Arriving in London England

I am going to divide my pictures into sections since I have taken 396.  Don't worry I won't give you that many!!!

 We Arrived very early in the morning flying in from Shannon Ireland. We took the fast /express train into London. This is 2x as much money as the regular train which we took back to the airport. This is Paddington Station at the end of the line and I thought it was interesting to see all the bikes. This would not be a sight you would see in the States.

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 We took the tube to our hotel, the Charing Cross hotel built in 1864.  The tube station is right next to the hotel. In fact it was so close we didn't see it and as we walked away and asked for directions.  We were told."just turn around".  That is how we started.

 Here is the view of the entrance as we were leaving the hotel. We just had just gotten to our room and the fire alarm went off. So we debated whether to take our suitcase or leave it. I didn't smell any smoke so we left it and started out for the Hop-on Hop-off tour.

This is the view in front of our hotel,.named Charing Cross.  This monument was a replacement to the original Charing Cross named for Eleanor of Castile as a memorial to his wife by King Edward 1 erected in 1291-94.  This is considered the centre of London.  The original cross was made of wood and is now replaced by stone and marble in 1864. (charing means "cierring" referring to the nearby bend in the River Thames. The cross rises 70 feet in three main stages on an octagonal plan surmounted by a spire and cross. It is really elegant up close.

View from our window of the Thames.

At night they have all these candles everywhere to light your way.  They were beautiful.

So this is the beginning of our trip. On a personal note, I found that it is harder to get information or start a conversation with a " Brit" than it is with the Irish!- and those that know me, know I will talk with anyone along the way (:o
We also found London to be very expensive.

 I hope to get more blogs out today but I am on my way to the computer repair.  Having some trouble with it.
Cheerio :-)