We arrived safely in London last night. Well, yesterday afternoon. We took the Tube to our hotel, which is right by Stamford Bridge, which is where Jaime's most favorite soccer team in the whole plays. Unfortunatley, there was not a game while we were there, but was still really cool to be right at the stadium. It was a direct flight to London, but definitely still exhausting, and was getting dark as we got to our hotel. So we checked in, and walked around to find a place to eat. Luckily, there was a place at the airport where we could store our big bag, so only had our backpacks with us. London has really amazing Indian Food, so our goal was to find a good restaurant, and we did just that! It really hit the spot after a long day of travelling. It was a little cold so after that I got some hot chocolate at a local coffee shop for the walk back to our hotel. We slept very well.

Now, today was quite the day. We took the Tube to many places, but oh boy, did we walk. 28,000 steps to be exact. First, we woke up at about 8:30am (now remember we are now 8 hours later from California Time, so we were still a bit tired, even though we slept well) and walked the short walk to the Chelsea Stadium and did a Stadium viewing. Unfortunatley, there were no tours that day, because there was a game later that afternoon (too close to our flight for us to watch it) but we did get to go in and take photos, which was super awesome for Jaime because he is such a big fan. There was a guide who also let us know a bit about the history and the stadium and the team.

Just to put it in perspective, the soccer team Chelsea is to Jaime what Buffy is to me, so this was a very big deal for him, and I was so glad we got to at least go into the stadium, because even thought his was Jaime's third time in London, it was his first time being able to do that. We got some great pics.

Then we headed into the city to see all the sites. And I mean all the sites. We went to Buckingham Palace, Picadilly Circus, walked across the Tower Bridge, and also went to the Parliament Building / Big Ben. (Which was under major construction - more on that later).

So on our way to the Tower Bridge, we bought a Tube ticket because the subway in London is just so easy to use, and it of course gets you to your destination quickly, and is fairly cheap as far as transportation goes. You just type your destination in the machine, and it gives you a ticket to exactly where you need to go, even if you have to switch lines. But us, not being locals did not notice the signs that the exact line and stop we needed to get on to get to the Tower Bridge was under construction, which threw us off quite a bit when we went to transfer lines and our subway line was closed! But we asked for help, and found an alternate route which caused a LOT more walking, but hey, it was all good because we found this INCREDIBLE British pub that had great local beer AND vegan fish and chips. (And regular for Jaime of course) Let me tell you, drinking that beer and eating that lunch felt AMAZING after our debacle with trying to get to the damn bridge. Which we still weren't at by the way, but we could see it from the pub, so we knew where we needed to go.

We got to the bridge and walked across it, got some awesome pics, and ate some really tasty warm carmelized almonds that the street vendors sold. We then walked, yes walked to the Parlaiment Building, which is where Big Ben is. A worker at the Pub told us it was under construction, but we didn't think it was all that big of a deal. But the whole dang thing was being worked on! Scaffolding all over, you could barely tell Big Ben was what is was. And it will be like this until 2021! It was really not that big of a deal, since both Jaime and I have been to London before, just never together. It was just a bit of a let down because that photo in front of Parliament is a pretty iconic photo op which we wanted together, so after our long day, and subway closures, and over 20,000 steps, it was a little disheartening. But it was all good.

We then caught the Tube to the airport to catch our flight to Iceland! Which of course was another ordeal...

We got to the aiport in plenty of time. We flew out of Heathrow which is really big. When we landed, we dropped our big checked bag off in storage in Terminal 3, where we landed. But of course, nothing is ever that simple, and our flight was leaving out of Terminal 2. That maybe doesn't sound as problematic as it was, but let me explain. When you get off the Tube, there are clear directions (its not hard, just far) to each terminal. We got halfway to Terminal 2 when I looked at our receipt for our checked luggage and realized our bag was back in Terminal 3. These are in complete, far, opposite directions of one another. And I mean, several walkways that are so long, they even have those moving sidewalk things. So we turned around, got our bag, (of course there was a line) and went BACK to Terminal 2. We checked in for the flight, nice and easy, dropped off our bag, and headed to our gate.

Although, it would have been nice if we knew what gate. It just said to "Check Monitors." So we grabbed a light dinner from one of the shops (sandwhiches and chips, or 'crisps' as they say in London) and watched for our gate to be posted, which it said it would be around 7:30pm. Our flight was leaving at 8:30pm. Cool, got lots of time. 7:30pm rolls around, no gate. It's almost 8pm, still not gate posted. We are starting to get worried, because we hired a driver to pick us up and drive us to our hotel, so would have to contact him if we were late, but no notifications, nobody at Iceland Air Customer Service, and no gate info, so we don't even know where to go! Finally at like 8:20pm, the gate is posted and wouldn't you know it, it is at the gates that are a 20 minute walk from where we were in the main terminal. So we walk, a really long way, more moving sidewalks, more escalators, a mob of people all on the same flight all scurrying along with us to make it. Only to make it here and find out the bloody flight was delayed for 45 minutes. Ok, still no problem, we are safe at the gate, the flight didn't leave without us, and the free wifi allowed me to email our driver and let him know of the delay, which he confirmed he got the message. When we got to Passport Control when we landed, we were the only Non-EU / Non-Icelanders, so we got to go right through! No line!

All and all it was a great day, yes everything worked out fine, but it was a little stressful with all the transportation / gate / flight / terminal confusion. But we boarded our flight, and got to Reykjavik safe and sound. We hired a private driver which was pricey, but definitely worth it as we were brought straight to our Hotel - Hotel Island. With the flight delay, and 45 minute drive to our hotel (which would have been longer if we took a shuttle because they stop at multiple hotels) it was after 1am at this point, and we headed straight to bed. Tomorrow, bright and early our shuttle is coming at 7am to pick us up and bring us to the Blue Lagoon for our first Iceland experience. Can't wait!