This ... is London.

It's 5:30 a.m. I've just slept for 10 hours and I'm wide awake. Wonderful.

Highlights from the nine-hour flight:

The TV monitors in the backs of the seats. It's nice to be able to choose what you want to watch. Spent some quality time with "Good Night and Good Luck." Makes me proud to be an alumnus of the same university (technically it was a state college then) as Edward R. Murrow.

A guy on the flight passed out/fainted in the aisle near me at about hour four. According to a guy sitting next to me, the prostrate passenger had taken some NyQuil to help make the flight a little easier. I was zoned out, wearing the complimentary British Airways sleep mask and plugged into my iPod when I felt the big thud. I thought maybe a cargo door had blown off. Needless to say I didn't remove the sleep mask until my mother jabbed me in the arm.

Highlights from the ground:
Heathrow Airport is very big. It was about a 15-minute walk from the gate to passport control where we waited for about a half-hour in a serpentine queue (picking up the lingo, eh?). After another half-hour wait for the shuttle bus to the hotel, we got a complete tour of the airport as we drove from Terminal 4 (the international terminal) to terminal 1,2,3.

London traffic is not as bad as Seattle., at least in the middle of the afternoon. It took about a half-hour to get from the airport to the hotel.

The rooms at the K+K Hotel George are quite small, which is not suprising for a large city. But the room size did force us to change our plans. Originally, I was to stay in the same room as my sister and my cousin. But I ended up getting my own room which is about double the size of a queen size bed (not including the bathroom).

Plan for Wednesday:

Riding the Tube into the center (centre?) city.
Visit the Tate Modern and Tate Britain museums (riding a boat down the Thames between the two).
Eating something (haven't since we landed).
Visiting Harrod's department store (but that might have to wait for Thursday).
And a lot of walking around.

I'll be posting my own photos when I get back.