, visiting Hamley's, advertised as the largest toy store in the world, and exploring many famous landmarks of London, including Marble Arch and Speaker's Corner (for some reason there weren't any speakers there!),

Trafalgar Square,

and the famous lion statues,

Horse Guards Parade, where the guards stood still except for their roving eyes,

10 Downing Street, completely sealed off from visitors,

and Parliament.

But the girls' favorite place, by far, was riding on the London Eye. The wait for the ride was about an hour, but it was well worth the wait.

We got to ride the Eye at night and saw London all lit up. The view of Parliament was especially impressive.