Thursday, December 17, 2009

European Trip Day 1 - London

Hi Friends. . .well, we landed safely in London and on time too! Whoohoo! This is my very first trip to Europe so everything is new and different for me. For those who've been to Europe or live in Europe, you may think what I write may not be so interesting or fascinating. ..so bear with me! LOL!

An awesome thing happened on our way to London. . .British Airway bumped us up to Premiere seating . . .it's so much better than economy. Whoohoo. Our airplane seats were a bit wider and had their own foot rest. Furthermore, each individual video screen pulled up from the side of our arm rest. The 10 hour flight was bearable because it was a bit more comfortable and that really helped.

Above is a photo of the baggage claim area at Hearthrow Airport in London. The airport is designed sort of chic and modern with lots of metallic features as you can see in the photo. Very contemporary in design. I was impressed.

As we were being shuttled to our hotel entering the city, I really had a different "idea" of what London would look like. It's not as "cold" and "dreary" as I expected. I don't know. . .I guess all the movies I see of London is that it's dark and cold. . .I guess I see too many movies but in reality it was quite the opposite of what I expected. London looks very modern. . .and yes, although the city does lack a bit of color. . many of the buildings are grey or the color of red brick, many of the buildings are very contemporary. As we approached the outskirt of the city, it reminded me a bit of Virginia and the area surrounding Washington DC during the winter time.

We decided to eat lunch at a Thai restaurant after we dropped off our bags at our hotel room. It was the first restaurant that we came across after walking out of our hotel. First shocking thing. . .the food price, by American standards, is RIDICULOUSLY expensive. For a Thai lunch for 3 that would normally average $30 here in the US. . .it cost $65 in US dollars. Ugggh! I was sort of expecting something different as far as Thai cuisine. . .maybe a British flair, not so. . .it tastes exactly like the Thai food here in the US. LOL! I don't know why I would think it would taste different. . .Thai food is Thai food, right?

One thing I noticed here is the people dress far more nicely than we do here in the US. Nothing casual about how they dress here. On average most of everyone I saw were dressed in nice boots, nice coats, and nice slacks. I love the coats here. . .people were dressed nicely even at the local drug store and supermarket. Gosh, in my home town, I see people walking in with their sweat pants and some even in their pajamas and bunny house slippers. I don't think you'd see anything like that here in London but I may be wrong. . .being in the city and in the suburb are two different worlds so it's possible that people do wear bunny house slippers in the rural area of London. LOL! Who knows!


For dinner, we ate at an Italian restaurant and sat down for a while and drank coffee. While we were in the restaurant, it began to snow. It wasn't in the forecast so we didn't expect it but luckily I was seriously bundled up. It was beautiful. It really felt like the holidays. I heard on the news that it may snow up to 8 inch by tomorrow morning. Yikes! I hope it doesn't mess up our tour. . .we're going to go bus hopping and stop by different attractions around London tomorrow. Anyway. . the photo above is of me, my daughter and my husband. A gentlemen was kind enough to take our photo. We rarely ever have a chance to take photos together so it was wonderful to have a nice photo of us together on our first day in London.

I guess that's it for today's adventure. . .hopefully, I can take more photos tomorrow and have time to post a few of them. Anyway. . .I hope all of you are enjoying the holidays.

22 comments:

Diane said...

Oh Maria,lucky you!!!! Have fun and enjoy London!!!

Heather said...

Enjoy your trip! I'm hooked- I've never been to Europe.

lisa808 said...

Have a great time!

Tammy said...

I'm so glad you made it safely.
Have a fantastic time. You are in my favorite city in the world!
Take it all in for me.

Smita said...

Looks like you are having a super fab vacation :-)

Enjoy the holidays Maria.

Hugs,
Smita

Carmen said...

Aww, have a wonderful time! I've never been to London, but have been in Europe!

katy said...

Welcome to the UK Maria, have a fabulous time seeing the sights...and enjoy the snow !! Hugs Katy x

Ruthie said...

Yay Maria - welcome! Hope you and your family have a fabulous time and dont get too cold here - as I type this its just stopped snowing - we are about 25 miles from Big Ben so will be getting the same weather as you! BBBBRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

Rx

katou said...

Welcome to Europe Maria.
Hope you enjoy London in the snow .If during your tour you stop by Paris ,tell me,I will be more than happy to welcome you here.
Have a nice trip.
Next week it will be my turn to cross the Atlantic to go to Philadelphia.

Anonymous said...

What a great post! Thank you for sharing your trip---it is the next thing to being there.

Sheri Gilson said...

Have fun & enjoy your trip Maria!!

Jeannie said...

Hi Maria, Welcome to England. I love your comment about the way people dress here,too funny...some in London dress nicely, yes - some don't as I'm sure you'll see if you're here long enough. It IS a very cool city though. Nice you got some snow too...it's quite rare here really and to have a few inches is a something you won't see too often :)

Enjoy the rest of your break

Hugs
Jeannie XXX

2 Worlds said...

Yeah I remembered stopping in this airport and buying a shake and was so expesive, euros mama :)

Do What You Love said...

Oh Maria, how exciting! London! Lucky you - upgrade to Premier...10 hours is too long; wish we'd had that luck when we were going to Morocco.

Alhambra Club said...

Have a wonderful time, London is a great city, must say though I never got into the English food ate every other nationality when there. My niece went to Graduate school in England and we spent Christmas in London one year, it was so magical, know it will be for you and your family. ENJOY!!

Tracy.H said...

Have a wonderful time, Maria!! :0)

SCRAPCRAZY said...

Gosh, you just don't realize how excited I am for you!! I have dreams of one day going. So, Please keep us here in blog land up to date and have a Fantastic time;D
ps. Take lots of pictures..

hugs, Gina Marie

Rita said...

Looks great Maria, enjoy! I'm so jealous! Have fun in the snow & take plenty of pics, thanks for sharing. Merry Christmas to you & your family!

de said...

So excited for you Maria! Have fun!

Anonymous said...

It was extremely interesting for me to read this article. Thanx for it. I like such topics and anything that is connected to this matter. I would like to read more on that blog soon.

Sonya said...

One of the first things I noticed when I moved to the netherlands was how over the top dressed up people got..just to grocery shop!

I too love the coats I saw people where in London. All the men had on nice pants and coats and the women were equally pretyt in their clothes aswell.

Denise said...

Hey Maria,
Glad to see & read your posting's again. This is one very Beautiful card. Love all the detail, you put a lot of love into each creation you make.
Thanks for sharing your pictures of your trip, I followed along with you on FB.
Happy New Year!
Aloha & Hugs,
Denise

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