London, Day 1

It’s official, Jean-Jacques and I are no longer in China. On Saturday, we were driven to the Hefei train station, where we caught a high speed train to Shanghai; we spent the night in a posh hotel and woke up relatively early to catch our 11  AM flight to London. The plane was about two hours late because of some problems with paperwork concerning fuel calculations, but eventually we took off and twelve hours later landed in the UK. Surprisingly enough, the flight passed quickly (I watched four movies, so that helped me remain comfortable) and uneventfully. 


It was a fun-filled, but busy first day in London. We woke up fairly early (6:45 AM), ate a full English breakfast (eggs, toast, beans, sausage, and bacon) in the dining room of our B&B; caught a couple of buses to try to get into the city, but ended up taking the “Tube” instead because it was faster; saw Big Ben & Parliament; rode a boat upriver to the Tower of London (which is a castle complex that was first built by William the Conquerer in 1070); grabbed lunch from a deli-style restaurant called Absolutely Starving!; ate our meal on the bank on the Thames; toured the WWII warship HMS Belfast; and ate a delicious dinner at an authentic pizza place. We’ve walked a lot, and it was a great day.