London, April 22, 2011 Part 1

*** due to technical difficulties, I can't upload my photos.  I promise to upload photos tomorrow.


We arrived in London and took a cab to our hotel, The Park Plaza-County Hall.  The cab ride cost us about 80 GBP.  The children loved the car.  It didn't have a trunk, so all our luggage went with us in the passenger compartment and next to the driver.  The seats inside face each other and 5 people can ride together in that compartment .  (Most taxis we took were like this.  They also have a bar across the top of the door...my daughter liked to hang on it and swing back and forth, with her arms in a position of a pull-up but swinging.  It's funny because she could not get in or out of a taxi without doing that). 

Our hotel was 4 star, in a decent location (by the London Eye, across the bridge from Parliament, Big Ben and The Westminster Abbey).  The hotel was clean, decorated with a contemporary flair, and very family-friendly.
The hotel was very welcoming of children.  Upon arrival they received a goody bag with coloring sheets, crayons, play money to use at the snack bar for real items, a bracelet with the name and phone number of the hotel. (I thought this was a great idea, in case the children become separated from the parents while in the city).  The hotel stay also included a free British-style buffet breakfast every morning.

Another point I liked is that they let us check-in when we arrived at 10:00 a.m.  The hotel was visibly full, yet they were accommodating.  We could have waited to get the room with a better view we had reserved, but since it wasn't available yet and we were so tired, we preferred the room we could go into right away regardless of the view.  We weren't planning on spending a lot of time admiring the view anyway.  We wanted to be out exploring the city whenever possible...

The concierge was helpful and full of information.  We took several brochures to the room with us to help figure out how to spend our first day there.

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