No more oops for now!

After a couple oops on our way to the airport I am glad to report none since.  We departed Houston Monday evening and arrived at Heathrow about 9 am. I think we both slept about 2 hours during the flight.  Then there's the normal half mile trek through the terminal to the customs and immigration waiting line then to find the underground depot to buy train tickets to London.  The other two options were the much more expensive Heathrow express or to go by taxi.  The express train is faster but three times as costly. A taxi costs about 100 pounds or $155. I like to take the local transport when somewhere new so that was the ticket, about $20 for us both.

We boarded the train, made our one station transfer with no problems and arrived at the London Bridge Underground where we bought travel card passes for all local transport for seven days.  After a half mile walk or so we arrived at the apartment we rented for a week, met the representative from the leasing company, got our keys and got settled. 

The apartment is about a half block from the Tower Bridge which is very cool.  We found a small market just a few blocks away and brought home some basics for the week, breakfast and sandwich stuff, and a couple of beverages.  London is one of the most expensive cities in the world so eating in a couple times a day was our plan.  Then we had to have a couple hour nap to carry us through the time change to then hopefully sleep through the night.  After our nap we went for a walk down the Thames and stopped at The Vault, under the Tower Bridge where Kim enjoyed an excellent fish and chips dinner.  The day was well done.

Today we did the recommended 'hop on hop off' bus tour which takes you by all the famous sites of London with an audio guide.  It was rainy and foggy the first half of the day so we sat inside the bus. It gave us a good lay of the land and helped us sort out where we want to go over the next few days. 

We did 'hop off' at Harrods department store which I figure is also one of the most expensive stores in the world.  We browsed and gasped at the prices and took advantage of their fabulous loo!  Each one had a full-time loo attendant to make sure our experience was fabulous.  No tipping please! 

We 'hopped on' then off for a late lunch stop at Picadilly and nearby Chinatown, Soho, at Baozi Inn. We were the only people in the place that weren't speaking Chinese so that was a good sign. We ordered pork baozi, which were spicy pork filled dumplings but much bigger and a couple of spicy beef entrees.  It was terrific and very reasonable.  We 'hopped on' and then off again at Leicester Square to see the area and look for theatre ticket possibilities. 

Then it was 'hop on' again through the last part of the tour, back to the Tower Bridge stop and the walk back home for hot chocolate and a cream filled bun we bought from a little bakery in Chinatown along with a huge cupcake, a ham and spinach bun, and a coconut bun which will be for breakfast tomorrow. All for less than four pounds. Brilliant and yummy.

All in all a great start to our trip and no more oops for now.  Pics are posted on Facebook.  The Tower of London tour is our first destination tomorrow.  Thanks for reading!!