Graduation trip - London

The quality of our flight from Tokyo to London couldn't match that of our previous day. The flight was packed, making the tight seating even more cramped. The movies were not as good. Pete's video died, so I traded seats with him. We did have metal eating utensils, the first I've seen on a flight for six years.

While waiting in the massive lines for customs at Heathrow, Karen struck up a conversation with a couple from Auckland. He was British and she was Maori and they visited England every 5-6 years. There were several middle-eastern women pushing their way through the lines. Little did I know what a forecast of the future that would be.

There were piles of luggage off to the side, but we had no problem with ours. We had nothing to declare, so we sailed through customs. It cost us 4 pounds for a 10-minute bus ride to Jurys Inn, where we had rooms. Another omen. London is expensive. We called Molly in Cambridge to let her know we'd arrived and make plans for the next day. Then supper and bed. It was 4:00am NZ time and we were exhausted.

We had a wee learning curve getting onto the the train into London, but managed to get to King's Cross after a 45 minute ride. We thought we knew where Molly would come in, but were wrong.


We tried to figure out what terminal the Cambridge train would be on, but the signs kept changing - so we kept changing platforms as well. At least we had her mobile number, so after the time passed when she was supposed to be there, we found a pay phone and called her. She was about 20 feet away from the phone. During the course of searching for her, we discovered platform 9 3/4, so of course, we had to get a photo.


We took the train to see the changing of the guard.


Mostly, what we saw were the throngs of tourists.

I foolishly thought we could walk from the palace to our next item of interest.