8 May -London day 1 continued

We landed at Gatwick at 11am, and the first thing i saw in the parking lot was a white miata! the only one i have seen this trip :)

HSBC had a city guide with a handy little map of London and the Underground in it. We got train tickets to get inot Victoria Station (tube stop) on a national rail line. After finding the hostel a block away from Picadilly Circuis, we checked in, and went to the National Gallery of Art. It is off of Trafalger Square which has the large lions. We went to dinner to meet Ethan's friend Nadene who lives in London. She was about my age and pretty normal. We talked about differences in culture, how to rides the busses everywhere (they are 1 pound = cheaper than the tube which was 5.1 pounds for a 1 day pass), has never even tried to drive a car, and goes to college in the city.

I got online at EasyInternet (0perated by the same people as easyJet) for 15 minutes. We attempted to ride the busses to Hyde park but had to get off because it was the end of the line. At dinner Nadene told us the busses do not run in loops. This explained our problem but we never got on a bus in London again.

After dark we went to the Thames river to take pictures of the Tower Bridge at night. LondonBridge was differen than I remembered. I thought it was very plain, instead of plain but lit with neon lights at night. Tower Bridge is very pretty at night! At this point it was getting late and were jetlagged and sleepy. We were probably back at the hostel at 11pm.