London, Day One

My Dad and I arrived in London today without incident - a nonstop trip from Logan to Heathrow.  No connections.
Here's my Dad at Logan prior to our departure. The pic is cool because the distance to London is pictured above his head. Our flight left Boston at 9:30 PM EDT and arrived in London at about 8:30 AM GMT - 5 hours behind the East Coast. We raced through the airport and got through passport control without waiting and without incident. Customs was a walk-through affair and we weren't stopped.   We decided to take the Underground for £5.50 rather than the Heathrow Express for about £15. Heathrow Express would have taken about 30 minutes to deposit us in London proper; the Tube took about an hour.  

We arrived at the Bridge Hotel at about 11:00 AM, but we were too early to check in. Instead, we left our bags with the front desk and headed to lunch and the Tower of London after getting Dad's senior rail card at the Elephant and Castle rail station, just a few minutes from our hotel. The rail card will help the Old Man save about 33% on trains, and even on non-peak Tube travel. The card requires a £30 annual fee, but the savings should be on the order of £50+ with the number of trains we will be taking. 


Lunch was at a pub a few blocks from the Tower of London. The place appears to be part of a low-key chain of pubs, as we saw the same menu and weekly specials at our dinner pub. Food and drink were decent and the two of us had lunch for a total of about £18. Dinner was about the same. Lunch was sirloin, peas and chips, and dinner was sausage, mashed and peas. Dad has taken pictures of every plate of food set before us, but he hasn't shared any of the shots yet. 


Here's the entrance to the Tower. We were on time for a Beefeater tour, but there were so many other tourists that we were simply not able to follow the tour - so we entered the Tower unescorted. 
The weather today has been fantastic - partly sunny and mid 70s. We were slightly worried about sunburns, but my dad and I escaped none the worse for wear. 

I had been to the Tower before - in 2003 - and my dad had been about 40 years ago. Much was the same, but there were stark differences, too. The White Tower, the major keep in the center of the complex, typically houses a fascinating exhibit about the armor and horses of the various kings of England (no horses or armor for the queens?) This time the White Tower seemed to be scaled back, and instead focused on smaller exhibits detailing how the exhibition had been set up in the past. There were fewer displays in general than what I remember from my last visit. 

 
The place was extremely crowded. Below is the line for the ice cream stand, just to give you some perspective. The queue to get into the Crown Jewels was hours long, literally.

We decided not to stand in line to see the crown jewels, since both my Dad and I have seen them before. Instead we wandered in and out of the various towers and exhibits, and throughout the grounds.
 
 
 
 


We left the Tower at about 4:30 and walked a little ways along the Thames. We also walked across Tower Bridge to the south bank and walked over to and by the HMS Belfast.


We were getting pooped after a really long day, so we decided to head back to the hotel and then find dinner. Well, we still haven't been able to find the hotel using the same route twice, but we think we have it figured out. Roundabouts and many, many little roads can be confusing! We also stopped at a couple of local pubs, just to check them out. 
More from London tomorrow, but check out below the first installment in an occasional series of bonus Ken commentary.

Interesting VacaKen Trip Sidebar, Entry One:


Kit Kat Bars.  I like them.  But they are fundamentally better in Europe – don’t ask me why.  European shops sell candy bars in large multi-packs as well as single packages of the standard size bar.  On my trips I have stocked my hotel refrigerator in each city with a three-pack of Kit Kat Bars.  My favorite way to end a day of touring is to return to my hotel, open a local beer from the fridge, and sip the beer while slowly devouring a Kit Kat Bar.  Usually this ritual is performed simultaneously with downloading photos from my camera and writing my daily travel blog entry.