First Day in the UK!

We made it!  I apologize for the delay in blogging, but when you hear our schedule, you may just understand.

Our group met up in LAX on Thursday.  (A few families had already flown to London days ahead of the group.) We had the usual baggage check-in, security screening and long walk to the gate.
I tried to write from LAX but the Wifi connection was too weak.  Our group was seated together in rows 9 10 and 11 of the Boeing 787.  Every seat had its own video monitor with a selection of movies, music, games and flight tracking information.  We had dinner on the flight and then we tried to sleep. Some of us were able to sleep more than others. The flight was pleasant and smooth, with only a few small bumps over the Rockies or Great Plains.

There were no problems arriving at London Gatwick.  Everyone retrieved their luggage from baggage claim and, after a short wait, we passed through customs and got our first passport stamp for the trip!

Cindy and Caedin welcomed up to England as we came out of baggage claim and directed us to our chartered coach.  Once on board the clean and comfortable coach, we headed to Windsor Castle to stop for snacks and meet up with the other families who had arrived earlier.  Unfortunately the traffic was bottle necked on the highway!  We crept down the road for a few hours and finally reached Windsor Castle.

Windsor Castle is an iconic medieval structure where Queen Elizabeth still spends many of her weekends.  At Windsor, we were only allowed 45 minutes to walk around, take a few photos and find a snack in the surrounding town before moving on to our hostel for the night.

After a few more hours on the bus we finally reached St. Briavel's Castle! For my famliy and a few others this culminated more than 24 hours of travel time.  We had left the Central Coast on Thursday at 11:00 a.m..  By the time we arrived at our hostel It was 9:00 p.m. UK time, or 1:00 p.m. in California on Friday.

Dinner was promptly served.  The food was typically British... it lacked the flavor we are accustomed to. Following dinner we all checked into our rooms.  Some families were put into unique rooms, such as The Prison or The Oubliette.  On Saturday, we found out how scary The Oubliette (which some of us are bravely sleeping over) is!  Learn more in my next post!