Safe Landing!

Well, we landed safely in London shortly after six this morning (London time, would have been around midnight in KS). It took us an hour to get off the plane/through customs/luggage picked up/on the underground (subway) to the hostel. Once there, we had to ditch the luggage at the hostel in their luggage storage room, since we couldn't check in til 2 pm today (about 8 am your time). So, once we had the bags dropped off, we went around on a pretty quick walking tour. There is a Starbucks around the corner from our hostel, and we are right across the street from the British Museum. We looked around in there for a little while, but none of the exhibits were open yet. So we went walking about in our very large group, and we toured our neighborhood and found a couple of grassy parks to lounge in, the Brunswick shopping center where booths were set up with chocolates and candies for sale (they looked really good!), We then visited the British Library and walked around the collections of ancient texts (I say ancient and I mean 15th/16th century: Shakespeare, etc). Then we went to King's Cross Station and took pictures at Platform 9 3/4. After that we decided to have lunch on the Thames, so we took the underground down to St. Paul's and took lots of pictures of the outside, then crossed the Millenium Bridge and ate at the Founder's Arms restaurant. Afterwards, Jen and I dashed off to the train on our own and got back to the hostel and checked in and unloaded the luggage from the storage room. Whew!! And this is only a part of it!

The walking we did in the airport was all uphill (seriously), and the train was crammed, and walking out of the underground with all of our luggage was quite the adventure. I nearly fell over on the escalator in the station, and continued to randomly trip on sections of the sidewalk. It was a rough time! Everyone here is in a hurry, and no one wants to be caught up behind slower folks. The drivers are all backwards, so crossing the street is a fun time all by itself also. People just walk out in front of traffic (in the crosswalks) and cars will stop to let a crowd through, even if the light doesn't say for them to stop, or for the pedestrians to walk! I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by this since folks at home jaywalk all the time, but no one stops for a jaywalker.

Anyway, this first day has been hectic and tiring, though fun. We saw some things we'd like to return to tomorrow if there is time. As for me, I'm pooped.