LONDON 2004 - Synopsis

Earl decided last year that we should do a cheap trip to London in the winter as there would be two stamp shows for him to check out in February.  Using offpeaktraveler.com last summer, we booked 7 days of London for $1450 which included our airfare, hotel, and  transfers to/from the airport. 

	We stayed at tourist class Tria Hotel in Northwest London near the Kensington/ Nottinghill area, 25 meters from Portobello Road Market.
	We anticipated a room about the size of a large walk-in closet and were pleasantly surprised to find it was slightly bigger.  No wide angle lens needed to take a picture of the room.

The Tria had a private bath, hot water, and heat (too much—we had to open our window at night). It was a cut above some places we have stayed in the past.  Breakfast consisted of corn flakes, white toast, jam and butter with tea or coffee every morning.  Earl didn’t complain but I would have opted for one full English breakfast during our stay.

London was cleaner and nicer than I remembered it. I understand there is a new tax to keep traffic out of the center of the city, thus reducing noise and pollution. 

	A "black" cab
	Strange trees
	Earl liked this bird feeder
	'ello 'ello from a friendly native

Wonderful weather,  5 days of sunshine, cool 30-40's with no wind. Saw some snow falling (too warm for it to stick) except one morning where there were a couple of patches. It only drizzled one late afternoon.

	Spring comes early to London, there are many flowering trees. Pigeons were everywhere.
	Patch of snow outside our hotel one morning.

Sightseeing: British Museum, Natural History Museum (Great Dinosaurs), Imperial War Museum (focus on World War I), Cleopatra’s Needle (smaller than the obelisk in Central Park, NYC), and the Tate which had a special exhibition on Pre-Raphaelites. 

Folks tell us tourism is up from last year because of the cheap airfares.  However, the dollar is weak so just imagine that everything costs double what it does in the states.  One in 4 people in London are immigrants so foreign languages are always being spoken in the streets.  Earl found the Spanish hard to understand as he is used to Miami dialects.