London

Hi All.... we had an uneventful BA flight to London Thursday night, arriving about 2 pm at Heathrow, London time. I used Google to find our way to the Hilton Olympia Kensington Hotel... was surprised that it required a 1.5 kilometre walk down Kensington High Street (until I discovered my Google maps had shut off bussing options!). But it was good to get the exercise after the long plane trip, and we discovered that Kensington High Street is a very interesting and thriving part of London!

The hotel, being a Hilton, is step or two up from our usual fare, booked using BA Avios points. It is only a middling level Hilton though, and very comfortable and casual.

We are located just a block or two from the original Olympia Exhibition Hall, which is now in the final stages of development into a huge, modern convention complex. It covers multiple city blocks, and has some spectacular architecture.

The region still has its traditional pubs at every corner, and we really enjoyed our first British bitter and dinner at the Hand and Flower.

Friday morning, April 5

Having added the busses option back to Google maps, we hopped a bus to the newly developed Battersea Power Station. The Battersea is the generating station with the huge smokestacks long present across the Thames from Westminster. The plant has been gutted, and now comprises a very modern and swank shopping mall, surrounded by parks and block upon block of high end apartments buildings. There is an elevator to the top of one of the smoke stacks, but it would have cost us close to $100 for the two of us... so we chose to sight see at the ground level.

We walked across a bridge to the north bank of the Thames and grabbed a scenic bus route through Westminster, and on past Trafalger Square to Leicester Square for lunch, then strolled eastward through Covent Garden.

By the evening, we were in the theatre district for a fast food supper at a hamburger joint (the more traditional pubs and restaurants has long Saturday evening line-ups) and onto the Prince of Wales theatre for our pre-booked musical, "The Book of Mormon". We didn't really know what to expect, but found a rollicking, wacky, irreverent show!

Saturday, April 6

Another lovely day. Bus #9 took us right into Piccadilly Circus, where we were to catch a #27 along the Strand and Fleet Street, but discovered a major half marathon foot race event was totally blocking the roads, with huge crowds and ruckus. So, we managed to cross under and walked to Waterloo Bridge and the south bank. From there eastward... a lovely walk with across the river views of the Tower of London and the crazy modern "City".

From Tower Hill, we caught tube and bus to a funky, newly "hot" area out northeast called Hackney Wick. It is noted for its proliferate graffitti, art studios, canal side bars and restaurants. Having lived near London for a year in the 1980s, and visited a number of times, it was great to find a new area to explore.

Monday we fly on to Amsterdam. Really looking forward to visiting our 20 year old granddaughter, Nyah, and her Mom on their home turf, but will get this post published today.