First couple days in London

Saturday

And so we arrived in old London town at the swish new London Heathrow terminal 5. Nice new terminal, all fresh and shiny even though apparently Londoners don't like it all too much because the first day it opened they had their baggage lost. The tube stop for this terminal is nice and close unlike the last time we came and had to trek through a maze just to find the station. Having said that, from the arrival gate to the imigration/customs looked a bit like an Escher stairs painting.


The tube was a welcome familiarity, as was the unmistakable scent of London that we picked up as soon as we left the comfort of the recycled air airline terminal building. We rode the tube to Holborn, taking about an hour or so. We got into Karen's flat and met up with Mum and Bobba.


Dani came over and met us at the flat and we then caught a bus over to Hackney Street in East London to see her new place. Typical student** living, really. Bit grungy and funky but overall not too bad. The kitchen could use a bit of a clean. Dani's room is nice. Not too big or too small, nice and comfy but a bit of a mess because she doesn't have furniture yet. The three of us took a long sight-seeing walk around East London then, a big loop ending up back at her flat.

It was late enough then to go to the hospital to see Karen and our new baby cousin. Back to the west end. Wow, what an amazingly cute newborn. Karen was so completely elated. We stayed for a bit and then eventually left since Em and I were kind of fading from jetlag. We walked through to our hotel and passed some wierd modern art, sort of, installation in one of the squares around town.

We checked in, brought our stuff up then went over to Sainsburys for a grocery shop. We/Dani forced us to stay awake till about 9:30 or so and then she left to go home and we crashed.

Sunday

Today we woke up and went over to see Dani. We fixed up her cupboard and then got some all-day breakfast food from a place around the corner from her. We went to the hospital to see Karen, and saw some cousins and aunt/uncle. Went back to Dani's flat and made up her desk while drinking excellent pear cider and listening to some good, nostalgic tunes. We met mum and Bobba back at Karen's flat and went for a bite of Italian to eat.