Our England Trip - Day 1 {and a half}

The amount of photos and memories and stories to tell after a 10-day trip out of your home country is a bit overwhelming. There’s so much I want to share on my blog, and I think I’ve come up with a cohesive way to make that happen.

I’ll be taking the standard “How do you eat an elephant” approach – one bite at a time. I’ve decided to create blog posts highlighting one day of our trip at a time. I’ll share photos and stories, and sometimes I will include excerpts from the travel journal that I kept as well.

Also, a note about the photos. Carrie and I agreed to share photos from the sources we were using, so some of the shots I'll be sharing are from Carrie's camera. We also got some fun Instagrams during our trip, so there will be a mixture of photo formats within my vacation posts. As mentioned previously, I didn't use my big camera on this trip - it was too bloody cold to mess with it! ;o)

Ok - let's do it...

From my travel journal: Day One

“Oh my gosh, what a day! Leaving on a flight at 9:00 p.m. made for a long day of anticipation! And now, after all this waiting and planning, we are finally on our way! In the air on a giant British Airways flight…”

“...twenty-four minutes remaining on our 10-hour flight – the concept of an over-night flight sounded like a good idea when we booked it. I maybe got 5 hours sleep – off and on… Ready to get out of this seat, off of this plane, and in to London!!!”


We arrived at our hotel around 5:00, found a place for dinner, walked around Covent Garden a bit, then retired to our hotel room. Not much of a "day one" so...

Day One and a Half:

“Jetlag took its toll and our sleep was off last night. As a result, we had a late start this morning. But the late start was good because we ended up running in to our blog friend, Alison {she arrived from Spain!} in the lobby as she was checking in to her room."

Alison joined us for the day, and we took a bus tour of London. We bundled up and braved the cold weather by sitting on the top of the bus in the open air. Oooohhhhh…so cold!!! But we were happy!

We got off the bus and toured the Tower of London and that was incredible! I wish we’d had more time there, and in hindsight I realize we may have rushed through it just because we were so cold. {Carrie and I somewhat adjusted to the cold temps as the week went on, but I do remember that first full day being extremely cold! I was chilled to the bone when we went to bed that night – just could not get myself warmed up! High temp that day was 39°, or 3c!}

 

 Yes, we took every opportunity to look like tourists: 

Anyway, Tower of London – great tour guide {Beefeater} and it was super cool to see the Crown Jewels – spectacular! There’s so much history there, and I loved marveling at the amazing architecture!

Back on the bus...

The three of us got back on the bus for a while, and ended up getting off to enjoy dinner and drinks at Hard Rock Cafe. Alison and I have been blog friends for a few years now, and we’ve shared many emails that included hopes to drink margaritas together someday. In London, we made that happen. {Silly to think of drinking an iced drink after coming in from the cold, but we got our chance and we seized the moment!}

Our first full day in London went by so quickly! We were saying goodnight and heading off to our rooms before we knew it. Tomorrow would be an exciting day as the three of us would be making our way to Debs14’s house for a visit.

♥ !