Upon arrival in London we got to enjoy the not-unexpected fun of being "taken for a ride" by the cabbie. Our hotel is in Blackfriar's on the north bank of the Thames, but the cabbie saw fit to take us through a few other boroughs before depositing us at our hotel. We bid farewell to £20 on what should have been a £14 trip and checked in.
After check in we made an ambitious trek from the hotel to the South Bank of the Thames to get tickets for the London Eye. It's paramount to stay awake until evening on that first day. Along the way we encountered a monument to Britain's colonial past-- a huge obelisk that had been presented to Queen Victoria by the patriotic Erasmus Wilson. This 3,500-year old Egyptian monument is flanked by a couple of impressive (though not antique) sphinxes. I hadn't yet unpacked my honkin' 5D SLR so I snapped a few shots with the iPhone 4. |
Crossing the Thames on the foot bridge, Luigi allowed himself to be lured into the grasp of one of the many street characters in this area-- in this case a rather tooth-challenged Charlie Chaplin. I declined the man's offer to take my daughter and handed over 50p ransom for the return of my son. In my haste I forgot to snap a picture (the whole pretext for the affair). That toothy grin had set off my parental warning bells. Both Luigi and I got an earful from Sojourner. Luigi for having allowed himself to be lured in and me for paying the man anything at all.
We ate our first meal at a cute Italian bistro called "my pasta bar". It's very similar to Pallino with a heavy emphasis on the celebrity chef owner whose name I can't remember. The kids both ordered pesto pasta. It was different from your standard Seattle-area pesto, with a definite floral taste to it. Columbia didn't care for it but Luigi declared it to be "great!" |
The London Eye itself if a fun experience, of course. A must-see box on the Tourist's Checklist for London. But I more enjoyed the trip from our hotel and back again. It's tough to get re-oriented across 8 time zones, but stepping out into the sunlight seems to help quite a bit. I was told that Seattle weather had turned a bit sour after our departure, making these hot, sunny London days all that more enjoyable. |
We were walking along Buckingham Palace Road today when the thought first struck me that it might be kind of nice to live in London. I had expected to eventually feel that traveler's fancy come over me, but I honestly didn't expect it to happen so quickly. (only 2 days in to a 110-day trip!) While Sojourner is the kind to start planning the next getaway before the current one is over, I am more of a homebody. I think it's in my nature to anticipate and focus on all the things that could go wrong in a trip, rather than the things to enjoy. With any luck London will cure me of this before we leave.