London - Day One

The plane ride when well in the end.  At first we had the problem of finding out at the last minute that we were at the wrong gate to fly from Chicago to London.  The correct gate was in another terminal and required another security check.  It made for a very stressful 45 minutes running across Chicago O’Hare.  I don’t know what the deal is, but Chad and I seem to lose all intelligence in airports.  Once years ago we lost track of time and almost missed a connecting flight in Atlanta.  We NEVER lose track of time when it counts.  Much less in an airport!  This time the confusion was caused at first by our flight attendant from home to O’Hare.  She told us the gate we needed was K12.  We promptly found it and then had lunch.  In the mean time I double checked the screens to make sure we had the correct gate I thought it said we did.  About 20 minutes till the first boarding call I went up to the desk to double check.  The next flight out of that gate was for Helsinki.  I took a look at the screens once again and realized we needed gate M12.  Then began the getting there as fast as we could.  We didn’t quite run, it wasn’t possible with a 7 year old and carry on luggage but we went as fast as we could.  We did make it in time, we were one of the last ones on the plane and they had been paging us.  After that everything went well.  Nora slept well on the plane, I dosed a few times and Chad got no sleep at all.

My concern for some time has been how we (mostly I) would handle the first day in London.  I was fearful of feeling like a country bumpkin visiting the big city.  I knew that it was a sink or swim type of situation and I was determined to swim.  I put a lot of research into understanding how to get from Heathrow to our hotel and how to do it using the tube (their subway) and by walking.  I even went as far as to use Google Maps to “walk” the streets from the tube station to our hotel.  Non the less by the time we got to the hotel we were all stressed and feeling like we never should have left home.  We quickly encountered English rudeness.  It first started with the tube ride from the airport.  Rush hour was staring and with every stop we added more and more people.  We were trying to keep our luggage close and out of peoples way but they were concerned more about being able to sit in a seat than being able to walk through the aisle.  One girl told Chad in a rather rude tone that “seats were for people and not luggage”.  Welcome to the world lots of people crammed into one place.  That same girl was on her way to work with a friend that took pity on Chad and tried to make him more at ease.  We then had to navigate many stairs and one tube change during rush hour.  Even employes of the underground snapped at us for not moving fast enough or using the wrong turnstile.  London was doing it’s best to make us feel unwelcome, small and stupid.  Once we got safely out of the stations I am proud to say I was able to find our hotel, and it was not easy find!  We couldn't yet check in but we stashed our luggage and took a breather.  We headed back out and sought the comfort of something familiar and  visited Starbucks.  That seemed to give us the courage to venture out once again into the fray.  Not quite ready to attempt the tube again we settled on a bus tour of London.  A double decker bus!  And when riding a double decker why sit on the bottom?  

One of the things I noticed right away was the fact that Londoners put strange things on the side of their buildings.  It first started with this garden.  It's not ivy, it is various plants.

Then came the dog with no head.

And then China town.

And this?  I have no idea.

Strange, but then when you have to build up and not out, I guess you get lots of weird ideas.  The streets were sooo narrow!  Sometimes our bus driver would make turns that I was sure he only cleared by inches.

We crossed the Thames several times, the faris wheel is called the London Eye.

This was nicknamed the wedding cake chapel.  What it's real name was,  I don't know.  The bus moved so fast and it seemed we had seconds for each picture and then the opportunity was gone.

Even in fancy London they forget to clean out their gutters!

We also took a river cruise, I have been dieing to get this shot of the Tower Bridge!  I want to get in HDR (High Dynamic Range) but on a moving boat it was impossible.

This is the tower from driving through it when we took the bus tour.  This tower is the Tower bridge not to be confused with London Bridge.  The British are rather testy about it.  Apparently Americans repeatedly reverse their names.  Even big name singers use it as album covers and misname it.  Maybe things would be different if our morning compute when better but I sensed that the British attitude towards Americans is one of underhanded comments and slights.

The Tower Bridge is named thus for its close proximity to the Tower of London.  We plan to visit it tomorrow.

Here is a HDR photograph.  Sometime I will explain and show the uses of it.  I'm having fun playing with it on this trip.  It really shows off the detail on the stone work.

One of my more favorite moments of the day was when Chad realized that I wasn't exaggerating when I told him some time ago that they charge for use of toilets.

Now that the day is done we have ended on a much better note.  We have (mostly) mastered the tube system and I am now even helping other tourists navigate the different lines.  We found our way back to the hotel without getting lost and we seem to have quit doing everything wrong.  We shall see what tomorrow holds.  Right now I'm headed to bed!