The view from our hotel room
We landed at 7AM, and then got to stand in a VERY long line for
immigration. We soon realized that school was starting, and we had
stumbled into the midst of a batch (herd? gaggle? bundle?) of college students
coming to stay for the semester. We got through the line, got our bags,
and walked through customs without a question. On the other side, we
hunted down the person who would arrange our transport to the hotel, and learned
the next shuttle left at 8:30.
The shuttle was a van provided with our travel package, and this is where we
made our first mistake. London traffic is bad. London traffic at 9
AM is really, really bad. It took us over 2 hours to get to the hotel in
this cramped little van. The train, on the other hand, takes 30
minutes. We should have taken the train into town.
We arrived at our hotel (Thistle Kensington Gardens near Bayswater and
Queensway) and they had a room for us. We went up and unloaded our baggage
and rested for a short while. The room was nice but fairly small (to
American hotel standards...about the size of a Motel 6 room), with a heated
towel rack, in-room safe, and 9 inch color TV. We learned that it was a
nice hotel for London and larger than the typical room. The television
recieved 4 radio stations, 4 BBC stations, and 4 sports channels (one of which
had darts on at any given time during the trip). We did have a nice view
of Kensington Gardens from the room.
The
view from our hotel room
We decide to head out, get our Travelcards, grab lunch, and see the Victoria and Albert museum. So, now it was time to learn about the London Underground.