U.K.
London and Liverpool
May 28, 2005
Another 4 thousand miles under our belt! We left for London to start a trip through Europe. Actually, the seven and a half hour flight seems
short to us by now and went by quickly. The two hour wait to get through customs at London Heathrow was a shocker though. We made our way to
Canary Wharf to meet our friend who lives here. We also saw where Stacy used to live in London during college.
The weather here is amazing, so we barbecued that evening on the patio of the Burke's apartment(sunny and 85 degrees). The next day was sunny
also, two days of sun in a row in London seems to be a rare occurance. We went in to the city to walk around Hyde Park which was packed with
people, joggers, dogs, ducks and horses. We finished our tea by the Serpentine Lake, a huge lake over 200 years old. We got a great Thai lunch
(Panang Curry and Prok with holy basil - umm) across from Harrod's department store and walked around the city some more and saw Imperial College
where Stacy took classes. We sat on our friends' patio again that night, enjoying the weather.
 Look kids, Big Ben... Parliament!
This morning we took a 2 1/2 hour train ride through the countryside up to Liverpool. The city just won the European Cup so several parts of
downtown are mobbed with people out celebrating. There are several pedestrian streets with stores and restaurants and packed pubs. Liverpool is
also where the Beatles came from and the city seems to be the music capital of the world. There are pubs and bars advertising live bands
everywhere and every fence has a different flyer for bands, shows, and DJs. We're here to see a show tonight, and we're glad we got a room ahead
of time because the city is packed.
After a quick nap, we headed out for a tiny Indian restaurant a few blocks away around 8 p.m. The sun was still bright and the city was alive
with people of all backgrounds. Another great meal and we were off to watch a show. Needless to say, it was 10 p.m. and the sun was still out!!!
It didn't set that night until 10:15ish p.m.
While walking to the venue we saw several bachlorette parties, open pub doors with live bands, alleys with disco lights and people still
celebrating the European Cup win. It was amazing - this city was like New York City at night. It didn't appear to sleep.
We didn't sleep much either after our excellent show. Especially with the sun poping through the hotel windows at 4:45 a.m. Oh well, it was all
worth it.
The 1:15 p.m. train ride back to our friends' house was uneventful and peaceful. The countryside here is so green and beautiful. The 2
1/2 hour trip flew by and before we knew it, we were back. The home-made fajitas they had waiting for us when we returned were mouthwatering. It
has been some time since we have had Mexican. Kinda hard to find in Asia, Australia and the United Kingdom.
 Monday morning (Memorial day in the U.S.) was a Bank Holiday in the UK, so our friends had the day off and came with us into
the city. Before leaving though, Tim took Mel for a ride in his Lotus Elise through the narrow residential streets and the parks around
their flat. The Elise is like a go-cart with a rocket engine and we were sitting about two inches off the ground. Lots of fun!
In the city, there were lots of people out and the weather was great again. We feel like we must be setting some kind of record for consecutive
sunny days in London. We went to Covent Garden which is an open square with cobble-stone streets and an open-air market with all kinds of odd
British antiques. There were jugglers and performers in the streets. We also walked through Leicester Square, Trafalger Square, and the West End
which is where all the Broadway-type shows are. We ate lunch at a Wagamama's, which is a popular Japanese noodle bar in London. We then went to
St James which is where the high-end shops that serve the royalty are. Above each door of a boot shop, cigar shop, or whatever, there were signs
saying "In the Royal service of the Queen" (or a prince, duke, or whomever). After wearing ourselves out walking around the city, we took the
tube back and hung out that night.
On Tuesday, we went back into the city for more sightseeing. Our first stop was the same Thai restaurant across from Harrod's which we went to
one of our first days here, we hadn't tried the pad thai yet! We walked past Buckingham Palace and along the edge of a park, and had a parade of
Royal horses, guards, and cannons pass us so we followed to see what was going on. We got to a huge courtyard where the Royal band was playing
the Olympic theme song. London is bidding for the 2012 Olympics and the band was out practicing. We walked on- Look kids, Big Ben...
Parliament... and on to the Thames River. Then headed to the airport for our flight to Athens.
We got to London Heathrow plenty early to catch our Hellas Jet flight to Athens. With all the extra time, we went to a French cafe in the
airport to play cards and drink wine. Relaxed and ready to go, we followed the sign to the Hellas Jet check-in and waited around for someone to
show up. Not seeing anyone about an hour and a half before our flight we started asking around, and found out that Hellas Jet, our airline, had
gone bankrupt during our trip! Amazingly, this was the second time this has happened to us, in 2001, our airline went bankrupt on just a 5 day
trip to Amsterdam. No worries though, British Airways picked up our flight in Amsterdam, and Olympic Airlines, the Greek national airline issued
us new tickets this time. Racing on foot over to the Olympic terminal, we checked in to our new flight, leaving London at 10 pm and getting into
Athens at 4 am.
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