Arrival in London

So as the plane was winging its way toward London, most folks were sleeping, or trying to. It was hard to sleep with the excitement of what was to come. As I looked out the window of the plane, I saw the green of Ireland. Our body clock might have been 2am, but it was around 7am in London. The plane started its descent, and we were going through the typical pea soup fog. You couldn't see a thing. Hopefully, the pilot could. We landed at Heathrow Airport. The same airport that The Beatles had landed years before to screaming fans. We were there, but no one was screaming. Everyone was too tired to scream. After a long wait, we got a bus to take us to our hotel in London. The hotel was the Mount Royal near Hyde Park. It was in a great location, although the hotel itself was not four-star. It kind of reminded us of one from World War II that had not quite been remodeled. Everyone paired off for their rooms. Sandra and Talula, Judy and Sha, and others. I was with Mr. Vivian, since we were the only males. I thought I knew him, but I found he had a real phobia of germs, and he washed his hands constantly. He suggested we take naps, due to the jet lag, but I wanted to go out. I wanted to get something to eat, so I went into a restaurant near the hotel and ordered a grilled cheese sandwich. They didn't know what that was. I tried to explain to toast bread with cheese in between. They tried to do it, but it ended up more like a quiche. We had a communication problem. That would not be the only time. After leaving there, I thought I would try out my British accent that I had developed during a play a few months back. Things were going pretty well. Then a man came up to me. It was obvious he was an American like me. He asked me where the US Embassy was. Of course, I didn't know. I had landed just a few hours before. So, I told him in my British accent where to go--down three blocks and take a left. He asked me if I was an American. I told him no, but I had spent some time there, but was born in Kent. He bought it. I realized two things then. First, my British accent wasn't pure. Second, I sent the guy in the opposite direction. So, if he is reading this, I'm sorry. After walking around the area and taking in the ambience, I went back to the hotel. Our supper consisted of bean soup and some other stuff. We found that you were not supposed to drink anything until after the meal, no matter how hot it was. That was challenging. Thank goodness for crackers. After supper, the younger ones (me, Sandra, Talula, Judy and Sha) went for a walk. It was misting, raining and foggy, but it didn't seem to matter. We found a mall, but it was closed. We all decided that we would stick together, since our ages were so far removed than the majority of the others in our group. We also decided that we would try and discover other places that were not on our tour, so that we could get the feel of what each city had to offer. We wanted to have fun, but we didn't realize that it would get us in trouble later on.