UK/Ireland Trip - Day 1 (London)

After a delayed start to our trip because of weather and then maintanence issues on the plane, and then crossing our fingers and hoping we would make our connection in Newark (which we did only because they held the plane), we arrived in London at about 9:30 am.  We zoomed through customs, grabbed our luggage, got on our "hotel by bus", and headed off to the Hilton Olympia.  We watched in awe as our van driver easily manuevered through traffic, while on the opposite side of the road from what we are used to.  We arrived at the hotel just before 11 am.  To our surprise a room was ready, so we put the luggage in the room, freshened up, grabbed a city map from the concierge, and headed out.  Our first stop was a bite to eat at the always accessible Marks & Spencers on High Street in Kensington.  After we ate, we bought day passes for the London Underground (aka Tube) and set off.

Our first stop was Tower Hill, which is where Tower of London and London Bridge are located.

After visiting the Tower of London, we quickly checked out the London Bridge.

We then hopped back on the Tube and headed towards Westminster Station.  When we exited the station, Big Ben greeted us.

We also saw our first "real" English telephone booth!

We viewed the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey.

We then walked towards 10 Downing Street (where the Prime Minister lives), security was pretty tight in this area, but a Police Guard was kind enough to pose for a picture with Sarah.

We walked The Mall and saw Buckingham Palace.  We missed the changing of the guards as that happens in the morning, but we still were able to see guards out there doing their walk.

We walked down to Trafalgar Square, saw Big Ben from a distance and had dinner at Silver Cross.  Sarah took a little siesta while we waited for our food.

We headed off to the Tube to go back to our hotel.  On our way to the station, we saw The London Eye.  We didn't ride it as it was across the river, about 9 pm, and we were pretty exhausted.

It was a pretty busy day, but lots of fun.  We didn't get to see everything that we wanted, but I don't think we did too bad for trying to cram in the sights of London in under 10 hours.  Sarah was great!  We did a LOT of walking and only had about 2 hours of sleep on the overnight flight.  She didn't complain once.  She is such a great traveler.