The first of 191 Saturdays (Nov. 8, 2008 - London, England)

Well, we found a hole in the fence. Like a zoo animal escaping its cage, we're free! Only one days into our trip, and the powerful feeling that we are on our own to explore the world is hard to ignore. As people who are accustomed to and normally fond of routines, the sudden shift in responsibilities has taken us by surprise. And so far, we love it. But, we have already decided that our backpacks are too heavy. Oops.

The last 24 hours have been quite a blur, as Friday evening we were saying a tearful goodbye to family at the Vancouver airport, and Saturday afternoon we were waking up out of a surprisingly deep but leg-cramped sleep to the sound of the captain announcing that we would be landing in London in 40 minutes. We even slept through breakfast! The ground soon came into view, and the green mosaic of country fields quickly gave way to winding rows of old brown brick houses. It's really sinking in that our trip is happening - we're in London!

With our internal clocks completely thrown off, we found ourselves downing overpriced muffins and coffee at the Heathrow entrance at what was somewhere between 4pm local time and 10am Vancouver time. Without any trouble, we were able to navigate the Underground (subway) system into central London - about a one hour trip. It didn't take long as we wandered the dark streets around Victoria Station attempting to find our way to the hotel with a crappy map, that we decided our packs were too heavy. The scales at home said 40lbs, but either the extra carry-on stuff added up too fast, or we're really damn tired. Maybe both? Eventually, we did find the Hanover Hotel, and after dumping our bags, we made our way to a nearby pub for a fantastic fish & chips dinner. From our hotel room, you could spot the tops of Big Ben and the London Eye, just begging to be explored in the next few days.