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!
I’m lovin’ the blog Val and Ryan!!! Enjoy London and bring some fish and chips back to the US!!!
Cool pic!