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LONDON - JUNE 1, 2000

by Judy Sadler

We arrived at Heathrow Airport in London at about 10 AM (4 AM CST)
on Thursday, June 1, nineteen hours after departing from Grove the previous day at 9 AM (3 PM in the UK). We encountered a small problem in that Melissa's and my luggage did not appear on the baggage carousel. Weary and rumpled, we began the process of registering our loss with the airlines. We were told that they frankly didn't know where our bags were, and so we left the name, phone number and address of our hotel, got the phone number of the airlines and proceeded to find transportation to our Hotel. There were no EF representatives in the great throng of Tour Guides, and so we found a place in the airport to broadcast a page. An EF Tour representative immediately appeared and put our weary bones into a taxi, sending us off to see a rather dingy and disappointing part of London. When we finally arrived at the Lily Hotel in Earl's Court, we were greeted by our tour Guide who was to spend the next ten days with us. She graciously welcomed us, paid our cab, and told us that we would not be able to get into our rooms for several hours. Happily, she was wrong, and we were all able to clean up a bit before departing on the walking tour that began at 2 PM. And here you can see a greatly refreshed Melaine and Michelle in the lobby of the Lily hotel. The view of the rear is our beloved Tour Guide, Suzy Madge. It was then that we learned that our intrepid J.D. had disappeared (presumably along with our luggage) into airline never-never land and had not arrived as planned. Nancy graciously agreed to wait for him so that the rest of us could enjoy the walking tour. You can see that the wait was long and arduous. And so, at 2 PM we began our walking tour of London (without Nancy, J.D., and two pieces of luggage). Suzy walked us to walk to the underground (subway to those of us in the US) where we were given a short course in navigating that wonderful underground system. It seemed to be fairly easy to understand, and we spent lots of interesting time zipping around under the City of London. We learned that "Way Out" meant "Exit" and that when we heard the recording say "Mind the Gap" it meant that we weren't to step into the small space between the underground train and the station landing. Of course, none of our group were actually thin enough to do this. We had only one mishap on our underground travels - and that was the next night - we exited from the underground at Earl's Court as usual (we thought) and found ourselves in a bar district instead of the expected residential district. It was there we learned that the underground had more than one exit. After a few trials and errors, we found somebody that spoke English and made it safely and wearily back to the Lily.

Now, back to that first day in London. At the end of our first English Underground ride, we exited in Picadilly Circus It was like traveling to another world. The throngs of people and the wonderful sights were almost more than we could take in. Our first view was of this wonderful fountain featuring the statue of Eros. The fountain is made of aluminum and was given by the Earl of Shaftsbury. And our first order of business was to change our American Dollars into English Pounds. And so began the very confusing experience of converting in our heads the currencies of three European countries into Dollars. Our tour that afternoon took us first to Trafalgar Square. And in the center of Trafalgar Square was the magnificent monument to Lord Nelson. It was from Trafalgar Square that we caught our first sight of Big Ben. Way back there to the left of the monument to Lord Nelson We later got a better picture of Big Ben. By the way, Big Ben is the name of the bell in the bell tower - not the name of the clock. The fountains were unbelievably magnificent - and Trafalgar Square was filled with people and pigeons enjoying the bright sunny day in London. Judy in the white sweater on the right. Melaine and Michelle Melissa, Michelle, and Melaine

Next we were led by Suzy to Covent Garden, which is an outdoor market. Where we were entertained by street performers. It was here that the original Punch and Judy shows were performed in the building with the balcony to the right in this picture. If you look closely, I think that's Melissa, Michelle, and Melaine sitting on the curb across the street. And then we ended our incredible afternoon with a short tour of Leicester Park. Where we were entertained by more street performers. It was here in Leicester park that we discovered the wonderful "living statues" of London All the places we visited this day were very close together, and we were able to easily walk to all of them. Then home we went on the underground to dine at the Lily. It was while we were dining that our intrepid team member, J.D., finally arrived from Gatwick Airport in another very distant part of London. He told a tall tale of refusing to pay $120 for a cab ride and finding his way to the hotel (at the tender age of 17) by riding a train into London. He was awarded the pathfinder award, and everyone made sure they were with either J.D. or Suzy when they got into a situation that might find them lost in a foreign land. And before we finally went to bed that night, our prodigal luggage arrived - it seems it had been at Heathrow all along, but refused to get on the luggage carousel. And so .... we were assembled - our group added to the other small groups totaled 37 in all. We were stoked, but also tired and almost asleep before our heads hit the pillows in our rather cramped and shabby, and wonderful hotel rooms. We slept with the windows opened even though there were no screens; and were lulled to sleep by the sounds of London traffic (and I think perhaps a few British drunks).


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