mary poppins chimneys everywhere!

tower bridge

big ben and parliament

horribly crooked shot of westminster abbey

we're in london!  the flight wasn't as bad as i thought it would be, even though i only managed to get 3ish hours of sleep.  goodbye wishful 6 hour thinking!  continental was a fab airline, and i was very impressed with our "flying hotel" - their fancy on demand shows and movies at every seat hooked me, as they had four episodes of sex and the city up for viewing.  made 2 hours fly by!  (no pun intended)

we landed at heathrow and it was a quick pickup for our bags and to get through customs.  ummm, should i say walk through the unattended customs lanes.  nice one.

there was a moment of panic when my debit card didn't work in the underground ticket machine.  shit!  howarewegoingtogettothehotelwillwehavetoliveatheathrow ihopetheyhavemorethancinnabontoeatotherwisemyasswillbegiganticinnotimeohgodohgodohgod 

problem solved when i worked the atm magic and received their clown money to shove into the machine.
dear london.  why do you have giant heavy coin money.  it makes zero sense, distribution wise, and i hate carrying it.  and also, why is it that your coins seemingly get bigger as the denomination gets smaller, but your bills get monopoly smaller according to denomination.  the twenty pound note is huge, and the fiver is a third the size.  crazytown.  it also didn't help today when i was wondering why my freaking purse was so heavy - oh you know, twenty four pounds in coins.  being a rugged american i forget that coins are money too.  haha!

anywho, we took the tube (look at me and my lingo!) to our hotel with minor frantic isthisourtrain?ohgodwillwehavetoliveatthetubestation??idontseeacinnabon!!, and checked in.  three cheers for the place that lets two travel weary folks check in FOUR HOURS before check-in time.  hooray!  hooray!  hooray!

we went out and got some food and got our bearings down by parliament, and returned to the hotel for a 3 hour nap.  after the nap, we had zero jet lag effects (thank you Jesus!) and have adjusted to the time really well.  which, as any world traveler will tell you, is a total miracle of awesomeness.

we spent the rest of the night sauntering around our local neighborhood and in the hotel watching crappy british tv on some wavy channels.

more later - and because i know you're curious, yes, i've had tea with every meal and it's been FLAWLESS.