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Day 2, Part 1: Sunday, November 4, 2001

The flight to Gatwick Airport lasted 8 hours, and England is 5 hours ahead of Philadelphia time. So we arrived in England about 9:30 a.m. London time. We had to retrieve our bags and go through customs. Then we just made it to the Gatwick Express platform -- a train which takes people from Gatwick Airport to the Victoria Station in London. The Train ride lasts about 30 minutes. Our part of the train was packed with people and luggage. We were able to talk to a man who lives near Los Angeles but who had lived for years in the Philadelphia area.

We walked from Victoria Station to our hotel, "Victoria Inn" on Belgrave Rd -- about 7-8 blocks. Brenda and I had been to Scotland the previous year. One thing to keep in mind when you are walking anywhere in England, Scotland, or Ireland is that, just like their driving, the English tend to walk on their left. Many of the Underground stations have instructions to use the stairs to the left to enter or exit the station -- though there were a few which have instructions to walk on the right -- like in North America. When walking on a sidewalk, we tried to stay to the left. There were those who insisted on going to our left, and I always wondered if these people were tourists from America. But I got the impression that Londoners are flexible. They must be used to the tourists forcing them to walk on the "wrong" side.

Walking in London was very confusing. We weren't sure we were going in the right direction. The roads are not in a grid. They are set up like any very old metropolis -- any direction, the least logical the better. Also, the numbering on the buildings is a little different. There are two numbers for each building. I heard that one number is for residents, and the other is for business. I'm not sure if this story is accurate. I can't imagine why two street numbers for each building is necessary. Eventually we found our hotel.

We introduced ourselves to the hotel clerk. She looked our names up, and she said that she had no record of our reservations. We had booked the whole thing through Expedia. Our flight arrangements came through without a hitch. We were even able to pick our seats on the planes over the internet. Expedia dropped the ball regarding our hotel reservations. She said that they had trouble with Expedia from time to time when it came to people's reservations. She said she would have to call Expedia to confirm our reservations. If she couldn't get through to Expedia, she would have to deny us a room. She would be trying to call a help desk which, if she had to call the US, would be operating at 5 a.m. Eastern time in the US. We were pretty concerned. She was able to get through, however, and everything seemed to be fine. Expedia faxed our confirmation to her, and she gave us a room.

After a short nap, we started out for Victoria Station again. Then we walked to Buckingham Palace. When we started out from the Victoria Inn, there were clouds in the sky. Brenda said she felt a few drops of rain. But by the time we arrived at Buckingham Palace (which is a very long walk), the sky was clear and the sun was shining. The temperature was in the 50s (fahrenheit) and there was little wind, so it was relatively comfortable. Because of this, the sky was very blue when I started photographing the statue that is in front of Buckingham Palace, and the "gold" appearance reflected the sun. Standing in front of Buckingham Palace in the brilliant sun just reinforced the feeling we had that it was all a dream. Just a few days before we were at work or in our little house. Now we were looking at Buckingham Palace. It just didn't feel real. Some adjustment was needed. In order to get the blue sky and the brilliance of the statue in the picture, I had to photograph the statue from slightly behind. The pictures I took of the front of the statue were dark and overpowered by the sun.

The gates in the above picture are by Buckingham Palace. There were guards standing there with guns, but for some reason I did not get them in this picture. Hyde Park was to the right, and the statue was behind us.

Gates to Hyde Park across from Buckingham Palace

The gates in the above picture are part of Hyde Park. If you look at the gates in the previous picture, the Hyde Park gates are to the right. They are purely decorative, since it is a simple matter to walk around them in order to enter the park -- which we did on another day.

We had been looking forward to our trip, because we had heard that the London premiere of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" would be on Sunday, November 4th. I had thought it would then be in general release, and we would be able to see the British version. That was not the case. The general release would be on November 16th after we got back to Philadelphia -- the same date as in the U.S. When we got back to the hotel, we found out that we could have gone to Leicester Square (pronounced Lester) to see the stars go into the premiere. Cher was there along with J.K. Rowling, the author. We could have kicked ourselves until we found out that you needed to have a ticket in order to see people go into the premiere. I guess that was an attempt at crowd control.

London and Cotswold pictures you have seen