Sunday, thru arriving and our first day in London, Tues 17 October

On Sunday afternoon,  Lynisha & Rhett took me to  Denver.  I had a flight out to Houston on Monday morning at 10a.m. and it seemed much less stressful to go and spend the night there instead of getting up early  in the morning and dealing with traffic etc.
Ruth had me all pre-checked in so just printing out my boarding pass,  dropping off my checked bag and getting thru security was fairly quick.
I don't really relax much until I actually get to the gate  but all went well.

When I arrived in  Houston,  Ruth was  waiting for me (she had flown from Knoxville)  and when we retrieved our bags my dear friend Patty from Houston was waiting for us and she and her husband picked us up and we had a lovely lunch and visit for several hours  Monday afternoon. 

We were fortunate to have seats available in Business first class, and together at that! 

Our plane from the window in Houston

(Pictures may be added at a later time)

Our flight was uneventful, the food and accommodations quite superb. I really didn't sleep so well even with the comforts of a seat converted to bed, but I think it was most likely just an accumulation of stress, anxiety and excitement.  Flying itself doesn't bother me, it's only the "getting to that point".

The flight was about 8 hours, and the morning wake-up seemed to come very quickly.  Breakfast was served & quickly it was landing time. (about 10:30 a.m.)

Going thru customs went smoothly and we found the route to the train, then walked down city streets to our Hotel.

(Pictures may be added at a later time)

It's always interesting to me the differences in the places I visit versus where I'm from, so our Hotel stands out as a big one.  The Hotels I've seen here are in the middle of the city, right along with all the shops. Old, old buildings, generally pretty elegant (in the areas of town I've been)

We are not in an expensive elegant Hotel, but a very nice accommodating and adequate one.   The room & bath are considerably smaller than what we are used to in the States, The TV screen (can you find it in the picture? lol) very small.  The bathroom is quite small, no "extras", and the sink, tub and stool what we might consider dated.  However to my delight the bath is very large & deep and the water is hot!  That makes for wonderful soaks when returning from miles of walking at the end of the day!

Nice coffee & tea options in our room with "real" cups & spoons, clean towels & our beds made neatly & floors vacuumed each day. The only irritation was the internet service which constantly kicked off and had to be re-signed into.

After a brief nap we headed out to sight-see, and to meet Rob, Ruth's husband (and our pilot for the trip over here) for supper. Our walk was over 8 miles- a bit over what we expected, and we were glad to sit & eat.  Fish & Chips were the evenings meal, and I was so hungry I can't even bore you with a food picture this time! LOL! Oh-- Strange food items-- "Mushy Peas" on the menu- and automatically served with our fish & chips!

Rob got us an Uber ride for our trip back to our Hotel after supper- Thankfully.  Both Ruth & I were pretty much walked out!

 On our walk to Hyde Park Tues. afternoon.  It's fall here too, and very pretty.

 I was amused at this squirrel  hanging on the fence watching us.

 I do love gates.

 Tomorrow we plan to come back and do a tour of the Palace.

 Way in the distance.....The London Eye. 

 This fountain was very unique! I wish it was possible to have an aerial view of it!

That ends our first day in London- See you next post.

NOTE: Unfortunately I cannot  access some of my phone pictures from blogger.. These are all from my camera.  The others from my phone are in my FB albums.