London Calling! (8/27)

London in a day! (More like 5 hours!) 

Katie and I arrived in London at about 10:00 am local time.  After only a few hours of sleep, we successfully made it through customs, stored our luggage, bought tickets for “the tube” or the underground rail, and made it to Piccadilly Circus where we met Greg.  I really couldn’t believe that it all worked out with only one text sent to Greg to let him know general timing.  Yea us! And Greg for giving us such concise directions.  

Greg and I in front of Big Ben!

Once in London we did a walking tour.  I’m not sure I can remember the exact order that we saw things in or everything we saw, but here is what I do remember: We started at the statue of an angel in the center of the city.  Here, we just got a general picture of London, with the double decker busses, the infamous red telephone booths, cars driving on the left side of the road and so on.  We then began our walking tour.  Things we saw along the way, in no particular order include: Buckingham Palace, the guards in front of the palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, the Tower Bridge, Waterloo, and I’m sure there’s more that I’m missing, but they will be in the pictures as soon as I get a chance to post them!  After our long walking tour, we caught a bus to Greg’s apartment.  We of course rode on the top level of the double decker bus to Greg’s.  Once we arrived at Greg’s we were able to send some emails home!  Then we headed out to a pub for some fish and chips and a pint.  It was delicious!   A great “last meal.”  Greg walked us to the train station then and we said our thanks and goodbyes, but of course, after Katie and I had a beer, we had to go to the bathroom.  Easy enough we thought, we asked a worker where the bathrooms (toilets) were and walked a ways to get there only to find out you have to pay to use the toilets!  While the fee was nominal, Katie and I had successfully spent our day in London without taking out any money, so we couldn’t get into the toilets at the train station.  We figured we would just buy a water and use the bathroom at a nearby food place, which also proved to be more difficult than expected.  We tried one place and their toilets were out of order, then we tried a few others that didn’t have toilets, then we found one with a bathroom but their credit card machine was broken so we couldn’t buy anything.  But at the final place we just put on our sad faces and begged them to let us use the bathroom, and luckily they did.  

Katie and I in front of Buckingham Palace

By the time we got on the train we were thoroughly exhausted.  Both Katie and I were fighting to keep our eyes open on the hour train ride back to Heathrow.  But we arrived, and gathered our bags, and caught our flight to Uganda. What a day! I’m so glad we were able to meet up with Greg and spend our layover in the city rather than just sitting in the airport.