Adventures in Europe; Day 1

Fraud, Museums, & Greek Food

Our trip to Europe started off a bit unsettling.  We were sitting at the airport waiting to board our flight when Drew's phone started blowing up.  It was our credit card company informing us that there had been a fraudulent charge on our card and that they were shutting it off.  Drew told them we were leaving the country in like 2 minutes, but that didn't phase them.  The card was closed.

I freaked.  I had literally brought my (now defunct) credit card, driver's license, and passport.  I had no other mode of payment.  Luckily, Drew had also brought a back-up credit card and our debit card.  It was a terrible feeling, but I tried not to take it as a bad omen.

The rest of our travels went fairly smoothly.  We flew through Chicago and then on to London.  We were even able to sleep through most of the 8 hour flight across the Atlantic.

When we arrived in London we navigated the Tube to the neighborhood of our hotel.  This is where we sort of hit a bump in the road as we could not figure out the streets of London to save our lives.  Seriously London, have you heard of a street sign?

Eventually we found the hotel.  Unfortunately, it was mid-morning London time and we were unable to check in to our room.  They did hold our bags for us so we were left to wonder the streets of London in our travel clothes, feeling more than a little gross. 

We grabbed lunch on a rooftop restaurant and then found our way to the British Library where I geeked out over Jane Austin's actual journal and Shakespeare's manuscripts.  After a necessary cup of coffee, we started a stroll to the British Museum.

Along the way we got our first taste of London parks as we made our way through Russel Square.

 

"In America, these are just homeless people." -Drew

Seriously, any time you hit green space in London, it was covered with all kinds of people, half dressed, just hanging out.  There were kids, business people, people with dogs, people smoking, people drinking, people napping.  What are they all doing here?

Londoners ♥ napping in parks.

We finally made it to the British museum where we looked at lots of old stuff.  By this point jet lag was making us pretty unenthusiastic museum-goers.

The British Museum.  And me, needing to brush my teeth.

At least we were dressed normally on the plane and hadn't worn sweats or something.  That would have made me feel like a huge tool while walking around London.

The British are coming!

Finally we were able to check in to our hotel.  After cleaning up, we decided to do a little investigating of the neighborhood by doing a self-guided walking tour found in our guide book.  If you are ever going to Europe, Rick Steve's books are an absolute must!  They give fantastic information, but they also provide all kinds of self-guided walking tours of different areas within the city.  The one we took started at London Bridge and guided us past all kinds of historical points along the Thames.  It was a really cool way to get to know the area.

Not to mention, our walk took us by some great eateries!  The weather was amazing and there were tons of people out.  We chose a Greek restaurant and decided to wait the 30 minutes they told us it would take for a table on the patio to open up.  We waited at the bar and I enjoyed a nice Greek beer.

The Greek Bud Light.

Part of the reason we chose this particular restaurant was that the menu clearly marked vegetarian and gluten free choices.  Drew recently had some blood work done that revealed he has an intolerance to gluten and dairy, among other things*. 

The Real Greek... in London.

The food was great.  It was served tapas-style so we both ordered a couple of different plates; vegetarian for me (eggplant & falafel), gluten/dairy free for Drew (grilled kalemari & chicken wings).


Tower of Tapas.

 

The only problem with dinner; in the 30 minutes it took for a table to open up on the patio the sun had gone down and London turned cold.  I mean, the temperature had to have dropped 20 degrees in that time.  We were freezing!  So we scarfed our food down and headed back to the hotel for some much needed beauty sleep.

 

In addition to tales of our adventures, I'll also be sharing lessons we learned along the way... in case you decide to make the jump across the pond.  Learn from our mistakes!

 

Lessons Learned:

1. Bring a backup credit card. 

2. Wear street acceptable clothing on the plane because you will be arriving way early for check-in.  Maybe stick some mouthwash in your purse... for everyone's sake.

3. When the sun goes down in London, stay the hell indoors.

 

*Yes I realize we will never be invited to another dinner party as long as we live.