Europe — London, England

Well now that I am back from my recent trip to the UK, I now have time to blog about it. First stop, London. I was fortunate enough to have my boss send me across the pond in order to accompany Simyra for the Wanderlust World Guide Awards Ceremony in which she made the top 4 out of 1,000 nominated guides. So we decided to make a UK trip of it and go to Bristol and up to Scotland too, but about that later.

We left Homer on a late Era flight September 30th and after a night trying to sleep at the Anchorage airport we flew to Minneapolis for a long lay over until our flight to London. Instead of hanging out at the airport we caught a shuttle to the Mall of America. I had never been there before and it beats sitting at the airport. What a culture shock after being in a small town in Alaska for almost six months. But we had a good time and checked out some shops. Then we went back for our late flight to London. Best part of the plane ride is the movies. I watched Jane Eyre and Moonrise Kingdom (I recommend both). We arrived at London Heathrow the afternoon of October 2nd. From there we took the tube to Gloucester Road on the Picadilly Line and checked into our hotel at the Grange Strathmore. We then walked about the area to work off our jet lag, but we went to sleep early anyway.

Wednesday the 3rd we walked around the nearby Hyde Park and then Simyra went off to the Royal Geographic Society to do interviews with newspapers for the ceremony the next day. I wandered about the park people watching.

Hyde Park

Reading in the park

That afternoon we met up with Rod and Paula (Simyra's sister in law). They came to London for Simyra's ceremony as well. We immediately went to a pub and I had my first fish and chips of the trip, complete with a Magners on tap- joy!

Fish and Chips

Then we hopped on the tube to Westminster and went on the London Eye (which I had been wanting to do the past two times I have been to London). It was great and a good view of the city.

London Eye

River Thames and Parliment

October 4th we walked to Kenisington Palace and then took the tube to Westminster to tour the Abbey. I saw the area where the sovereigns are coronated and where lots of important dead people are buried. I saw Queen Elizabeth I tomb and that was neat to see because she's my fav.

Excited to be in London again!

Then we took the tube to Harrod's for lunch. After lunch Simyra went back to go to the RGS while we took the tube on a journey to find the Olympic stadium. We found it but we couldn't get in. Disappointment of the day! They were still taking things down!