EIS – Irish Eyes & Scottish Brogue (Day 1-2)

EIS – Irish Eyes & Scottish Brogue (Day 1 & 2)

(8/19/2010) EIS –England, Ireland and Scotland: We flew out of Orlando, FL (5:30 pm on 8/18) on a non-stop flight to Gatwick, London, England arriving around 06:30 am London time (8/19). An eight hour flight during which Carmen and I watched 3 movies (each) had a dinner and breakfast.

After passing through immigration, we met our private driver holding a sign with our name on it, how special. It took us almost 2 hours to get to the hotel by car! After arriving at the hotel, the Kensington Close, at 9:00 in the morning, we dropped off our bags since the rooms will not be ready until about 2:00 pm, and then strolled around the Kensington area.

The architecture of some of the buildings is pretty neat, as you can see from the pictures. We stopped at St Mary Abbots Church. It looks as though they built the walls over grave sites because the stones were right up against the wall.

We also walked through Kensington Gardens, an extensive park, and saw the Kensington Palace, the Albert Memorial, the Royal Albert Hall (across the street from the Memorial) and Diana’s memorial fountain. During the walk, we also strolled through a portion of Hyde Park.

During our walk, we came across several bicycle rental sites. Apparently, you put your coin in and take a bike, returning it back to this or another location.

Since it was nearly 2:00 pm, we returned to the hotel to check in. After getting our room, which by the way is pretty small, we napped until 5:00pm. We’re now heading out again.

There is no internet available from the room so this posting might show up late, along with other posting.

Bob and Carmen – EIS