Europe Trip Day 1 - Arrival in London

For my 50th birthday, my wife gave me a trip to London, Paris, and Italy. As soon as the kids were done with finals, we boarded a plane to Atlanta, where we transferred to a plane to London. We arrived at Heathrow on Friday morning, and took the express train to Paddington, and then the subway from there to Charing Cross. It wasn't easy getting our luggage across London, as we had packed heavy because we couldn't find any place to wash clothes near any of our hotels.

Our hotel in London was the St Giles. It wasn't great, the rooms were small, the beds were hard, and wi-fi was extra (and too costly for us), but my wife had booked a bargain package, so we weren't expecting four stars.

After a nap to get over jet lag, we took the tube down to Westminster. We walked around a bit and had some dinner, then boarded a night cruise along the Thames.

It was a little disappointing - it was too cold to stay up top and look at the scenery, and we couldn't see much down below.