We have arrived in London

Oct. 19 and 20, 2009 We left JFK on Mon. 19 Oct at 8:20 p.m. on AA flight 104. The traffic to the airport was awful as always but we arrived plenty early and left the car in a lot. The flight left promptly and was uneventful. American international flights are comparable to domestic flights – no frills, but they do feed you. My entertainment console didn’t work, but I planned/hoped to sleep anyway. The flight really isn’t long enough for a real night’s sleep so sleep deprivation/jetlag is inevitable. We arrived at Heathrow at 8:25 a.m. the next day and walked the miles of corridors to baggage claim, customs and the London Transport center where we bought our wonderful 7 day Oyster travelcards. Touching these to the readers in tuber stations and on the buses allowed us unlimited travel throughout zones 1 and 2, and that covers lots.
The Picadilly tube line took us into London and within an hour and with one change we emerged at Edgware Station, the closest to our B&B on Sussex Garden. I asked a passerby for directions and 5 minutes later we had heard all about which plays we should see and how much she loved her winters in Florida, and she did point us in the right direction.
The Winrose Hotel B&B was just off Edgware Rd in an area of row houses all converted into B&Bs. It was a bit more basic than we expected with 53 stairs up to our room on the top floor, but it was clean and mostly quiet, warm and inexpensive for London at $127 per night. The proprietor was very hardworking but rather short on the people skills needed in the hospitality industry.
It was too early to check in so we left our bags and set out to explore the Paddington-Marylebone area after a coffee and sandwich at a Café Nero. Then we came back, checked in and set off to Southwark Cathedral for a 1 pm concert. Hopped on a bus, but it was first caught in traffic and then diverted so then the tube and by the time we walked across the Thames the concert was half over. Still enjoyable and a rest before we walked a bit along the South Bank and then back across the Thames to the Tower of London.
We caught the #15 bus and rode upstairs in the Terror Seat (so named by Mitch because you are high and only separated by glass and millimeters from other passing buses) back to Marble Arch (some #15s only go that far) and then walked north on Edgware stopping at Café Maroush for a very good middle eastern meal before returning to the B&B for an early night.