30 June 2007 Arrival in London

The last 24-36 hours have been some of the busiest of the last few weeks, and that it saying something. After days of second-guessing whether we included everything we needed, we packed the car and headed to Virginia. Debbie and Alan escorted us to a pleasant dinner at an outdoor cafe (to get us in practice for Europe) and we proceeded to Dulles Airport. Our car will be in their custody until we get back on July 26.

After a 45-minute delay, we had a pleasant flight on British Airways. The movie selection was Wild Hogs and oddly, dinner was served at about 11:30 p.m. BA seems to be a full-service airline the way we remember them. The only downer was that the man on the outside seat fell asleep (or into a coma; it was hard to tell) until we landed. Using the restroom was out of the question until Bob got desperate enough in the morning to actually climb over him to the aisle when they gave a ten-minute warning about the seat belt light.

Arrival and baggage claim went smoothly and Roger and Chris hailed us enthusiastically outside as we emerged, a little rumpled but no worse for wear. Roger was an excellent tourguide as he piloted their American Jeep (!) on the wrong side of the road all the way through the heart of London. We passed the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and all of the highlights, complete with admonishments about what we must come back to see when we have available days.

London is in some ways the polar opposite of New York in terms of getting around. All of my friends who have heard me say "It's easy. It's a grid." will probably get a kick out of us trying to find our way around this crazy maze of a city. It might be the jet lag, but the map we have makes it seem daunting.

Tomorrow the plan is for Bev & John, friends of Chris & Roger (and our friends, too!) to meet us at the Cathedral that Chris is connected with and then we'll have lunch together near the river. Chris and Roger's daughter and son-in-law are running a race near here tomorrow, and tonight we will get to meet their whole family includng their grand-daughter Georgina.

At the moment, we are in the midst of preparing dinner, so I will sign off. So far, so good.