Saturday/Sunday, July 19/20

The Great Britain adventure is on! Forst and Louise met us in Lafayette and we drove an easy drive to Chicago O’Hare, in spite of an unexpected detour. Check in was simple, and, as suspected, we were at the gate with plenty of time to get something to eat and relax before boarding. By the time we got to our seats, we were all excited, but pretty calm.

The flight was smooth, but none of us were upset to leave the relatively cramped conditions to get off…in London! It’s still strange to get on a plane in Chicago, sleep (a little bit) and then get off half-way around the world. We walked quite a ways through the airport before meeting tour people who got us to a mini-bus that took us to the Kensington Close Hotel. Our rooms were small, but functional, relatively near each other on the 7th floor.

While we were tired, it was just noon, London time, so we elected to take an optional tour to the Tower of London. We had a chance to see some of London, including some pretty narrow streets (at least for the size of the bus we were on), while we picked up fellow tourers from other hotels around town.

The Tower of London is a World Heritage site. It was first constructed by William the Conqueror in the late 11th century as a place to demonstrate his power and intimidate the resident people. The Tower has a long and varied history, from a home for Royals to a prison, to a military outpost, sometimes all at the same time. It was pretty amazing to be in a place with so much history. One of the poignant spots of the tour was the location of several of the executions at the Tower, including two of Henry VIII’s wives. We also got to see the Crown Jewels.

We elected to stay in the Tower area rather than go with the Tour, because we had 6 pm tickets for the London Eye. The Eye is a 433-ft high wheel on the River Thames across from Parliament and Big Ben. We had our first adventure on the Tube, the London Underground transportation system. It really was very easy to work out where to go and when to be there. We had a bit of walking to do to get up to the first station, and there was a decent amount of stairs up and down to get to the trains. The cost was £4 (about $8) for one trip, or about £5 for a day pass, so it was clear that the day pass was the way to go. From then, and for the next day and a half, the Tube was our best friend to get around.

When we walked out of the first Tube station, we immediately saw Big Ben. We really were in another country! We took a leisurely walk across the Thames to the Eye. A relatively short queue had us walking into the capsule as the wheel kept spinning. Each capsule was completely enclosed and had about 20 people on it. Over the next 30 minutes, we got an amazing view of downtown London.

We walked back to a different tube station over a pedestrian bridge and made our way back to the hotel. We had dinner at the Muffin Man restaurant just up the street. Believe me; we were all very ready for a good night’s sleep.