We're in London!

Bao and McKenna at Paddington

(Written by Anne T.)  The first two days of our trip are behind us and we are happy to be in London!  Bright and early Monday morning, January 1^st, most of us arrived at the Spokane airport for the first leg of our journey, a flight to Seattle.  Shortly before takeoff we found out that our plane had ice IN its engine, so we experienced our first flight delay.  But we enjoyed a beautiful flight across the cascades, enjoying views of Mt. Baker, Glacier Peak, Mt Rainier, and even Mt Hood and the Olympics.  After more delays waiting for a gate to be free, we grabbed some tables in the food court, ate some lunch, and settled in to wait for our next flight.  We found out our next flight was delayed too, but we passed the time playing a game that Kathleen Levi brought.  We had fun learning about each other’s’ sense of humor.

Our next flight finally took off at almost 7 pm.  We enjoyed great service on our Virgin Atlantic flight, with two good meals and free movies in our seats.  Some of us even slept a little.  We were awakened around 2 am Spokane time, 10 am London time, for a light breakfast.  Excitement grew as we knew we were approaching England!  We landed, this time uneventfully, and began the long journey through the corridors to officially enter the U.K., pick up our luggage, and figure out how to ride the Underground to Paddington Station!  Many kind Londoners helped us figure things out and we made it to Paddington.

By now we were pretty zombie-like, but the idea of coffee across the street from our Hostel roused us.  After a little down time to freshen up, we took a walk through Hyde Park, filled with excitement that we were actually in London!  We saw a few random monuments, the “Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain” (closed) and a lot of ducks and swans.  Fun times!  Next we returned to the Hostel and went out to a delicious Italian meal at Bizzarro Italian Ristorante nearby, recommended by one of the clerks at the hostel.  Everyone’s eyes were drooping when we returned to the hostel.  Tomorrow holds many more exciting adventures!