On to London

To London, England -- Day 1

We had a super early morning today with alarms set for 4:45 a.m. It turns out, the Rygge airport is not easy to get to by public transport. We’d looked into renting a car but were scared off by the prices, so, instead, Cam ordered a taxi for the 35 min ride -- 950 kronor (112 bucks).

The taxi ride to the airport, 2 hour Ryan Air flight to Stansted, 45 minute Airport Express train to Liverpool station, 20 minute Underground train on the Circle Line, and 15 minute walk along Ladbroke road were all we needed to get to our Air BnB flat on the west side of London.

They kids were excited to finally be in a country where they speak English. It was therefore ironic that on the train ride in, none of the three groups of passengers sitting around us were actually speaking English. Apparently, 25% of all Britons today were born in another country, which was believable looking around town.

Train into London

First ride on the Underground

Home Sweet Home

Our good friends from the Bay Area, Mike and Ely and their 2 year old son Cole, arrived around 1:30.  How fun to see them after three months away.  We’ll get three nights in London and three nights in Paris before they need to return.

They were understandably pretty beat after their red eye flight from California. Dex pulled out a London-version Monopoly game and somehow cajoled us all into playing. Eventually it was only Mike and Dex who, after a good hour and half, finally decided to call it a tie. Mike powered through and accompanied us to a nearby pub restaurant for dinner, giving us some much needed time to catch up.