Arriving in London

The flight to London was uneventful. Air Canada has still not refitted their transatlantic fleet. The inflight entertainment system consisted of an old RGB overhead projector throwing a dim beam of unfocused light on a white board.

Joshua and I had packed along our own entertainment for the 7-hour flight. Mine was the first two seasons of 24 ripped to AVIs on my ThinkPad X60 ultraportable. Joshua had a collection of DVDs for his MacBook Pro.

The MacBook Pro is a stunning laptop with an exceptional display. However, the battery life of the ThinkPad is much longer. I was able to get over 5 hours of playback on the X60. Joshua had to shut things down after 3 hours.

We landed in London on time at 9:05pm. It was quite a sight coming in to the city from the coast. I wish I could have taken some pictures.

I thought that we would spend a lot of time waiting to clear customs and the baggage claim. Not the case. The Passport Control was very quick and the luggage was basically ready as we cleared customs.

We took the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station. A quick, 15-minute trip on a very slick high-speed train. We arrived at Paddington Station around 9:45pm. The taxi from Paddington Station to Hotel Montcalm was fairly quick. There was a line for the taxis but the processing was quite fast. The taxis are a neat experience. Very different from taxis in Toronto.

We arrived to the hotel about 10:00pm. Almost an hour earlier than I had predicted. The room is quite dramatic. A two-storey suite with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a courtyard park. A spiral staircase leads from the first-floor living room to the sleeping level. Two washrooms.

Very nice.

We did take some time to walk around the area of the hotel. A great evening. The temperatures have been very mild for London. All of the trees and flowers are out. And it looks like the weather is going to be very nice for our stay here.

We did well by getting to bed early. Although it was 11:30pm London time, our bodies thought that it was 6:30pm. We were able to get a night”™s rest. We were up for our first day of touring at 6:30am London time.