First Views of London

We arrived in London some three hours late, not landing until about 10:30 am. Then we had to go through customs and passport control. We were obviously not going to meet our appointment to tour Kensington Palace. We initially did not see the representative from British Cars, but after just a few minutes he showed up and took us from Heathrow Airport to the Kensington Olympia Hilton Hotel. Although our room was not ready, we were allowed to check in and to store our luggage with the concierge. He advised that the fastest way to the Globe Theater was by taxi. We caught one in front of the hotel, but the traffic, according to his own admission was worse than usual. He attributes the problems to the current mayor's efforts to turn every major highway into a bicycle path. We passed Buckingham Palace, as well as the site of the Blackfriars abbey on our way, arriving at the Globe shortly after 1 pm. We bought a sandwich, which we split, and a small salad. Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” was hilariously funny. We decided because of Glenda's arthritic hip, not to walk up to Trafalgar Square, but to take a cab back to the Hotel. Besides, it had started to rain lightly, and all of our rain gear was still packed up and locked in the offices of the concierge. When we got back to the hotel our room was ready, and we again enlisted the services of the concierge to reserve tickets for a tour of Buckingham Palace on Saturday. Instead of dining in the expensive restaurant at the hotel, we walked back down toward Hyde Park and found a wonderful, inexpensive Thai restaurant called the Blue Lagoon. After our meal we just went strolling back down toward the memorial for Prince Albert, and we decided to stop into a little shop owned by a young Egyptian from Alexandria to buy bottled water. I had a short conversation with him, then we continued our walk. Almost back to our hotel, even though she was holding my arm, Glenda's hip seized up on he and she dropped like a rock onto the sidewalk. Bystanders stopped to assist. They were very kind and concerned. She was all right except for skinned knees and elbows. We came back tot the hotel and settled in for the night. At this point we have been awake for over thirty-six hours. Sleep will come easily tonight.Read more