London, Day 1/2

We have arrived safe and sound in London and have already been enjoying the sights. Our trip began with our friends driving us into Chicago and dropping us off with plenty of time to spare at the O'Hare Airport. We checked in, received our boarding passes and went to the United boarding gate. With only a few minutes before boarding they asked for volunteers to go on a flight 45 minutes later on British Airways. Megan and I volunteered and at the last minute they sent us off to British Airways. Well, when we arrived at British Airways they denied us seats and sent us back to United. Now we had no boarding passes and no flights for the evening. We went to the only United personnel we could find, the baggage claim office. There we met a wonderful woman who was kind enough to call the supervisor of our original flight. Luckily, our original flight was delayed as the plane was broken! They decided to replace the plane with a plane that was 10 seats larger. They gave us seats in the Business Class seats and we were off (at 1 AM CDT). BTW, business class is one of the best ways to fly international red eye flights. We arrived shortly after 1 PM in London.

We reclaimed our bags and took the Tube to Trafalgar Square where our hotel was. There was a large St. Patricks Day celebration on the square and we had to navigate through the sea of people to our hotel. Once there we cleaned up and got ready to go out for dinner. We began walking up the streets near our hotel and decided on a pub, the Brewmaster. Megan and I ordered some good food and enjoyed the cozy pub. We then took the tube to the London Eye, a large ride that took us high into the evening sky for great views of the London skyline. We are tired after just this half day and are going to get a good night's rest to prepare for another busy day tomorrow.

Pictures: