20 May 2014 (sun, cloud, 20°C)

Mission control…….mission control…….

The eagle has landed…….. I repeat… the eagle has landed…!

Touchdown at 5.15pm after a good flight with Virgin Atlantic taking approx. 12 hours.

Upon arrival, picked up bikes at baggage claim (no problems)  then through passport control, where a very nice guy, after asking us what we were doing in England, forgot his stern, never smile immigration officers attitude and became very animated about our cycle tour. Waited for 45 mins for a Hoppa bus to Jurys Inn (after being advised the black cabs rip you off), our hotel for the night, on the southern border of Heathrow. Took 10 mins to get there , only ones on bus, before a very nice foreign girl checked us in. Must say, the only person who looked English, was the bus driver. All very helpful.

Have unpacked the bikes and gear, put bikes back together ( with no parts left over) and are about to repack the panniers before mounting them on the bikes so we are all set to go tomorrow.

Pete has now gone for his shower so I am writing now with the first aid kit at the ready.  So far he’s managed to nearly knock himself out on the double glazing and cut open his finger with our very sharp little scissors  - it took ten minutes to stop bleeding enough to put a plaster on.  Used two of my meagre supply of plasters and we haven’t even got on the bikes yet!  At this rate I’ll need a bumper pack of band aids in my kit.

Matt (our bike assembly instructor) would have had a good laugh had he been able to see our efforts.  There was a bit of head scratching and checking my written instructions but we did manage to get both bikes assembled, albeit not very efficiently!  The important thing though is that the bikes were not damaged at all in transit.  I would have been really disappointed if they were though as we did a great job with the packing probably due more to Pete and Matt’s influence I would have to admit.

Pete's bike ready for shipping in our kitchen

Pete back again now.  Great sleep, although short, but very nice room, king size bed, heated perfectly. Fantastic shower, which can sometimes be a problem in England, thanks to heating and lack of water pressure.

Heading down for breakfast shortly, full English, just for my clients who might have thought I was going to be eating boiled broccoli and a good ol English cup o tea, cant beat it lad!

Then we’re off to meet a mate of mine who we haven’t seen for 15 years. He’s jacked us up with a hotel in London for a couple of nights, so we can catch up and get into the city and see the sights that haven’t been there for centuries.

Just back from a delicious breakfast, great food and well provided for.

Weather today in the south looks good. Fine with some cloud, should be perfect for the short stint that we are doing today. Looking forward to seeing London with an average temperature of 20 degrees.