On October 12th, Agnes and I headed out on our vacation to London.  We were expecting cold, wet weather at this time of year and London did not disappoint us.  In all of the pictures you'll see here, we're wearing coats and often holding an umbrella.

chris cheungOur flight from Boston left at 6 pm, and getting to the airport with the proscribed three hour buffer gave us plenty of time to kill.  Chris Cheung (who gave us a ride to the airport) hung out with us as we did a bit of shopping at Brookstone to get a plug adapter set.  The power adapter for my PDA has a voltage converter that can accept the 240 volts used in the UK -- all we needed was something to make the plug fit.  We spent the rest of the time having some soup and hot tea.

heathrow expressThe flight was uneventful, and we arrived the next day at 6:30 am.  From Heathrow airport we hopped onto the Heathrow Express for £13 to Paddington Station.  From there, all we needed to do was hop onto the Tube (London's Subway) to get to our hotel near Marble Arch.  While the Tube was very good to us for the rest of our trip, it was a real pain that first day.  Two different lines were closed:  the Central Line was closed between Notting Hill Gate and Marble Arch, and the Jubilee Line doesn't stop at Baker Street on Sundays.  Thank goodness the UK uses English -- with any other language, I doubt we would have understood the announcements

After a huge detour across three different trains (Circle, Piccadilly, and Central Lines) we finally made it to the hotel where we were able to check in early and turn in for a nap.

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