Tom and I are fareing well in our first day in London! A bit jet-lagged but that was mostly to be expected. Our flight was longer than I anticipated -- 7 hours instead of 6 hours -- and I had more trouble sleeping than I planned. Between the in-flight meals (dinner and a muffin for breakfast), I think we had maybe 4-5 hours to ourselves to rest. I can't say it's very easy sleeping on a plane.
With that being said, we waited around a bit in the airport for our shuttle service from the airport to the hotel to arrive. We dozed on & off as we were both pretty drowsy. It took about 30-45 minutes to get to our hotel but once we were here our tour director met us. He's very friendly and upbeat, so that's lovely. :) And everyone in London have been more than accomodating which I greatly appreciate.
Nevertheless the second we saw the two comfy beds in our hotel room, we napped! It was wonderful and very needed. After a couple of hours, we decided it was time to freshen up. Before heading out I made a quick call to my mom to let her know that we arrived safely.
We also stopped the front lobby and spent some time with the concierge who helped us plan out our trip to Cardiff Bay tomorrow! It looks like we have everything squared: we'll taking a taxi from our hotel to Paddington Station then taking a train all the way to Cardiff Central. Then we'll get a good walk in going from the train station in Cardiff to The Doctor Who Experience museum. Here's to hoping everything pans out well tomorrow!
After gathering enough information, we headed out to the surrounding area near our hotel (a Marriott near Regent's Park, if you're curious). Since we were a bit apprehensive about exploring a new city let alone a new country! So we didn't venture too far away but we did a bit of souvenir shopping for friends & family then grabbed lunch at a little Mediterrean cafe.
Tom and I made a pit stop back at our hotel to drop off the items that we bought before heading back out as we were on a mission: master the Underground to make our way to King's Cross Station. Why? To see platform 9¾ of course!!!
At first figuring out the tube system/Underground was a bit confusing but thankfully with Tom's brain and a bit of help from local assistance workers we found our way to King's Cross Station much quicker than we expected! It was definitely very touristy with a short line snaking to the set-up for people to get their photographs taken. Tom took a picture of just me but then we bought a framed picture of the two of us (which I'll share later on Facebook).
We ended our evening by doing a bit more souvenir shopping for ourselves and our families then grabbing a quick dinner before navigating our way back to our hotel. I felt that dinner was much more authentic than what we had for lunch. We bought this stuffed pastrieds filled with meat -- Tom got one with lamb & mint while I had a spicy chicken paster. Very yummy!
Now we're back at our hotel room and tired, so ready to call it a night soon to prepare for our long day tomorrow.
Until next time, au revoir!
This is so exciting, I'm keeping an eye on your blog from South Korea. I'd love to take a similar trip to the UK sometime myself. It looks like you're going to have a wonderful time and have a good start! I have friends that recently left Seoul that also visited the Doctor Who Experience and had a wonderful time, so enjoy!
ReplyDelete