"I think we are beating this jet lag thing," Auna said as we waited to board the third leg of our Seattle to London journey. This flight was a "short" 2.5 hour flight from Iceland to London itself. I laughed, and then laughed again as both Auna and Deija accepted increasingly uncomfortable positions in an effort to get even a small wink of sleep. I was in no better shape and neither was anyone else on the plane. Come to think of it, I have never seen such a sorry looking group by the time we reached customs. Baggy eyes, wild hair, listlessness, petty arguments with family; these were the norm and we fit right in. We saw more than one parent struggle to contain their obvious desire to smack their kids upside the head. After a few probing questions from customs as to the nature of our trip we were officially stamped and allowed access. The famous London Tube, the Piccadilly Line to be exact, took us from the airport to St. Pancras train station. Not only was this the train station that will take us to Paris, but our hotel was also nearby.
Now, when I booked this hotel, the room was described as "small" on the advertising website. I figured it couldn't be that small. However, when we checked in it was definitely small. Barely large enough to fit a double bed. I made my bed on the floor somewhere beneath the one sink in the room and a cubbyhole standing in for a closet. Bathrooms were out in the hall. One thing about being insanely tired though, is that you can fall asleep anywhere and simply lying on my back and closing my eyes was pure joy. And if my face was a reader board, you could read the words, "We made it!" across my smile.
We only slept for an hour or so. We made a point of trying to get our bodies on the new schedule and if we didn't want to be wide awake at 2 in the morning, we had to force ourselves to move. We have had a few things in London we wanted to see for awhile now so rather than trying to see them all in a logical order, we decided to combine exploring and a food quest into one. From our hotel we simply walked in the general direction of the River Thames. I automatically obtained a disdain for the touristy commercial places with crowds of trendy shoppers with bags of overpriced junk. I couldn't help but note that we were about to embark on a journey that was on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. Luckily we eventually made our way closer to the cultural attractions. It was great to see Auna and Deija's faces light up when we came upon Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Trafalger Square. Fueling their curiosity is the whole point of the trip and it's not too hard in a place like London even after an 18 hours on travel. It also sadly reminds me of how deficient my own classroom is in the same regard.
We set up our schedule to allow for a complete day tomorrow to just walk around and experience London. We will have most of the day after that as well since our train to Paris leaves in the evening. Changing of the guard, national gallery, and the British Museum await! Thanks for all the well wishes. We are tired for sure, but excited for the adventure to come!
James
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