Canopy by Hilton

Getting a bit behind. This is actually Wed morning, so a brief recap from yesterday as last night I was too exhausted to do anything. Took the train to the hotel. A 15 minute stroll through London brought us to the hotel. Rooms were ready so we checked in. Kate , our director, was there to greet us and tell us what will be happening. An English woman from the south of England, she is a hoot. She’s been directing tours for some 25 years and has worked for many companies. Last 5 years she has been with Gate 1. Prior with AMA Waterways, Viking and others. So got to the room, dumped our stuff and then headed to Borough Market on the other side of the Thames. Got a nice view of Tower Bridge when we crossed over London Bridge. Wasn’t much longer than we were in Borough Market. That is a happening place for sure - every food vendor you could imagine. Crazy bad stuff for me but of course I love it, so had to try it. We spent about an hour or so there and then decided we were toast and headed back towards the hotel. We were going to go up to the top floor of this unique looking building to get the great view of London but they were having a special event so it was closed for the day. Hopefully we’ll get a 2nd chance. Got back to the room for the 6pm intro meeting with everyone. Turns out we have a pretty small group. 14 only. Hard to get an idea in just a few minutes what the vibe will be like. We shall see. Headed out afterwards for a 10 minute stroll to Hoops and Grapes, a pub we had read about. Cool place inside - we tried out their famous Meat and Fish pies. Decent - not spectacular. Then back to the hotel and crashed big time - unfortunately so tired, it was hard to sleep. Those flight screwups really messed with us. Hopefully Wednesday will be a better day! (I’ll try and caption these photos when I get the chance!)Read more