Day 2: Monday, September 9

London Arrival

We landed in London at 9:15AM local time. We’re here!!! This particular flight across the water felt unusually short for some reason, although I doubt that actually was the case.

We got through UK Border Control using the new e-Gates. This system is great! It gets you into the country so quickly and easily. My passport, which is newer, worked fine in the e-Gates but Vince’s older passport did not work and he had to see an agent for a manual screening.

Having passed through UK Border Control, we went on to retrieve our luggage. When it didn’t tumble down (cue the déjà vu of our lost luggage experience from last year’s Portugal trip), a very helpful passenger told us that a lot of luggage had been prematurely pulled off the carousel and was sitting in a pile down the way – and that’s indeed where our bags were sitting. We retrieved said bags from there and began seeking the entrance to the Underground which would take us into central London:

We found the Heathrow Underground station and held our breaths as we each tapped our Oyster card on the tap-spot – we had not used our Oyster cards (London’s pre-paid transit card) for a few years and so didn’t know if they would still be valid or not. Amazingly the gates opened and in we went. We found the Underground train on the Piccadilly line; this would take us directly (but slowly) into central London and we could get off on the station closest to the hotel: Russell Square. Taking the London Underground is definitely the slowest of all methods to get from Heathrow to central London, but this trip we were intentionally trying to take our time so that we’d arrive late enough to check into our hotel without waiting.

Checking In

We reached the wonderful Euro Hotel on Cartwright Gardens at about 11:15AM, but their official check-in time was not until 1:30. The Receptionist advised us that our room was not yet ready, but if we wouldn’t mind waiting until 12:00 (noon), we could check in early and not have to wait until 1:30 – sounds good to me!

We left our bags at the Euro and went in search of lunch. We wound up at the Pret a Manger opposite the Russell Square Underground station, where we finally had a square meal.

We returned to the Euro at Noon and were now able to check in. We were given Room G1 on the Ground Floor – yeah! – no stairs this trip (this would prove to be extremely advantageous later in the week – keep reading for more on this later in the blog). This room was on the very end of the floor, very quiet, and had been renovated with a new bathroom and air conditioning – awesome!

We unpacked a little bit of our luggage then had a very brief snooze, taking care to NOT be out too long (must not give in to the jet lag).

St. Pancras International

At 3:00 we walked over to Fortnum & Mason in the St. Pancras International train station to get a couple of boxes of Green Tea with Elderberry Flower. With that mission accomplished we then wandered through St. Pancras, admiring the architecture and browsing in the occasional shop:

We stopped for coffee at a Costa in St. Pancras, where Vince had his customary coffee while in Europe and the UK: an Americano; meanwhile I opted for some refreshing ice tea. We lingered for quite a while here, just watching the human hustle and bustle of the international train station.

We returned to the Euro Hotel at about 4:45. We rested for a while, then at 5:30 headed out to Nando’s in the Brunswick Centre just off Marchmont Street. We had a satisfying meal, the first sizable one so far that day.

We got back to the Euro at about 6:30PM. I unpacked the rest of my suitcase, and we just rested for the remainder of the evening.

It had been a *very* long day and we were jet lagged, so we went off to bed at 8:00PM, exhausted after our big day of travel… but, we’re here… in LONDON, the magical city of awesome!! 🙂

Samuel Johnson really had it sussed.'When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford.'

Today’s step count: 11,543