Los Angeles to London

Left for Europe for the first time with 4 other friends (Alan Hoffman, Julie Reyes, Claire Reyes and Jose Lemus). We booked the European Discovery tour of Contiki Holidays. Alan used to be my supervisor in Sacramento and now he is an SE Manager. Alan and I traveled together to New England about the same time, 3 years ago. Julie and I work together. Claire is Julie’s sister who recently graduated from college and this was her graduation gift from Julie. Jose is Claire’s significant other, loyal servant, porter, baggage handler, errand boy, etc.

Sept. 4

London

9 hours later, we arrived at Heathrow Airport; passed customs and immigration; and now the fun part -- going to our designated hotel on London’s underground train, the "tube". I would have taken a taxi but this was supposed to be an experience. 6 AM (my body tells me 9 PM), we loaded our bags on a train headed for London. Monday at this time was rush hour, people getting to work. After four stops, the train was now full and luckily we were seated because the travel time was an hour.

We arrived at Imperial Hotel at Russell Square. Now I am starving for dinner at 8 o’clock in the morning. We took the tube to Piccadilly Circus, the Times Square of London, and safely ate pizza and spaghetti for lunch. Wandered around a little bit, did some window shopping. Red double-decker bus and the old-fashioned taxicabs were characteristic of London.

We decided to head towards Buckingham Palace, the principal residence of the monarch, to see the Changing of the Guards. (Unfortunately, there wasn’t any schedule that day.) Too many tourists! Our body clock tells us 5 in the morning at 3 PM London time. We were tired, so we all agreed to head back to the hotel to get some sleep.