Hello, London!

We woke up today and got one last breakfast from the Carrefour to enjoy in our posh suite. Then we got dressed, checked out, stashed our luggage with the concierge, and headed towards the palace. It was really pretty. Then we went to the Old Master's Museum for a couple of hours, to see some pretty art. We went into the old section, which specialized in Flemish artists. We also got to see some modern art, which of course was weird. There was one room with shiny busts of people with all kinds of antlers and stuff. There was also a really cool section in a stairwell that we would have missed, but a guy randomly started telling us all about it. These huge pieces were done completely with Bic pens, and it was four different sets of eyes: human, owl, beetle, and butterfly. Our new friend even figured out we were English speakers and changed languages, to tell us how to look through our cameras to see even more detail. No clue who he was, but he was a helpful fellow.

After the museum, we headed back towards the hotel and station, stopping at Carrefour to get some sandwiches for lunch. We were going to walk back to the park by the palace, but ended up eating in the station before we moseyed over to the Grand Place to spend our last Euro on chocolates… no point in carrying them to London . We went by the hotel for our luggage, then hit the metro to the Midi Station to catch the Eurostar to London! We had a bit of a DUH! Moment in line when the British side of customs asked us how long we are staying in the UK, and we answered 5 days, and she pointed out that Scotland is also in the UK.

The train was quite nice, and other than one brief stop just outside of Brussels, there were no delays. The Chunnel took about twenty minutes to pass through, then we were in England. At St. Pancras, we decided to walk across the street to King's Cross to visit platform 9 ¾, but the line there was insane! We decided to go find our flat instead, so we went and stood in line to buy our Oyster cards. The man told us that there is a strike on for Tuesday night and all day Wednesday, so that's delightful. How did we avoid strikes in France and hit one in the UK?!? He said we have to take the bus back to the station on Wednesday when we leave London. Good times!

We got on the tube, and it was a direct shot to Bow Road, the closest stop to our flat. We had a bit of trouble following the directions our host Peter gave us, because he said to pass the 24 hour garage, and we didn't realize that meant the Texaco station. We asked a police officer, and he wasn't sure, but Googled it for us, and told us to keep going until we saw the McDonald's. Who knew our landmarks would be McDonald's and Texaco? We finally found it, and Peter came down to let us in. He and his friend showed us all around and told us how everything worked. Peter told us that the strike may be averted before it actually starts, so I guess we will watch the news. The guys left us, and we sat around deciding if we wanted to go into town to a pub, or get food at the Tesco. We opted for Tesco, and walked down - bit of a scary walk because of the busy roads, but we did get to see the Olympic park, and what we think was the Olympic flame. Tesco was an adventure, since we were all hungry and couldn't agree on anything. We decided since it was not a pleasant walk, we would stock up for our stay. When we got back to the flat, we couldn't get the oven on, so we switched our meal to the pasta, and we'll inquire with Peter tomorrow. Other than the toilet being a little iffy, everything works great. We did laundry already, and are watching Netflix via Apple TV.

Tomorrow we pick up our London Pass, and start seeing the sites. The cubs have already started celebrating the 4th of July by serenading everyone with a rousing chorus of the Preamble song on the way back from the grocery.