Day 1 Sat. Oct. 24

61 F, and POURING!

11:55BST Landed early by 35 mins, breezed thru immigration, grabbed our bags, and headed thru the Green Door from customs and right onto the Heathrow Express trains. 5 mins to Terminals 1-3 the another 15 to Paddington Station. The trains run ONTIME here!

Directions to the hotel were awful. "Turn right" was actually a 'go left'. (The English always have had trouble translating left/right to the States :-) "Mind the Gap" which was about 6" high and 3" wide. Paddington undergoing major reconstruction, same for Euston Square. The Tube stops in spots. 20 mins going around in circles in the downpour (deluge?) and several map stops later, we find the hotel. (Kel narrowly escapes being run over by a taxi whilst crossing the street).

We show up dripping wet and bleary-eyed to the swanky £165/night 5 star Euston Plaza Hotel. After a 1/2 hour delay they let us check in, and we dry off a bit. Off to Euston Station to check rail times and find the ferry to Ireland has been cancelled that night and in doubt for tomorrow morning. Buy postcards and stamps and lattes and capps.

Back at the hotel we went down the the hotel pub for a cider and a Guinness while we fill out all those postcards. By this point we're getting rather loopy. Then back, again, to the rail station to get some dinner and more ferry info. Euston station has 2 or 3 Burger Kings all inside. We did not get dinner there. We found a sandwich place and ordered 2 sandwiches which came to £5 76p, and handed over £6. Got a 'roll-the-eyes' look from the clerk, which now had us nervous about figuring out the money stuff. By this point the rain had finally stopped and we went back to the hotel to eat the food, watch about 20 mins of TV, and then we finally decided it was safe to sleep! yeah! We are VERY loopy by this point. We also have to remember to change the clocks from British Summer Time to British Winter Time before bed. (Basically the same as our Daylight Savings/Standard time.)

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