{adventures abroad} london: day one - we have arrived

we arrived in london on the morning of sunday, february 13. we took the tube from heathrow airport all the way to kilburn park station, dropped off our bags and met A's boss for lunch at a local pub. after lunch we went back to our hotel for a cup of free fancy coffee {hello, executive lounge!} to try and overcome the jet lag.
then A and i went out for our traditional day one walkabout - it was cold and gray and drizzly, but we headed down maida vale, admiring the sweet little houses, and wandered around st. john's wood in search of abbey road. when we found it, of course, it was crawling with tourists taking cheesy photos, but i suppose that's to be expected.

needing a break from the cold, we ducked into the nearest tube station and took it to waterloo and the london eye, which was all lit up in red for valentine's day! the long line went mercifully fast and suddenly we were up in the giant ferris wheel awestruck by the amazing views of the city below.

after our little joyride, the rain started coming down a little harder and a lot colder. we'd forgotten our umbrella and so we were forced to buy one from a tacky souvenir shop next to the eye. then we headed across the bridge toward the parliament building. on said bridge we saw this:

identical to the one that we had just purchased for five pounds at the tacky souvenir shop. not exactly a huge vote of confidence for our new umbrella. oh well.
we wandered around central london for a bit, oohing and ahhing at big ben, parliament, and westminster abbey. when we got hungry we stopped into a cute little pub with yummy fish and chips and the prettiest wallpaper ever {more important to me than to my husband i think}.

after our delicious dinner, we caught the closest tube back to kilburn park and fell fast asleep.