Settling In

That was not the best sleep I've ever had.  Leaning forwards onto the tray or laying back reclined just didn't quite do it.  I'm sure I slept some, but it didn't seem like it.  I wasn't very interested in the movie selection, so I mostly listened to music and read my book that my mum bought me, "Today We Die a Little".  It's the story of Emil Zatopek the great Czech runner.  I read so quickly that I'm now on page 178.  It's a great story, I'm just not very fast at reading.  I liked his attitude about what racing means to him.  Here's a little quote from the book that I liked.

We landed around 9:00am.  Getting through passport control took longer than I thought it would.  He asked a lot of questions.  I wondered if he was going to be upset with me for defecting, then trying to come back into the country, but it all worked out.  I had a nice drive from the airport.  Richard drove Christopher from Norway and me to the hotel.  Christopher is a physiotherapist for the Danish team.  Richard is a volunteer that was fun to talk to and laugh with.

I got all checked in and went to lunch.  All our meals are in the hotel.  The food was really good, but it wasn't traditional English food.  I'm hoping we get some lamb for dinner.  I was very tired after lunch and decided I would either fall asleep or go on a run.  I went on a running tour.  I'm pretty sure someone could fly into London, go for a run to see just about all the sites, and fly home that evening.  I took my phone and just went from place to place with GPS while taking pictures and doing a few video calls home.  So, my one hour run turned into two hours.  The trick was making it back to the hotel before my phone was going to run out of power.  Here are the photos of everything I went to.  If you want to see them bigger, just click on them.

HMS Belfast

Tower of London (Lot's of people were tortured and killed there.  It is bad to walk through the gate on the right back in the day.)

Tower Bridge (not to be confused with London Bridge which is much less impressive)

The Book of Mormon musical is still going on here

Buckingham Palace (I didn't meet the queen this time)

I really had to pee, but could only find these ones that cost.  I remember when my mum would ask if I needed to spend a penny.  I guess inflation has taken place since then.  the ones in the underground are 50 pence!

Florence Nightingale

The Jolly Old Duke of York

The GPS map of my run

10 Downing St (This is the prime minister's office.  She didn't have time to visit with me today.  Maybe another day will be better.)

I found a little trail to run on.  That was much nicer than weaving through all the tourists.

WWII Memorial

The changing of some guards.  There's a much more impressive one, but this was all I had time for today.

Big Ben

Winston Churchill (Here are a couple of his best quotes).

• You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.
• Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm

The London Eye (It's too scary to go on. Sadly, I didn't have my money to go on it.)

Big Ben again

A couple getting wedding photos done.  I photo running bombed one of their pictures.  I'm sure my shorts caused some scandal.

I don't remember what this is.

A giant thumbs up at Trafalgar Square

The monument at Trafalgar Square

This elevator has lots of glass.  The walkway to get to it is also glass, but it's fairly opaque.  It's a good thing I'm not scared of heights.  Not even a little bit.

The USA hospitality suite.  I enjoyed some almonds and water after my run was done.