We decided to hire a town car to drive us to and from San Francisco when departing and arriving to and from London. We decided the extra expense outweighed the cost of leaving our car at the airport for over two weeks, in addition to the fear that our car could always get broken into while we were gone. We used our friends over at Baja limo, and specifically Corbin was our driver. He was fantastic! I’d totally recommend him to anyone who needs a driver. 
We paid for economy class tickets and then used mileage to upgrade to business class. What a great investment! Not only did we have our own TV to watch, but the seats laid completely flat to sleep – perfect for our red eye flight.
We stayed at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge hotel while we were London. The room was pretty cool and had a separate sitting area, which I happen to really like. It makes it feel less like a hotel room. And the artistic walls gave the room a good feel.
As you can tell by the name of our hotel, we were right in the heart of the Westminster Bridge area. On the north side was the Parliament and Big Ben and on the south side was the London Eye.
On our first night, after riding the London Eye and getting a bird’s eye view of the city, we walked over the bridge to get a better view of Big Ben.
At night, when they turn the lights on, it’s pretty cool to see. You may almost miss the green lights near the clock.
As we headed back to our hotel, I snapped a photo of our hotel at night time. It was pretty cool looking – funny to learn that our hotel used to be a parking garage (aka a car park in London lingo). From our hotel room, we could see all the lights from the attractions we had just visited.
Our first day in London was quite eventful in Big Ben. See more of London in my upcoming posts!
