Friday, December 26

Finally the day that would start my London vacation had come !

I finished my packing, taking with me a smaller and a bigger suitcase, both being rather empty, but I hoped I'd find many nice things to take back with me.

I had decided to drive my own car to the airport, since they had a special running and so it was cheaper this time of the year. Still this parking space is further away from the actual terminal than I thought and only just when I thought I had somehow missed it, did I see the sign (rather hidden...). Anyway, parking was easy and so was calling the shuttle bus.

Turns out I was at the terminal much too early, but there had been conflicting information on how much earlier one needed to be there. Oh well, better too early than too late I guess.

I'll spare you the boring details of the flight, but will mention a highlight: I had bought a noise cancelling headphone just for this occasion and so was very curious to see how it would work. Well, it's great, this makes the flight so much better, I think every airline should provide one !
Oh, and it does look very cool to see the Thames from up in the air :)

The arrival in London was fine and luckily so was getting my luggage. I made my way to the Heathrow Express and was on my way into the city.

Changeover at Paddington station, where I got to try out my Oyster card for the first time. Again, very easy. I was glad for that, as on travel days I sometimes can get easily irritated...

When I arrived at the station closest to my hotel, I wondered how true the advertising of "the hotel is across the underground station" really was. Well - it was as true as can be ! I walked out, across the street and into the hotel.

I checked in, went to my room, dropped my luggage and as a first thing went back out, across the street, to where a small "Tesco Quick" supermarket was. I bought some bottles of water for the next few days and some munchies, for whenever I'd need/want them.

Then I was ready to start exploring the city. I had made no special plans for this first day, as I knew I'd probably be tired. So I took the tube to Leicester Square and walked my way towards Trafalgar Square.

I tried to see if I could get into the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, but it was closed. Probably due to it being Boxing Day. I went to the square and enjoyed seeing things, for the first time really. Nelson's Column, the lions, the National Gallery building, the fountain, the big Christmas tree :)

After I had made sure to take photos I was getting hungry and so was looking for a place to eat. Little did I know that this was going to be not easy. Apparently on Boxing Day night, everyone wants to eat out, while several places have closed for the day. This meant long queues out the door at every place. And not only fancy places, even things like Pizza Hut...

After much walking I finally found a Caffé Nero, close to Piccadilly Circus, with an acceptable queue. I had a big coffee and a panini: A very hot, very flat bread with cheese and tomatoes. At that point I was so hungry this tasted like the best food in the world <g>.

I then made my way back to the hotel, where I tried out a very unusual feature for a hotel in London: a bathtub. That felt so good.

I soon after crashed and slept hard.

A good first day !

Dark Dog's Vacations

I thought it might be a good idea to have this little travelblog - and I'll start it right away with my recent trip to London.