London, December 11

Left Phoenix at 1:00 pm on Thursday, arrived in London on Friday morning at around 10:00. Nice, uneventful flights over, but as we arrived at London, we were briefly put into a holding pattern due to weather. At one point the captain announced that there had also been a security incident aboard the plane and once we landed we would need to stay in our seats until the officials had come through. The woman sitting next to me said, mainly in jest, “oh great - if it's terrorists, NOW is when they'll do something”. It turned out a kid had been getting stoned in a restroom…

Rode the Piccadilly Tube line in to the hotel - about an hour ride. I got a kick out of a sign I saw several times showing a blurry stick figure falling on electrified train tracks, reading “Take care after drinking alcohol”.

I realized that in the last 48 hours I have only gotten about 7 hours sleep in 2 and 3 hour increments. I had gotten to bed late before we left Flagstaff, and had only slept in bits on the planes, travelling for 22 hours from home to the hotel.

My room wasn’t ready, but I checked in, left my bags, and went for a walk through the neighborhoods south of the hotel.

Ate lunch at O’Neill’s Irish Pub across the road from St. Pancras station (fronted by the huge, ornate Midland Grand Hotel, opened in 1874, now in the process of renovation). I noticed their window menu included Guiness battered fish and chips (with tartare sauce and mushy peas). I had been told by a friend that I had to have fish and chips while I was in England, so that was my first meal in the UK (thanks for the recommendation, John).

Midlands Grand Hotel facade from my hotel room:

After dinner, I checked into the hotel, then went to the British Library, right down the street. Beautiful building with a 5 story atrium surrounding the “King’s Library” – a floor to ceiling, glass-walled column filled with shelves of ancient books. There were amazing documents displayed in their “Treasures of the British Library” gallery: Gutenberg Bible, Magna Carta, music scores by Purcell, Handel, Mozart, Vaughan Williams, Elgar, some pages of Da Vinci’s notes, ancient maps, and examples of Asian printing from the 700’s – the earliest examples of the printed word. I was amazed by the detail in the Lindisfarne Gospels’ illuminations. There was even a display case full of handwritten lyrics by the Beatles. The Library has a tour of their conservation department on Thursday afternoons, so I’m planning on coming back for that.

The sun had set by this time (6:00 pm), but I walked around the area north of Euston Road for a while. Ended up walking through the beautiful St. Pancras Station, the main terminal for Eurostar services to Europe – an incredible Victorian building, filled with shoppes on the floor underneath the station.

I was exhausted, so I went to bed at 8:30 or 9, but woke up about 2:30 am due to jet lag and the excitement of being here… I booted up the laptop, saw Allen was online, so we chatted for a bit, then I worked on my plans for the next few days before I could get back to sleep.