On the Other Side of the Pond…

We arrived in London, safe and sound, at about 3:20 am Houston time. I have never flown business first class before, but damn – did that ever make the flight over a lot better! We had a fantastic dinner with several courses, finished off right with Blue Bell ice cream sundaes for desert. We were treated like royalty; I’m sure that the fact that I wore my tiara on to the plane helped, don’t you think?

After arriving at Gatwick, we took the train in to London Victoria station, which I didn’t discover until later is right around the corner from Buckingham palace. After arriving at the station, we took a cab to our hotel. When they checked us in, they upgraded us to a king suite. (I’m sure the tiara helped, but we had called ahead to ask about early check-in and told them at that time that we are here on our honeymoon.) The hotel itself is small, but so far the service is fantastic. Our room is nice, the decor is excellent, and it is located close to many things.

It is strange to feel like it’s 10:00 for me, when in fact it’s 4:00 in the afternoon here. It is interesting to see how different people dress here. I told Mike earlier that it feels like a mix of Boston and Germany. The houses and buildings remind me of Boston, but the strange road signs keep throwing me off. And you must remember to look right and then left when crossing a street – not left and right like you are used to doing. Fortunately, they painted instructions for us on some of the streets here in Kensington – maybe by the time I get to the more major streets I will remember.

We left behind 94 degree weather with a 104 degree heat index and no sign of rain at all. We landed to overcast weather that was 55 degrees when we hit the ground and it’s raining. It’s not the rain I am used to though. In Houston, the rain can hurt you, it’s so hard. Here it is a misty rain – like someone is spritzing you with a water bottle. No umbrella needed, a nice change. They say it should be sunny tomorrow and Thursday, which will be nice.

Off to Harrod’s and around Kensington for today. I think that we are going to keep it low key as we recover from our overnight flight. I’m posting from an Internet cafe right now, but hopefully I will be able to use my laptop at some time so I can post photos. For now, if you need an image – just think that it’s beautiful and wonderful. Simply fabulous!