I'm off to Royal Lytham St. Annes by the Sea to participate in my first Women's British Open. We (mom and I) have decided to go a couple of days early to see London before having to actually settle down for the tournament. We took off from Atlanta and flew into Manchester, England. When we arrived we weren't quite sure how we were going to get to Royal Lytham St. Annes but we had a couple of options. We took our luggage and golf travel bag and took the train into Preston where we had to switch trains to our final destination. (Since we arrived early, courtesy transportation wasn't available yet.)

At the train station we took a cab to our wonderful hotel - The Bedford. We put everything in our room, packed a backpack and headed back to the train station. We got on the train heading back to Preston, switched trains and fell asleep on our 3 hour trip into London-Euston. Upon arriving in Euston we switched to the "underground subway" to reach Embankment, our departing point in London.

We arrived at 7:00 p.m. and it started to rain. We were out and about walking and seeing the sights; Convent Gardens, Trafalgar Square, the House Guards, the Banquet House (they were having a wedding), the Cabinet War Rooms, Parliament Square, Westminster Abbey. (Now it's pouring rain with wet shoes and pants, but a dry head - I love umbrellas!) The streets are almost empty of people but we continue on our walk; Big Ben is gorgeous and first heard its bells toll at 8:15 p.m. We walk on trying to locate food and housing for the night. We have not made any plans - we are just "winging it."

Victoria Station is found by walking some smaller, quaint back streets where we found St. Mathews Boys house and the local law library. We ate dinner at "McDonald's" and headed back to the station as it was getting dark and we needed information on lodging for the night.

The young lady at the information booth was very helpful and set us up in a 5 star hotel at a very attractive reduced rate next to the Tower of London (The Grange Hotel). We also purchased a bus tour ticket for the following day - I like being prepared! We took the subway back to the hotel and it was lovely. We headed for bed and decided (mom especially) that we would not set an alarm and just wake up and head out early to begin our tour. So much for that idea as I woke up at 11:25 a.m. - 25 minutes past the hotel's checkout time!! Ooops! (My body thought it was 6:25a.m.) We rushed downstairs to checkout and get to the bus tour knowing we had to depart London at 4:00 p.m. to catch the last train to Preston and then on to Lytham St. Annes. We had all of 3 hours to finish our London tour.

Our brisk walk by the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, and the London Dungeon occurred as we headed to the marina for our boat tour (which we decided we would make certain we did first). We were able to view the Southwark Cathedral, Globe Theater, Millenium Bridge, Somerset House, Royal National Theater, Cleopatra's Needle, London's Eye and the very best view of Big Ben. We met fellow Georgian's (the Moss's) from Atlanta on the boat tour. So far away from home but such a small world!