Day 1, 2 & 3 - London

Traveling from SFO to London of course we lost a day... Arriving in London during the morning rush hour gave us an interesting perspective of what it would be like to live  and work there. We crammed into the "tube" along with hundreds of early rising commuters all smelling of freshly applied product, perfumes and colognes trying not to make eye contact though faces were only inches away from each other. 

We missed our stop due to the overcrowding but managed to find our way to the Ibis Hotel by asking a few nice  for directions along the way, 1.5 miles of walking with all of our bags. Great exercise!

We slept off the jet lag then headed to the famous music venue the "Troubadour" where many famous musicians have played from Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix to Adele (you can find one of her earliest performances from there online). We happened upon an amazing singer-songwriter show which featured up and coming talent Annie Afrilu & 

Tom Figgins.

We figured out and quickly got addicted to the London Tube public transportation.  We zipped underground here and there checking off our London bucket list 1) St. Paul's Cathedral - we climbed about 600 steps to the top!! 2) Buckingham Palace - we saw the changing of the guard and masses of people 3) we hit a popular strip where we hit some casinos and passed lots of theaters.  I strongly advised the download and usage of the official visitors guide to London FREE app that allows you to pre-plan your destinations and routes with a built in GPS system that does not require wifi so you will not incur any gross data usage charges. http://www.visitlondon.com/traveller-information/getting-around-london/london-maps-and-guides/apps/london-official-city-guide-app

After London, we took the ferry to Calais from Dover where saw the white cliffs (many rivers to cross... Jimmy Cliff song reference) and also did a bit if gambling in the on board slot machines room named "Vegas" and to our surprise we actually won a substantial amount in Euros which meant even more in USD!! We had a large English Breakfast which turned out to be too large and when we asked for a to go box, we were laughed at by the kitchen crew who obviously never hears that one, they have us foil and we took our sausage and bacon and beans for later though there is so much food everywhere and our fridge in the hotel said no perishables because the temperature was not cold enough :) ok so we are wasting a bit of food on our holiday, but we are not trying to.