I am not good at sleeping on planes. After the horrible events in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington DC a number of years ago I simply stopped sleeping on planes. I don't feel nervous or uncomfortable but, at best, I fitfully drop in and out of a light doze. The flight from O'Hare to Heathrow was no different. I perhaps got two or three hours of bad sleep.

When we arrived in London, customs and immigration was easy. The line was short and the questions quite concise. We then headed to our hotel--premier travel inn--located close to the airport. We got into our room and washed up and changed then headed down to the coffee shop for sandwiches. After that we went to a local mobile shop and bought the cheapest handset and a SIM and loaded on 6 pounds of talk time. We crossed a pretty neat bridge on the way that was built in 1776. It was widened in 1915. There was a family of ducks hanging out in the water.

Back to the hotel where most of us hit the wall and went to sleep for about an hour. Our daughter just coloured while watching the Wizard of Oz.

We chose to make the evening a simple one--dinner in the hotel--then back up to the room to start planning our next two weeks. Our first 11 hours were good ones all-be-it not exciting. I guess that's what you want at the beginning of a vacation.

The Flickr set will fatten out as I have a chance to upload pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewsaunders/sets/72157601221187442/

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