May 19, Day 1: The Most Glorious Plane Ride Ever and Nocturnal Wanderings in London
May 19th began as most days towards the end of a semester do: with both Lily and I awake as the clock struck 12 a.m.
Thank you, packing.
We were still awake, in fact, when we met up to grab our last breakfast at LaVerde’s, print off a list of helpful German terms (“Can you help me carry my friend?”: “Können Sie mir helfen trage mein Freund?”),
and cab it to the airport. And it is this fact of sleeplessness which rendered the nearly seven hour trip to London the Most Glorious Plane Ride Ever. We both fell asleep nearly the moment we took off, and woke up only be fed a hot breakfast of French Toast and then a lunch of ham sandwich. Legit. Sleep and be fed. Most Glorious Plane Ride Ever.
We touched down a little before nine p.m. local time, checked our carry-on bags at the airport, and headed into downtown London in search of free wifi and dinner. Fun fact: the line from Heathrow to downtown is the “Piccadilly Line to Cockfosters.” Yes, we did laugh at every stop.
Piccadilly Circle is like, London’s baby version of Times Square, but with all the little ethnic towns immediately nearby. After wandering around a bit and having Lily give probably-incorrect directions to a very drunk group of businessmen outside of Chinatown,
we finally found free wifi at a pub, as a new Irishman friend on the Underground had told us we eventually would (Starbucks was even trying to make this author, a gold level member! pay 5 pounds for internet). We took note of this newly proven nugget of wisdom, and of the fact that beer was dirt cheap.
And then the pub closed at 11:30.
Let me explain the problem with this: we had a layover until 7:50 the next morning, and had planned on burning up some solid time in pubs and restaurants. Pub stay foiled, we closed up my laptop and went out in search of dinner, which we found at a Chinese restaurant open until two in the morning. Sold.
And this brought us to 1:00.
With four hours to burn, we realized that we actually had a lot more time than we thought we’d have, and that the Buckingham Palace and other Royal attractions are actually not nearly as far away as one would think. So we set off for Clarence House first, worked our way to the Buckingham Palace, looped back by Westminster Abbey, heard Big Ben strike 3 a.m., saw the Houses of Parliament, and were back in Piccadilly by 3:30. The crowds were fabulous.
(more pictures on my Flickr)
I know my poor parents are probably reading this right now and suppressing the urge to book me on the first flight home. Really, we couldn’t have picked a more well-lit, safe spot for our late-night travels. We actually spotted a security guard snooping around Clarence House, and the Mall is lit like a Christmas tree. We realized that we were basically wandering the Royal Wedding path as we walked under 6 security cameras all clumped together in front of the barracks of the Royal Guard. You know us, always late to the party.
We caught a bus to the airport a little after four, saw the sun come up, passed out after airport security and woke up in time to catch our morning flight on to Munich. Guten morgen, day 2.
