7-7-7

07-07-07... perhaps the luckiest day for the next century, and the day our European adventure began. Two days ago Nicole and I gathered our bags and headed out to the SLC airport to embark on a three week long European excursion. Our puddle hopper flight into Houston went off without as much as a hitch; however poor weather and delays in connecting flights caused concern for our flight from Houston to London. Apparently, a plane from New Orleans, carrying 84 connecting passengers for our flight, was late because of weather, and since weather was less than desirable in Houston as it was, we were forced to wait... fully boarded on the plane, like prisoners, for the connecting flight to get in before we could head out for London. While I was initially quite pessimistic about the whole situation, dreading an uncomfortable night spent in the Houston airport (or a cramped 777 rather, as we could not get off the plane), all was not lost as we were able to take off from Houston and arrive only two hours behind schedule in London.

Upon arrival in London, as happens with international travel, we were immediately herded through customs. I was fortunate enough to get the only grumpy English customs agent, and after she chewed me out for a good while, I was able to sneak into England (not before however, I was fighting Australian flashbacks and quite frustrated with the entire country).

After we gathered our bags and passed through the most non-obtrusive claims/declarations system to date (slowly England was winning its way back into my graces) Nicole and I were faced with a brutal reality; namely, the weakness of the dollar. The pound is really strong, commanding $2.25 US, so needless to say our exchange rate was a less than pleasurable experience. On top of the dollar being worth so little, it turns out London is ridiculously expensive. Just to get a train from the airport into the city center was £15!

Nicole and I upon arrival to Victoria Station in London

Even with the grumpy customs worker bent on keeping me out of London and the ridiculously steep prices, London is fabulous! The city is filled with amazing architecture, art and history. Shortly after arriving, Nicole and I met an old college friend and his fiancé Elodie in the city. We had a fabulous time exploring London during the afternoon, and Matthias made it his duty to insure I didn't fall asleep on the Tube (the jet lag, or lack of sleep rather, was killing me, it was seriously hard for me to keep me eyes open at times).

All of us in front of Buckingham Palace

Along with experiencing some of the traditional London sights, it so happened that the Tour de France race was actually being held in London and while this also translated into loads of people and underground delays, it was overall a cool experience. An interesting point about this bike race, apparently it is a big deal here, who knew? All along the roads where the bikers were racing were loads of people, watching and cheering as each of the bikers passed by. While I am yet to know if people were cheering for particular racers or everyone in general, it was quite a phenomenon to see so many people out to watch the England portion of the famous race.

Seriously, these guys are moving, check out their entourage, complete with police escort and all

Now, not that the racers were not amazing, they were, and they were biking surprisingly fast (it's crazy how less impressive it appears on TV, but they were really hauling). But even so, I was content to watch a few racers go by, and then move on. Apparently biking is high class entertainment here though, as people stood out clapping, making noise with noise makers for the entire race portion (for hours and hours...blocking my view mostly). I don't understand it; maybe I don't have high cultured tastes when it comes to athletics. Either way, my favorite part of the race was this sign reading "Le de Tour France", which I thought was brilliant considering how far out of our way we had to trek because of the race. We hoped the company wrote the logo in such a way to avoid copyright laws...

Le deTour France... at least I think I am funny

Along with the race we also were able to see the more traditional sights.

Apparently, Big Ben is the name of the bell within the Clock Tower. Regardless of name however, it was impressive.

Westminster Abbey is huge! The building takes us more than a city block and is very ornate.

The Cathedral of Westminster is also very impressive with ornate carvings galore.

Our first day in London was a success, we saw much and I was mostly able to fight off the urge to sleep (Matthias hitting the glass helped however). Tomorrow holds more excitement and London adventures, until then...