UK Facts

The UK is slightly smaller than Oregon. It is made up of 4 countries, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. I have circled them on this map (sorry it's so small!)

It has a population of about 60,609,153. The landscape is mostly rugged hills and low mountains. It is considered to have a temperate climate; more than one-half of the days are overcast.

In London, we don't get much of any snow in the winter time. The average temperature this past winter was about 35F.

The UK is on Grenwich Mean Time (5 hours ahead of NY State)

Government is very different than the US in that they have a Chief of State, who is Queen Elizabeth II, since 1952. They're head of government is Prime Minister Tony Blair, since 1997.

London, which is the capital of England and the UK, it is the worlds 9th largest city, it is situated on the banks of the River Thames. London is made up of two ancient cities, which are now joined together, the City of London primarily the business district and City of Westminster with parliament and gov't offices & Buckingham Palace (where the Royal family resides)

Other interesting facts about this city:
London is the biggest city in Britain and in Europe.
London has a population of 7,172,036
London is in the southeast of England.
London was the first city in the world to have an underground railway, known as the 'Tube'.

Most school in England require children to wear a school uniform. The uniform for boys is long grey or black trousers (shorts may be worn in the Summer), white shirt and school tie, jumper or sweater with the school logo on it. (the colour is the choice of the school) and black shoes. The girls can wear the same as above except with skirts.

Games they play at school:
Skipping is probably the most popular game in the playground at the moment: Double Dutch, Pretzel, Stalk, Can-can and Double skipping!!! (Skipping is Jumping Rope)

Flight to London

On the way to London, FS got a little nervous since he'd never been on a plane before, so my mum held his hand & reassured him it would all be okay.

Plane

Here is the layout of the plane that FS & mum flew over in earlier today - after they finally found a plane that wasn't broken that is! It's a McDonnell Douglas DC 10-30, it has a cruising speed of about 550 mph and can hold 273 people, it has 3 jet engines, one on each wing & one on the tail (see photos below).

Here are a few photos of a DC10-30:

taxiing down the runway

taking off flying :)

Flight delayed

FS & my mum are currently stuck in Minneapolis, MN because the plane they were taking was having hydraulic pressure problems, so they're going to find a new plane & hopefully be on their way within the next 1.5 hours.

So now instead of arriving in London at 9am they should be arriving at half 10. Will keep ya posted . . .