Flying and first day in London

So many kind friends, colleagues and family members have given us tips for this trip. I'll be making some shout outs here.

Our flight was pretty empty, especially Club World where we were seated. My first time experiencing the pod-style lie flat beds, which was fine for me but Eric said for once he wished he was shorter because he could not exactly lie flat. Score for the little people! I slept only briefly because I did not fall asleep right away, and then was awakened only about two hours later when the woman in the pod in front of me grabbed my foot in a really startling way to wake me up because she needed to go to the bathroom and did not think she could step over my feet. I tried to fall back asleep, but could not so instead watched "Eat, Pray, Love" for the second terrible time on a plane. Fun fact: BA does not edit movies the same way United does. Now I understand why the Julia Roberts character ran away from the cute young guy on the beach in Bali.

Our arrival at Heathrow was uneventful. It was about 6:30am. The first stair car they brought us would not raise up to reach the plane so we had to wait for another one. Upon deplaning, it was warmer than we expected - almost 34 degrees, but a dry cold. On the bus to the terminal, our fellow Washingtonians were all checking their BlackBerries for the first time in six hours and chattering excitedly that the Caps had beaten the Penguins in the Winter Classic. We cleared customs quickly with the BA speed pass, got our bags and boarded the Heathrow Express to avoid having to pay $120 for a cab (thanks Artie Mintz). At Paddington (Bear) Station, where we were supposed to transfer to the Underground to go to our hotel, we learned that a section of the line where the Club Quarters Gracechurch is located was under temporary closure. So we ended up in a cab anyway, but a much shorter and cheaper ride than if we had come all the way from Heathrow.

We broke Brad Beecher's cardinal rule of travel to always function at the local time no matter what time it is where you came from, when we decided to take a nap when we arrived at the Club Quarters.

The nap stretched until early afternoon but I believe we are better off for it. When we finally woke up, we bundled up and headed in the direction of the Thames. We stopped off at the Tower of London but in that we only had two house before closing and Brad (he's really an invaluable travel resource) said one needs several hours there.


We walked along the river and crossed the Tower Bridge ("the most famous bridge in the world") and took lots of pictures.

On the other side of the Thames, we stopped for tea and ale and this fabulous charcuterie platter at The King's Arms. Filled with local kids, we felt like we had made a good choice.

The sun was setting when we left and we chose to walk along the south side of the river to enjoy the city and the view of the Tower Bridge as the lights began to come on, as suggested by James Tozier's mum, a London tour guide. Eric was unsurprised when I said I was still hungry after all the cheese and cured meat we ate at King's Arms. We went to the Anchor, where he had another beer and a falafel sandwich and I had a mulled wine and a Sunday roast, at the recommendation of Rebecca Wanek.

It is now almost 9:30 local time and we are back at the CQ. I am sipping tea and Eric is sound asleep beside me. The Bucs/Saints (hi Moller family!) game is on. It is a feed from Fox Sports but Sky Sports does not have the rights to the Fox in-studio content. So whenever they would be pitching to that in the States, we get these three guys sitting behind a desk having an awkward exchange about this game and others. One of them is British, and one named Bradlee Van Pelt has no neck and allegedly once played in the NFL. The third is the poor man's James Brown (not the Godfather of Soul, the other one).

We have a big day of touring in front of us, and so I am going to sign off. Cheerio!