We're here

You definitely know you’re in England the minute you get on the underground. After we landed at London’s Heathrow Airport at about 12:30 GMT, flew through customs and retrieved our backpacks and one extra bag, we took the elevator down to get on the tube.
To get to the King’s Cross area where we are staying, you take the Piccadilly Line. On the tube the automated constantly lets passenger know which direction they are heading by calling out the last stop of the train.
The last stop on the Piccadilly Line heading east away from Heathrow?
Cockfosters.
What a classic English name that deserves a laugh.
Since our train ride took about an hour from the airport to King’s Cross station, we had quite a few.
At King’s Cross, we walked down a few side streets to find a place to stay for the next three nights.
For some reason, most of the budget hotels had no vacancies because of an influx of American and Canadian travelers. The many hotel managers we spoke with couldn’t explain and we have no idea why. (If you might have a guess, comment at the end of this post.)
We ended up finding a room for tonight easy enough, but have to switch to another hotel down the street for the next two nights. Our rooms are running 70 pounds a night, including breakfast.
Not terrible.
But I’m sure glad I’ve found some cheaper places to stay throughout our journey and that we’ve got free lodging with Sam’s family in May after we leave London.
After dropping our luggage off in our room and sending family a “we made it safe and sound” e-mail, we decided to take a walk around and headed down Euston Road looking for a bite to eat, being close to dinnertime.
We settled on Fuller’s Pub and had a pretty traditional dinner. Sam had bangers and mash and I had fish and chips, complemented by a half-pint and pint of Carlsberg beer.
It hit the spot.
We both probably could have gone to sleep after that, but fought fatigue and went to check out Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and St. James Park and Piccadilly Circus.
We spent a good two hours strolling down streets and taking a few pictures.
Hopefully that jaunt will get us closer to being on the right sleeping pattern.
We'll see