June 20--To London

Leaving York and heading to London.  While the train station was just across the river we decided to take a cab since we had our luggage to deal with.  The B&B owner had called the taxi company the afternoon before and arranged the cab for us and it showed up on time. The driver ask where we were going and we told him London by train since we didn't want to drive in London.  He laughed and said he drove for a living and even he didn't want to drive in London.  We found the platform where our train would arrive and waited for it to arrive.  After it arrived we threw our luggage on the storage rack, found our reserved seats, and sat back for a high speed trip into London.  I really enjoyed watching the countryside whiz by and not having to drive.  Our train arrived at Kings Crossing Station which is the main train station for southbound trains.  It was an absolute madhouse.  We found the way out, and then found the entrance for The Tube which is Londons subway.  We knew we wanted to go to Charing Cross but had no idea which of the 6 or 7 lines to take.  I finally found an info call button and we got the info we needed which included a change of cars at an intermediate station.  We made it to Charing Cross, exited the car, walked up the stairs and were smack dab in the middle of Trafalgar Square.  We did it!  We knew our hotel was on Northumberland St but for the life of us couldn't find a street sign anywhere.  I left Betsy with the luggage and walked around until I found a street sweeper and he told me which street was Northumberland.  We started trudging down the street but weren't quite sure we were right so we ask a guy outside a pub where our hotel was.  It was just another couple hundred feet away.  We'd learned early on that if you wanted directions or information all you had to do was ask and people were absolutely delighted to help you out.  After checking in to the hotel we took off and headed to the National Gallery which was close.  We saw paintings by

 all the masters which was very exciting for Betsy.  After that we walked along the Thames River and found our way to the Whitehall Section which is where all the government offices are.  About 4:30PM it was like a bell went off and workers started streaming out of office buildings to head home or to the pub.  It was just an absolute sea of people.  Very exciting, but I wouldn't want to live here.