Shavuos in London

I have wanted to visit London for about 22 years now, so when I finally arrived, 2 hours early, at four thirty in the morning on tuesday, it was a dream come true. I took a bus from Paris that drives into a train, which takes it through the chunnel, and then drives to London from Dover. I took the overnight bus so that I did not waste a day; theoretically, I would have slept on the bus and woke up, refreshed and ready to see London at 6:30 the next morning. However, between having to spend an hour going through customs at 3am and meeting all sorts of fun people (an israeli, and australian, a french expat among them) I got maybe half an hour of sleep. Arriving 2 hours early did not help much, and besides for depriving me of sleep, I had to walk around with all my stuff for two hours before I could go to Golders green, where I would be staying. The upside, however, was that I saw some of the most touristy areas of London empty, at sunrise, ehich was ana amazing experience, and one that would never have happened otherwise (no matter how early you wake up, the Tube only wakes up at 5:30).
At 6:30 I took the tube to golders Green, where I was met by Avi Friedmann (thanks Ephraim) who is having me at his house for my time here (he, along with everyone else I've met here, is amazingly hospitable). After dropping my stuff off I went into the city and walked around in a kind of exhausted daze, seeing a lot but not really processing that much, though I have to say I did kind of like the Tate Britain (all the museums here are free!!!) and I love the policemen's hats.
The first night of Yomtov I spent at the Van Messels,cousins of Sarah Weill (this seems to be turning into the Weill family tour; thanks Sarah!) who were amazing. hey daven at a very Yekish shul, which reminded me of the shul I went to in Belgranom but they say all the piyutim (torture).We started eating at around 11 or so, and I hadn't slept for almost two days, but still the food was amazing (and milchig!).
The next day I went to a shul that was pretty much a larger version of Rabbi Friedman's shul in Queens, complete with the Oomayn prunciation, same nigunim, streimels and white hose, and there was even someone who said "I'll kille m" at v'al kulam. Ah the memories. And, the Matjes herring was the best I ever had!
I ate lunch by the Barron's (thanks Safta), their two daughters, son-in-law, granddaughter, and his mother, a very nice family (the baby is amazingly cute and terrified of grass) and stupendous cooks. Stupendous. I ate by them that night as well. The next day I had lunch back at the Van Messel's, but I was not going to sit through that davening again, so I went to the JLE, the Ohr Samayach shul here. The rabbi came up to me and got me a place for shabbos lunch, and everyone was really very friendly. Lunch today was great, again with great food and great company, including mister Van Messel's brother and parents, and I hung out all day by their house, talking and playing games with the kids, which was rather fun. Now I am here, a bit tired, writing, in a very abridged version, about the last 48 hours, one of the best shavuots I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. England is turning out to be a great experience!