London – Day 1

Ryan & I have safely landed in London & survived our first day here. It’s now 9:32pm, London time, & 4:32pm Ann Arbor time &, except for about 2 or 3 short naps between Wed. at 7am when I woke up from my last full night’s sleep in Ann Arbor & right now, I haven’t slept & boy am I feeling it; everything’s been great so far though, except for the lack of sleep of course & I intend to remedy that shortly.

Our hotel, City Inn Westminster, is located in a nice, central location in the city & is easily accessible via the underground rail lines; the rates were reasonable & it’s a simple, clean place – no frills, but nice. The hotel is very close to Westminster & the Tate Britain Museum & a decent, but not too far walk, to the Hayward Gallery & the Tate Modern (both which we visited today).

Our first day in the city was made up of a stop at the Hayward Gallery & then the Tate Modern (where we had lunch at the Tate Modern Cafe). We intend to stop at the Tate Britain as well in the next day or so & possibly some others while we’re here. There were some really interesting exhibits, although I must admit that my brain was mostly fried from lack of sleep & by the time we neared the end of our walk through of the Tate Modern I was both physically & mentally exhausted.

We took the ferry on the Thames River between the Tate Modern & the Tate Britain to get back to our hotel as this was the easiest, closest, & most relaxing of our two options & much less hectic than the tube ride would have been. It was great to float down the river on a boat that was almost empty of passengers & both of us closed our eyes & took a short nap during the 20 minute stretch.

This evening, we enjoyed dinner out at a fantastic fish & chips place we visited last  time we were in London – The Golden Hind. This place is very small & family owned, their food is simple & their menu is small, but something about the way they fry up a fish is magic! I had the fried cod with “chips” (fries) & Ryan had the fried Haddock with “chips” & we shared a bowl of “mushy peas” & for dessert a chocolate sponge cake with custard on top (warm, steaming chocolate cake in a bowl swimming in a generous helping of vanilla custard that’s poured over the top of the cake).

We’ll try & post our activities each day we’re here, so check back for updates!