Arrival in London

  London, United Kingdom
Monday, February 12, 2007

We landed in London not long after breakfast. We went through immigration and over to the Arrivals Hall where our private car was to pick us up for transfer to our hotel. No sign of the driver. Hmm. DH called the place, and they said they didn't have record of our reservation. Oh, brother, yet another hiccup in our travels, especially since we had prepaid for this transfer. He gave them the confirmation number..."Oh, there it is." Uh, huh. She told him it would take 30 minutes for a driver to get there. What? The driver didn't arrive until at least 45 minutes later. We were not happy to be starting our fun in London nearly an hour late, and considering I hadn't gotten much sleep, I was cranky to begin with.

We finally got to our hotel, the Mariott Kensingon. Apparently there needed to be some sort of wrench thrown in at every step of our travels on this trip...they had the wrong rate for our stay. After I set them straight, we got in our room, a very tiny little room. We went for a walk and found a cozy little pub called the Hereford Arms, the first good thing to happen to us on this trip! We had the nonsmoking section all to ourselves for awhile, and it was very peaceful. Just what we needed. Everyone was friendly that worked there. In fact, one of the servers was from San Francisco, which is not far from where I grew up, so it was fun talking to her. The timbered ceiling was uber cool and looked just as a traditional British pub should. Our first meal in London consisted of Fish & Chips and 1664 Ale of course--it's become a tradition for us. It was wonderful. Thank you Hereford Arms for bringing some civility back into this fantastic trip. :)