There's No Sleeping in London! Actually, There Was...

Tuesday, August 3rd

Our flight arrived at Gatwick Airport a half hour early at 6:30 am. I was pleased, as this would give us more time to sightsee on our first day in London. Alas, this was not to be the case.

After a virtually sleepless flight, we disembarked, went thru passport control, fetched our luggage, hit the loo to freshen up, and easily found an ATM to get pounds with our new Capital One MM ATM card. Best exchange rate and no fees! (Disclaimer: I am not being paid by Capital One...I just received great advice to open an account there, and am happy I did.)

I had pre-purchased our Gatwick Express train tickets, so we headed straight for the train. We were able to catch the 7:35 am train in to London! Arrived at Victoria Station and bought our off-peak Travelcards...more good advice...and then headed to Victoria Coach Station to store our luggage until we could check into our hotel at noon. (Our hotel does not have left luggage facilities.)

After dropping our luggage off, we walked to the Westminster area...not the shortest walk, especially when you're tired and two of you are a little grouchy (I don't think I need to tell anyone who the two grouchy ones were, you all know that I'm the optimist)...but it was still too early to use our off-peak Travelcards...and anyway, we needed to be out in the sun. We saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, and then headed for the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum (CWR&CM) across from St. James Park.

What an adorable bomb dog!

Right outside the CWR&CM were London K9 officers...and not just regular K9's...explosive detection dogs! Mike was in heaven! He stood there talking 'shop' with them and traded his patches for one of their pins. One of the officers brought his dog out and played ball with him...it was a Cocker Spaniel! I didn't know they even used Cocker's as bomb dogs...doesn't that just seem crazy??

Mike trading with the London K9 officers.

We still had some time to kill before the CWR&CM opened at 9:30 am, so we walked a little thru St. James Park and saw a peek of Buckingham Palace. Then we toured the CWR&CM, which were the bunkers Churchill and his cabinet used during WW2 bombing raids. It was interesting, but we got thru it pretty quickly. I had allotted 2.5 hours and we got thru in a little over an hour.

We jumped on the tube and went to the Imperial War Museum. At first it seemed very kid-oriented, but as we got further inside, we were overwhelmed with the volume of displays and information. I told the boys that I was just not able to give the museum the attention it deserved and that we should head to the hotel, get something to eat, and take a nap. Surprisingly, they both loved that idea. We decided to come back later after our nap and then go to the National Gallery.

So, we jumped on the tube again, picked up our luggage, and grabbed a taxi to our hotel...did not want to lug our luggage onto the tube. We checked in to the Travelodge Covent Garden about 12:15 pm...it seemed like we had already done a whole day's worth of stuff! We got into the room...basic, no-frills, but clean...and went to sleep! No eating, no alarm setting...just sleeping. Mike briefly asked me about 5 pm what time the National Gallery closed...I said 6...so we went back to sleep.

We finally woke up at 6 pm with our tummies rumbling. We freshened up and went out looking for fish & chips. As we are in the Covent Garden area, there are tons of eateries around. We ended up going to the White Lion. It is a pub with a restaurant above it. We had a sausage platter as an appetizer and then we each ordered the fish & chips. It was a delicious meal and quite reasonable...appetizer, dinner, and drinks for three for 43 pounds!

Matt and I watching street performers in Covent Garden.

As no sights were open and we were wide awake, we just strolled thru Covent Garden. It's a lively shopping area with street performers. We watched two different shows and thoroughly enjoyed them...great entertainment for a couple pounds.

We headed back to the hotel around 9ish, ran into a Tesco for water, and stopped for gelato before arriving 'home'. All in all, a great day!

'Nobody is healthy in London, nobody can be.' Jane Austen