Flying out of Boston, we arrived in London's Heathrow somewhere around 9 pm or so. (Keep in mind that I'm writing this whole thing in almost a year's hindsight). Being the unorganized relatives we are, we flew into London blindly, knowing nothing about the city, what direction to walk in, where we were going to stay, nothing.
With Let's Go in hand (the default college kids' guide to all of Europe) we walked south eastern London looking for a place to stay. Mind you, walking is no easy task with 24 days worth of gear strapped to your back.
Anyway, I could give you a play by play of our tour of the great city, but what fun would that be? Sure we saw Big Ben, Parliament ("Hey kids! Big Ben. Parliament."), London Bridge, blah, blah, blah but we also made it to a few clubs and visited Sega World (a crazy arcade where stupid tourists like ourselves are brainwashed into thinking that the English pound, $1.70, is equivalent to the American $0.25 piece - I spent about 30 bucks playing Sonic Spinball).
We did all the sight-seey stuff via a red double decker bus (Michelle's idea). Buses that run every 15 minutes will come and take you to landmark after landmark. We were on that stupid bus for 6 or 7 hours. Being the adventurous super-tourists we were (inexperienced, too) we saw everything on the first day, shot more than a roll of film each, and we just beat by the end of the day.
We later learned how to the whole sightseeing ordeal needs to be tackled - over the course of a few lazy days. Of course, with only 24 days to see half a continent that's not really an option. We were in London for (I think) four days, including the road trip we took outside the city to Stonehenge (just a pile of rocks that you can't touch) and Bath (random city).
Michelle and I got along pretty well during our days in London. We stuffed our faces with Burger King (International Chicken Sandwiches = the "New Yorker") and other American-like food. We also made sure to please my other cousin Paul (Michelle's brother) by visiting the only "must see" museum in London: London Dungeon. What a waste of time - don't go unless you're into cheesy wax statues of imprisoned people. Whatever.
Anyway, London was great. I'd go back in a second. But, it was time to move on so we jumped on the Chunnel (underground super train) for a quick stop in Brussels and then onto Amsterdam.
Next - on to Amsterdam.