It's been 36 hours since we landed at the London Gatwick airport, and I don't know if it's the jet lag, the accidental overdose of Ambien (sleep-deprivation will do that to you), or the constant bombardment of famous British icons left and right, that it feels more like we're dreaming about being in London rather than actually being here.
To prove that we're actually here, we invite you to join us on a photo tour below. I think you'll agree that it's pretty crazy that we've seen as much as we did in the past day and a half, but at this point my blistered feet will probably put us on a more reasonable pace.
Oh, and before we show you around, I have a few observations that I thought was quite astute to share with you about Londoners (I figure Londoners are probably as representative as British as New Yorkers are to Americans, so I'm gonna stick to the term Londoners):
- Londoners are unpexpectedly polite, and I say this to no degree of sarcasm whatsoever. You wouldn't expect a stranger in New York to offer you her umbrella when it's raining, would you?
- Men here seem to wear their hair quite long but their ties quite short (especially the latter is quite puzzling)
- All women wear stilletos and yet can run like a gazelle even on cobblestone streets
- Bobs (like Victoria Beckham's) with extreme blonde highlights seem to be the #1 hairstyle for women (and even some men)
- The only people that don't sprint in a Tube station are either seniors or the disabled (or tourists like us)
First glimpse of British soil from our little charter flight (which was surprisingly uneventful)
Transferring at Victoria Station from Gatwick Express to Tube
Riding Tube with the Oyster Card like the locals, ha!
Did we get onto the wrong Tube line... again?
Maybe we would stick with the double-decker Routemaster (that's the wrong route, dude...)
The area we're staying in: the very cute Marylebone
Jetlagging through our anniversary dinner
Gallery-hopping: National Gallery, free= definitely worth a visit
Trafalgar Square under a gloomy sky (at least it's not raining)
Big Ben- the first sight that comes to my mind when I think of London- now smack dab in front of me, quite overwhelming
Tower Bridge, which I always thought was the London Bridge, NOT
Throngs of tourists being swallowed by the Tower of London