London round one

Beautiful English countryside
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Sun May 7, 2006 - I arrived in London Heathrow at 9:30AM.  Decided to take the Heathrow express train to Paddington for £14.  A little difficult with 2 heavy bags, but not impossible.  Reached Paddington station in 15 mins flat.  Taxi to Hilton Metropole.  Driver scolded me because hotel was 2 blocks away from station and I could have walked, allowing him to get a larger fare!

London feels a little older and smaller after living in the United States, but very attractive.  Lovely buildings and street signs.  I went around the first day by subway, called the Underground.  Easy and convenient.  Went to Golden Tours to confirm all our bus tours, next to Covent Garden to book tickets to a West End play called the "Woman in Black" and then walked around Edgware Road, trying to find Internet cafes, photo development centers and restaurants.  Plenty of options.

I love bustling, beautiful London!!!

City of Oxford
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Mon May 8, 2006 - Daddy and Mummy arrived in London from Bombay at 6:30PM.  We took a taxi back to the hotel.  Big difference!  The ride was about an hour and the fare was £57.

Tue May 9, 2006 - Our first sightseeing trip in London, we went to Madame Tussaud's since it is very close to our hotel.  Tickets were exorbitant, 22 pounds, I think!  Strangely organized too, many ups and downs and rooms and stairs all over the place.  Brad Pitt looks weird, and so did President Bush.  Others were almost life-like.  I had my picture taken with all the Hollywood hunks!

Salisbury Cathedral
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Wed May 10, 2006 - We are doing a set of bus trips in the next 15 days thru Golden Tours to Bath, Stonehenge, Salisbury, Oxford, Warwick, Windsor, Leeds, Canterbury, etc.  Just driving thru the countryside is so beautiful, all rolling hills and lush green like in Sense and Sensibility!  Today is Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick Castle.

Thu May 11, 2006 - British Museum, so much to see, so little time.

Fri May 12, 2006 - Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge and the city of Bath.  My favorite view of Salisbury - John Constable's View from the Bishop's grounds.

Sun May 14, 2006 - Jazz Lunch Cruise on the Thames and then the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square.  Hardly any pigeons, some construction was going on in the square.

Mon May 15, 2006 - Another bus tour to Greenwich, Leeds Castle, Canterbury Cathedral and the white cliffs of Dover.

Tue May 16, 2006 - The Tower of London.

It is also very nice to travel around the city by bus - those big red double-decker buses.  Only catch here is, traffic moves very slowly around Oxford and Regent Street around rush hours in the evenings, between 4 and 6PM.  If you don't mind the bus crawling at these hours, these rides are enjoyable and you can see lots of shops on the way, unlike the metro.

Fri May 19, 2006 - Going to Paris on the Eurostar train at 1PM.  Picked up some sandwiches from Marks & Spencer.  Does this store sell every product under the sun?  Took me a while to figure out that a sandwich containing "rocket" was talking about arugula!  Watercress is delicious too.