Monday, July 27, 2009

London Quite Unexpectedly

Sunset at Big Ben

We did not expect our adventure to continue after we left Dublin, Ireland for home but that is just what happened. We had not gotten much sleep the night before leaving because there was loud music playing outside our room at the Dublin hotel. We were up late and had to get up at 6:00 a.m. to make our early flight because Dublin airport is such a zoo.

Our Aer Lingus flight was greatly delayed leaving Dublin and we missed our American Airlines London connection to Chicago. Aer Lingus in London was not able to get us a flight out of London until the next day so they put us up in a hotel in London near Heathrow Airport with all expenses paid!

Sue and I were dead tired and it would have been easy to have just gone to the room and taken a long nap, but I had never been to London and adventure called! So, after we got our room we got directions to the London Underground from a concierge and some helpful Brits and we took the a bus and the underground to downtown.

Time was limited, but we managed to get in the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, The Parliment Building and Westminster Abbey! We ended up grabbing dinner at a take away (we did not use our hotel dinner voucher) and ate it at the base of Big Ben!

As often happens the underground and buses were also a grand part of the adventure. We got to do some fun people watching, talk to some Londoners and hear some snippets of conversations that provided a good window into everyday life in London.

So, we flew home the next day and had an added day of unexpected adventure for very little cost! Sometimes it is a good thing when things go "wrong."

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