Our First Day London

We got into Heathrow Airport in the early evening, and thanks to our new friend, Jay (co-owner of the Islands of Siankaba Hotel), we had a Mercedes waiting to take us to our hotel. We had booked three nights with the Holiday Inn at Regents Park through Priceline. The room was quite small, but nice. And the location turned out to be good -- in a fairly quiet, safe neighborhood, one block from a grocery store, restaurants, and bus stop, three blocks from the tube, and just a short distance more to Regents Park, which is a great place to stroll on a nice autumn day. After we checked in, we walked just a few blocks to a wonderful Italian restaurant for dinner.

On our first full day in London, we set out on a very comprehensive self-guided walking tour, encompassing about 15 miles. Starting at the hotel, we walked through Oxford Circus and SoHo to Leicester Square, where we got cheap tickets to "Wicked" for that night. We then spent an hour or more at the National Gallery viewing room after room of famous artwork. We walked across the Thames on a the Golden Jubilee pedestrian bridge and strolled along the river, enjoying live statues and mimes. We skipped the London Eye (humongous crowds), walked back across the Westminster Bridge over to the Parliament Buildings (and Big Ben) and Westminister Abbey. Then on to Buckingham Palace, through Green Park, Hyde Park, and the Princess Diana Memorial Garden. We took a tour of the Apsley House, where the Duke of Wellington lived.

At this point, it was getting dark, and I thought I would die if I had to walk another block. But there was no sense in going all the way back to the hotel before the show that evening, and Kate really wanted to see Harrod's, the world's largest (and most expensive) department store. So after a brief collapse on a park bench, off we trudged.

Kate found Harrod's fascinating. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. $1,000 for a toddler's dress? $2,500 for a little boy's coat? I might have found it more amusing if I weren't so exhausted and if the crowds weren't pushing us from every angle. But especially after coming from Africa, where we'd fed granola bars to malnourished children at a rest stop and wished we had more, I just found the whole thing offensive. And the thing about Harrod's is that once you get in there, it's nearly impossible to get out! I practically had a panic attack trying to find an exit.

Somehow, we made our way out of the posh area and to Victoria Station, where the theatre for Wicked was. We also managed to find a seat in a restaurant and get some food, which helped my mood immensely.

Wicked was fantastic. We really loved it. Our seats were nosebleeders, and we wished we had our binoculars, but the theatre was sold out, so we felt very lucky to get seats at all. After the show, we splurged on a cab ride home and really got a sense of just how far we had walked that day!