Our journey across London...

So we enjoyed a great first night at the Royal Park Hotel but I would be lying if I didn't say we were just a wee bit nervous about getting from Paddington to Tower Hill... basically across London.  We were still SORE from our journey with luggage through the Tube and decided we would try the bus this time since there were MANY less stairs involved.  We started out to find a bite to eat and scout out bus stops (which are EVERYWHERE in London). We ate a light breakfast and figured out that the bus we needed was only a few blocks from our hotel. This was a good thing and we felt good about our decision to try the bus! :) We went back to Royal Park, collected our bags and were merrily on our way to Stop E to wait for bus #15 which would take us to Tower Hill. After walking for several blocks, we figured out that Stop E was no longer there.

Most unfortunately, there was no other bus going to Tower Hill in this area so being problem solvers, we figured out that we could take bus #23 to Liverpool Street and just walk an extra quarter mile to our next hotel. We got to the stop and discovered there was no ticket machine. A nice English lady could see we were struggling and kindly told us where to buy a ticket AND that we needed to be on the other side of the street or bus #23 would take us AWAY from Liverpool. We happily marched down another 1/2 mile with luggage in toe to buy tickets. We found our way back to the correct stop and waited for our bus. We were so elated when the bus came and we hopped on board. We traveled for a long while through the BUSY streets of London on our way to Tower Hill. I honestly thought we'd be at our new hotel well before 11:30am as we had left at 10:30. Suddenly in the middle of London, on a crowded street, we hear over the loud speaker, "This is the end of the line, please exit the bus."  How could this be happening?  Apparently Liverpool Street was shut down and now we were on our own. Do you think we could find another bus going to Tower Hill? Of course not but we traveled the streets of London WITH OUR LUGGAGE looking! May I say Kelly and I have discovered why there is a luggage store on every corner. It is because you drag your luggage over cobble-stone like surfaces everywhere you go. Please pray for our wheels!! It was like a bad dream! After an hour, we decided we must take the tube... oh the dread of going up and down those stairs with all of our stuff was so overwhelming but there was no choice so off we went. I promise you, there were 3 times the amount of stairs this time as compared to the day before. A mere 4 hours after beginning our journey, we finally arrived at our hotel. It is beautiful and modern (1 year old today). I have never been so exhausted in all of my life but with every sunrise, it is a new day.