Sunday, November 11, 2007

The British Invasion



Well, the day finally arrives! Gina and I catch our British Airways flight (BA 206) - how appropriate. The flight was uneventful (the best kind) and we arrived at London's Heathrow at 6:35 am. While in line for Passport control/immigration, we met Billie Applegate who was also flying over for the game. She is Sirius satellite radio's "Any NFL Game Anywhere Sweepstakes" winner. She's a Dolphins season ticket holder that also got to choose any game for every week this season - how cool is that! She's going to see 22 regular season NFL games plus a couple of NCAA games whenever there's a good one where she's traveling to.


Bhavesh (my UK sales guy) came to pick us up at the airport. Before leaving we grabbed some breakfast at Garfunkels in the airport. We then made a quick trip to High Street (first of many) to change some dollars into British Pounds at some ridiculous rate of 2.15 USD per 1 GBP. Ouch!

After checking into the Mayflower Hotel in the Earl's Court area of Kensington, we decided to check out the neighborhood. We ended up walking to the St. Mary's church and then a stroll through an expansive and very old Brompton Cemetary.


We then bought our Oyster Cards which gave us the unlimited opportunity to Mind The Gap in the Underground (the Tube). We rode the Piccadilly line to Piccadilly Circus area, then strolled around through Leicester and Trafalgar Square then down Whitehall past 10 Downing St. to Parliament. Big Ben looks great at night... all lit up. After going across Westminster Bridge and walking north again past the London Eye and then across on the Golden Jubilee Bridge back toward Leicester Square.

We found a "discount" show ticket outlet where we purchased tix for Saturday night's showing of Queen's We Will Rock You. We then grabbed some dinner at a Spaghetti House restaurant near Leicester Square before calling it a day.

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