Day 14: Kiev to London

Dearest Alex,

We left Kiev this morning and flew to London. It was an easy flight, on time, and without any delays. When we got to London, we had booked a bus service to get into London since the airport we flew into (Gatwick) was so far out. We were able to get on an earlier bus without any problems, but here the problems ended. The bus left us off in West London, nowhere near Central London like we thought. There were no taxis around and we were still a ways from the hotel. Then it started to rain!

We walked a few blocks to a tube station and bought tickets for the tube, but then it was a workout muscling all of our suitcases up and down the stairs and onto the train - in the rain - since it was an outside station. We were able to figure out where we were going, dismayed to find out there was a change of line - so more muscling bags up and down stairs and escalators, finally to arrive at our stop. Now the hotel was actually an apartment service that rented out apartments. So we didn’t realize this and spent an hour walking around (in the rain and wind now) trying to find it. We finally found the reception desk only to be told that the apartment was not in the vicinity - about a 15 minute walk away. So, at this point (with continued rain and wind) we decided to catch a taxi. The taxi driver spent 15 minutes driving around and finally said, “Here it is - it is down this walkway.” So we got out only to discover that indeed the taxi driver did NOT know where the apartment was and had dropped us off near it but without knowing exactly. The rain had stopped during the ride thank goodness, but we spent the next 30 minutes wandering around (of course there was no one else around) trying to find the apartment building. We finally found it, just in time, as G3 had a business meeting that he had to get to.

Amanda and I relaxed and then when there was a break in the rain, we ran out to a local market to get some food. Of course the moment we stepped out of the apartment building - it started raining - hard! But we got back ok and then flipped on BBC only to find G4’s favorite show, Top Gear, on. We had fun watching TV and then when G4 got back at about 7:30pm, we had dinner.

All in all a really trying day! But we are anxious to start sightseeing tomorrow!

Love,

Bethany, G3, G4, & Amanda