LONDON

October 14-16 -- LONDON

We drove to Kim’s house in Lafayette, left my car there, and got a shuttle to SFO. The flight was easy and we landed in London Sunday afternoon (Oct. 15). We checked into the hotel – on Jermyn Street near Piccadilly Circus – took a short nap and then headed out to explore.

We walked from the hotel to Buckingham Palace, admiring the buildings and the parks along the way, then wandered back towards Piccadilly Circus, explored the Piccadilly area, found a little Italian Café, had dinner, and turned in early.

The next day (Monday Oct. 16), we got tickets on the open air “hop on hop off” bus and toured London, including Trafalgar Square, Westminster Cathedral, the river, the tower of London, London Bridge and the Millennium Bridge, then got off the bus and rode the London Eye. What a great view, and what an incredible piece of machinery! We marveled at the smooth ride, and the ingenious design of the “pods”. After that, we got back on the hop on hop off bus and continued to explore the city.

Everyone told me it would happen -- we fell in love with London! What a beautiful, charming, diverse, amazing city!

Anyhow, we returned to the hotel in the evening and caught our ride to the airport. I told the driver to take us to South African Airways and Roger learned that we were not going to Russia or China – we were returning to Africa!

Heathrow was an absolute nightmare thanks to the recent security changes due to the terrorist plot involving liquids. Anyhow, after a big hassle, we got on the plane and, a mere 12 hours later, we landed in Cape Town!

While we were in London, Mom and Dad were in Madrid. All I will say about that is that mom and Dad did not fall in love with Madrid!