London 2012 Part I

Dear Shantel,

I miss you very much. Right now you are sleeping because it is the middle of the night. But, not in Kazakstan where I am, it is still just afternoon. For the 2nd straight year, I am in Kazakhstan working on the audit for Caspian Services, Inc. They are a publicly traded US company that has operations in Kazakhstan. However, this means I have to be on the opposite side of the world from you. But, while you are sleeping I figured I would fill you in on the trip so far.

This year our travel itinerary took us on a 4 hour flight to New York, then an 8 hour flight to London and finally another 8 hour flight to Almaty. We had about an 8 hour layover and London which was awesome since that gave us time to do some sightseeing in London. We got through customs and then took the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station (more on this later) which puts you pretty close to Hyde Park. We walked through Hyde park, which was beautiful. It was cloudy and drizzled a bit, but really the weather was perfect. Then we got to see a bunch of the famous London sights.

Buckingham Palace 

Had to stop and use the telephone. They had a whole row of these red telephone booths.

Big Ben 

The river Thames

Here you can see the back of Big Ben with the river, which is very ornate building.  

 Westminster Cathedral (Where royal weddings etc. take place)

More of the Cathedral with some of my coworkers (Rob Summers on the left and Steve Avis on the right). Brian Butler was our camera man. 

 Eventually we got hungry and went looking for a place to eat at Piccadilly Circus. We took a few back alley's (This really was a cool little Alley, with some little shops and restaurants) and found this awesome English restaurant.

The Richoux

In business since 1909, it was the perfect English restaurant. We got there around tea time and just barely got a seat in the back. I had the Richoux Club which was incredibly delicious. Per the menu, "Our classic chicken, bacon, avacado, egg, lettuce, tomato sandwich with crisps.

Pretty soon we realized that it was probably time to get back to the airport, but the walk from Paddington Station, through Hyde Park, to Parlimentary Square and then back up to Piccadilly Circus left us pretty tired and we figured we would grab a cab. We called this cab and had a really nice English chap take us back to the train station. He was in his 50's, and was wearing a sweater (imagine your ideal image of an Englishman).

Here I am in front of Paddington Station. As I mentioned earlier we decided to take the high speed train from the airport to downtown.

Here is the Heathrow Express, a high speed train that speeds straight from the airport to Paddington Station in Central London and then back to the airport at an impressive 100 miles per hour. I had a really great time in London. I have always wanted to see London and it was really cool. 

Just remember Shantel that I love you and that I am thinking of you. Look for another update from Kazakhstan in a couple days. Sleep well!