Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Here we are in London!

We made it to London without any complications...except a little bit of turbulence. I think a lot of the delegates did NOT sleep much, so we had a lot of tired people by the afternoon. It's 10:30 p.m. here now and we had room/bed checks an hour ago...many were already asleep!

When we arrived, we were met by our delegation manager, Sam. He's 22 years old...extremely bright...studying for a degree in psychology AND to be an airline pilot. We all like him - a lot. We boarded our coach and drove close to an hour to an area - or maybe it's a town - called Chislehurst. Cute & quaint. We had a nice italian lunch in a sweet little Italian restaurant. We have 2 vegan diets and everything is going great with that. Sam is vegetarian, so he's happy to have our vegans. He said it's actually easier to order more than one special diet.

From lunch we went to the Chislehurst Caves. It was fascinating! We walked through tunnels built by the Saxons, Romans, and Druids. Our clostrophobic delegates did just fine! These caves were also used as a bomb shelter for Londoners during WWII, even developing communities in them. We all totally enjoyed this. There is also a stage in the caves that was later used for concerts for Hendrix, Rolling Stones...and others! Here are some photos from the caves:
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We were there quite a while...from there we came to our hotel. By then it was dinner time - eating here at the hotel. We had people really beginning to fade by this time. Some went on to sleep, some stayed down in the lobby playing cards, and 13 of the delegates, along with Sam, Steve, Kristin, and I took off for a walk along the waterfront... an area in East London that has been and is being revitalized.

That's about it...we have a very busy day tomorrow. I'm excited because the delegates will get to ride the Underground...or the Tube... tomorrow when we return home.

I should be able to post some more tomorrow night. We're all doing well...and enjoying London!

REGARDING THE PHONE TREE....

Whenever you get a call, you only call the person directly under your name. If that person is not home, leave a message, and call the next person directly under that name.

2 comments:

cschorr said...

Thank you so much for your review of your first day in London! I especially enjoyed the part about the Vegans...really I enjoyed every word because it helps us to feel as if we are there with you, (oh ya, I have to go to work today though:). We wish you a safe and wonderful adventure today.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Judy!! Your description was wonderful.
Anne D