Here There and Everywhere

British Isles: Arrival and First Day in London

Arrival in London was both chaotic and orderly. As we arrived, early in the morning, several other large flights arrived, mostly from Africa, and we moved in a large crowd towards customs. At customs, we were separated into two lines, one countries associated with the British Empire, even the United States. All you had to do was to put your passport in the machine and it gave you the green light and you were done, so easy, so painless. It took seconds!


Pick up bags, walk out, the Viking people are waiting for us and pop us into a van with another couple to take us to our hotel.

At the hotel, it isn’t even nine a.m. but they have a room for us, and we love it. Spacious, for London, with a large bathroom with both a bathtub and separate shower room. Last time we were in London, we were in a room like a closet, climbing over each other to get to the bathroom which was like a toilet room in a boat, maybe 2.5 feet by 4 feet, and the shower got the toilet all wet. This feels so luxurious, and it is quiet.

Even better, the Big Bus, a hop on hop off line, stops just around the corner from our hotel, and we are close enough to many places to just walk. We spend some time cleaning up – having a bath after a long flight is just sheer luxury, and we are celebrating having a room, not having to leave our bags in a storage room and go out into the city in clothes we spent the night in. We’ve done it – and so we really appreciate not doing it.

Once we’ve cleaned up, we are ready to hit the town – and it’s not yet nine on a quiet August Saturday morning. We decide to take the Hop on Hop off and then change our minds and walk to the British Museum.

It isn’t our scheduled time, but the guard checks our bags, lets us in, and we go to the great court for a little coffee and cake, just to give us energy. We have museum guides and AdventureMan is eager to hit the Egyptian displays, and I have my own agenda so we separate with plans to meet in 2 hours. 

I head straight for the Sutton Hoo warrior. I think early man is fascinating and smart. We think we are so smart now, with all our technology, and it concerns me how little practical knowledge we have. In all cultures, the early cultures were about survival. How to nourish our bodies, how to protect our bodies, how to heal our bodies, only slowly developing more complex behaviors like farming, cloth making, cooking, making containers to store things – so I love exhibits on early civilizations, early communications (petroglyphs and pictographs) and early war fighting. Second, the Lindisfarne chess set, and then the Rosetta Stone. At first, my quests were easy, but quickly the museum filled and getting close to the Rosetta Stone was nearly impossible. 

Finally I texted AdventureMan “my feet hurt! I found a bench in the great court by the questions booth, you will find me there” and within minutes AdventureMan showed up saying “My feet hurt!” It had also become, as you can see, very crowded. Individuals, groups, entire bus-loads, families – it’s a Saturday morning and we are glad we got there early and saw what we wanted to see and now, we are glad to escape the hoards.

AdventureMan had done his homework and had found a restaurant in Chinatown with duck, and we walked there. They sent us upstairs, where we were crowded in with about a hundred Chinese families, mostly at large round tables, with a few tables for two wedged around the room. Hardly space to exit or enter. We loved it. We got the food we wanted, duck with pancakes and sliced onions and cucumber and sauce, and a bowl of spinach and garlic.

With all that good food, our feet stopped hurting and with some searching, we found the Big Bus Tour stop, had our paperwork verified and climbed on the bus for a two hour overview of London up high on the top of the bus. 

It dropped us off at our hotel and we staggered in, bathed again, and tumbled into bed. In about an hour we woke up, but decided to sleep another hour, then made ourselves get up, get dressed and go out walking some more to find a place to eat.

We walked to the Thames, to Westminster Abbey and discovered the clouds were disappearing, and a rich glow was lighting up the gilding on the Parliament buildings and Churches. It was glorious, and revived us. 


As it got late, we needed to eat to get our bodies on local time, but couldn’t find anything right. Then we came across the Blue Boar pub, liked the look of the menu and went in, only to figure out that we were in our own hotel again, just a part we hadn’t found before. I had a beetroot salad and mussels, and AdventureMan had a goat cheese quiche (we split the mussels) and we stumbled up to our room and fell into bed. We had walked almost 18K steps.

It was a great day. We had intended to take it easy, but all the exercise and staying up really helped us to get on local time. The nap helped; even so we decided to ditch our already-paid-for sunset whirl on the London Eye. Once we saw it, saw all the people enclosed in a tiny capsule that goes very very slowly around, it didn’t interest us. So much to do, so little time!

December 30, 2025 - Posted by intlxpatr | Adventure, British Isles Viking Jupiter, Travel | Big Red Bus, British Museum, Chinatown, London, London Eye, Westminster