A Quick Tour Of London

Here is the update for London. We have very limited Internet connection in Norway at this time, so more updates may be delayed. Have been to Eidfjord, Ålesund, and Geiringerfjord so far. Today is our last stop, in Bergen, with an 'at sea' day tomorrow before arriving back in Dover on Saturday.

If this is England there must be another queue to stand in. Our flight arrived at London-Gatwick airport at 11:15 Andy after waiting one and a half hours for passport control we made the Gatwick Express to Victoria Station. It was a 30 minute ride and a walk across the street to our hotel. We checked in and headed back out to see some of the Olympic Park. After waiting 30 minutes in the queue to get a day pass for the underground we went to the Stratford station. You can't get into the park, but there was a good view from the 3rd floor of the John Lewis department store, where you could also buy Olympic souvenirs.

This is a part of Olympic Park. The aquatic center is on the left and The Orbit is the taller structure on the right. The CEO of the company Aaron works for, Arcelor-Mittal, donated the steel and much of the money to build it. We could see part of the Olympic stadium, but it was hard to get a good sense of the size and design. It will be interesting to see better views during TV coverage of the Olympics, which start July 27.

A closer view. You can see the observation level near the top.

Mike from ground level.

We walked along the Thames for a view of the Olympic rings that were just erected the other day on the bridge.

This is from a little closer. You can see the rings a lot better in this picture.

Roxanne outside the Tower of London. I think she is is done with walking across the bridges, so we found the nearest underground station to Westminster.

We stopped at Big Ben and Parliament next.

Westminster Abbey on the left, I think part of Parliament in the distance on the right, and my beautiful Wife in the center.

We went by Buckingham Palace, too.

It is never a bad time for a Krispy Kreme donut.

Roxanne and her new best friend, Elizabeth.

Our last supper in London - an Indian restaurant. Roxanne really enjoyed a change from all that herring, chicken tikki bhanhai prepared tandori style. Mike had the chicken vindaloo, which was very hot, but very good. We shared onion and garlic nan (flat bread), which always helps with the really spicy food.