London!

*Insert thoroughly British opening that John Oliver would mock in "And Now, This."

We made it!  Guys, the travel was so easy!  And I can say that, having given basically zero thought to the logistics for this trip post-flight purchase.  Yesterday, we flew from Charlotte to Philadelphia, had a better-than-par dinner at a Mediterranean place at PHL, and made it to our gate with plenty of time to spare.  

Not a great picture, but we're on our way!

We did end up sitting on the runway for an hour or so, due to PHL congestion, but it gave me time to watch A Wrinkle in Time (in 8-10 minute increments, around departure "updates" from our captain).  The flight was smooth, Troy and I both slept at least a little, and we touched down at Heathrow around 9:45 AM.  Even customs was easy!  We bought fast train tickets from the guy selling them at the bottom of the escalator, walked onto the train, and made it to our stop approximately 15 minutes later, from which our hotel is about a block away, and we were able to check in when we arrived.

We're staying near Paddington Station, so after cleaning up a bit, we decided to explore Kensington Park/Palace, Hyde Park, and then head over to Buckingham Palace.  Really, this was a bid to keep us out of our hotel room and walking around, so that we didn't fall asleep for six hours and throw off our internal clocks even more.  With that as our established mission, Success!

Kensington Palace, across the pond

We ended up doing a big chunk of the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk, which, combined with the destinations listed earlier, led us to walk more than ten miles in around three and a half hours.  The weather was gorgeous and breezy, and the parks were very pleasant, though I do have a few lessons learned.  Lesson learned the first: if you start the walk by saying, "I'll probably regret wearing flip flops," stop and change your shoes.  Lesson learned the second: overcast and breezy does not exclude sunburns for me (though it does for Troy, so he has different lessons learned - go figure).  But, the parks and gardens were lovely, and Buckingham Palace is very... stately.

I will note that we went into the Buckingham Palace gift shop (though it's called something classier than that).  I was... um... underwhelmed by some of the "official" royal wedding gear/new royal baby designs.  I did consider purchasing some royal monogram seersucker pajamas for #babyboynoyes, but the smallest available size was 4-5 years, and #babyboynoyes may have pajama preferences by then.  Who can say? 

Made it to Buckingham Palace! (aka, last stop before down time)

Ultimately, we did come back to the hotel for a mid-length nap before dinner.  Obviously, we went to a British pub for dinner, and equally obviously, ate meat pies and fish and chips.  Real talk - it was a pretty much perfect way to end our transition day.  Now we're back and planning for tomorrow, which will likely include several of the attractions along the Thames, and maybe a show tomorrow night.  Troy is pushing for the puppet theater river cruise... we'll see.  

More tomorrow!