I spent all of last week in London. I got sent on a short notice trip to help with some pre-award survey's for some new fuel contracts. I've always loved London from the time we were stationed in England, so I didn't mind going on short notice. My hotel was across the street from Hyde Park. It was right above the tube stop. Of course I didn't realize it was literally right above the tube stop. So when I got off the tube, I starting walking down Bayswater road in the direction I thought the hotel was. I went as far enough to be sure it wasn't in that direction, and then went back up Bayswater, past the tube stop and down the road a little further. Still no Hilton Hotel. I knew the hotel was on Bayswater Road, but being a man I wasn't about to ask for directions. I had viewed it on google maps, I knew the hotel had to be close by the Queensway tube station. So back up Bayswater Road I trudged to get back to the tubs station. This time I looked up and say "Hilton" above the tube station. I sighed in relief and checked it. Once I had my room I went in search of food and found paradise. My hotel sat on the corner of Bayswater Road and Queensway. Walking down Queensway I found almost any culture or cusine I could ask for. Chinese, Japanses, Indian, Persian, Brazillian, Lebanese, Italian. I settled on a little Russian cafe in the Queesway market. I had some stuffed cabbage rolls that were tasty in deed. I ate a different country ever night. London is amazingly diverse. On my strolls through Hyde Park I heard foreign language being spoken more often than English. Now not everything about London is great. Traffic is horrible. I didn't get a car since I could use the tube to get to the office and a train to and from the airport. But since I had to ride around with a coworker to go do the job I got to experience several long traffic queues. On Friday I took the office vehicle and drove to the Air Force bases. When traffice is good it takes about 90 minutes. I left my self about four hours to get back and get to the airport. I needed every minute because traffic was so backed up. If lived in London I would rarely drive. In all it was good trip, and I hope to go back with Lyn this summer and enjoy some straight vacation time there instead of trying to smush in some sight seeing after work. All in all I had a lovely time of it! There are three blog entries that follow that are pictures of my sight seeing efforts. It was amazing how many different places I could get to in 20 minutes that were grand sites to see.
