June 3: London

SUNDAY, JUNE 3: LONDON

We hit the ground running in London! It took a long time to clear Immigration, but we had no troulbe. The Nigerian man next to us wasn't so lucky - he had no return ticket and they were really hassling him about his plans.

From there, we went to the ARRIVAL area and Ray headed for Currency Exchange. Lisa went to check on the trains. I went to the ATM, where I promptly forgot my password and couldn't get out a dime! I followed Ray to currency exchange and got a bit of money, then we all walked to Left Luggage an I checked my bag (which included a computer and a video camera).

Lisa had seen that the train to London would cost us about $59 each, but we all decided to go since we had nearly 10 hours until our flight. But while we were standing in the line to buy tickets from the automated ticket machine, a worker came up and told us to go to the subway. He said the ticket would cost only $6.50 and today only, it would get us on the express train. The problem was there was construction on the main subway line, so the subway ticket worked on the train. We had to go down to the subway terminal at one end of the airport, then back to the train station to catch our train, but at a savings of $54 each, it was worth it!!

The ride into Paddington was only 15 minutes. We came up in London with a string of double decker busses outside the train station. We walked across to the subway station (our ticket was good on all trains all day!) and road to the Embankment stop. Lisa bought a map, and we walked to the river. The Millenium Bridge is a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Thaimes at the huge ferris whell built for the millenium. Walking across the bridge provides incredible views of Big Bend and the Houses of Parliament. The bridge was packed with Londoners out enjoying a low 70's sunny day!

The south bank of the river was packed. Londoners filled every available bench and any lay on towels soaking up rays. There was a full carolsel running non-stop and vendors selling all manor of junk food. But the most unusual thing we saw was a group of pretend statue people. They were painted white to look like marble. They wore elaborate costumes that included everything from seventeenth century costumes to Charly Chaplain, to very strange Druid-like creatures and a woman on stilts dressed as a Chinese princess.

But the oddest thing of all was a pair dressed in full court attire. He stood on a black pedestal, she sat on a low bench. Four Hasidic Jewish men were standing beside them scratching their chins and softly chatting. It didn't appear that any words were actually exchanged, but everyone appeared to be having a great time!

We walked back across the river at the bridge across from Big Ben. The views from here were even more spectacular, and the bridge was even more crowded. We eased our way through the crowd and continued to Westminster Abbey. Ray didn't want to go fight the crowd to go inside, so after a good look around, we walked to the Westminster subway station and road to Leicester Square, the southern edge of Chinatown.

It was particularly clear how to get from the station to Chinatown, but we soon figured it out and found ourselves in the twisting, narrow, alley lined with restaurants and shopped and completely filled with interesting smells and rushing people. We found a very small restaurant that advertised dim sum. Ray said he was game for anything, so we took him at his word! The waitress handed us a stack of menus. She explained that this dim sum place worked from menu not cart, so I quickly picked a few things. She came back and frowned mightly when she looked at my selection.

"Is there a problem?" I asked.

"This not good," she said as her frown deepened. "You only pick fired things. There is much more steamed."

As she talked, she opened one of the four menus. I had assumed they were all the same, but really it was only one set of the menu! The selection, unimpressive at first, was unbelievable! Although tempted, I didn't buy duck tongues or chicken feet! Instead, I chose a series of rather conservative items - steamed buns and steamed dumplings with one fried egg roll. The waitress returned and frowned again.

"Is this not better?" I asked.

"Better," she said, "but not best." She directed me to one particular thing that she said was her favorite. "See, there is meat and also sauce inside."

We added that to the order and she was right. It was wonderful, as was everything else!

Refreshed, we caught the train to Green Park. It was a pleasant walk through the park to Buckingham Palace which, as always, was packed with tourists circling in front of the gates. We walked away and past the lake and the birdwalk, then out to the airport.

We quickly recovered my bag and in no time, we were ready to board. I tried to update this blog, but the blogger was blocked by the Internet service in the airport.