London calling

And if the point I made in my last post needed any more proof: I know that there is a song called London Calling, I think I even know the melody, but I couldn't tell you for sure who it's by if my life depended on it. I would probably have said The Police, which a short Google action told me is very wrong, although at least I was in the right decade (it's by The Clash, for those other non-music knowers).
Anyway, to get to the point of this post; I'm flying to London this afternoon, to spend a long city trip weekend there with a friend. The great thing about this is that we share a lot of the same interests, so we want to visit the same places (with biggest bookshop in Europe highest on our list). Even though the weather is going to be typical English downpours, we'll be entertaining ourselves in Westminster Abbey, the National Gallery, the British Museum, the Museum of Natural History, and all those other great (and indoor) places. And we'll be seeing Richard II at the Globe, very probably while getting thoroughly soaked in the rain, but who cares.
The interesting thing about this will be that the maximum amount of time we've spent in each other's company up until now is about twelve hours, so we'll see how much we still like each other after five whole days. I think it's going to be okay, but you never know; being too much alike can also backfire.
We're flying from Groningen Airport, which is one of the smallest in the Netherlands, with a (cheap, Belgian) company I'd never heard of until I booked the tickets, so we'll also see how that goes. I tried checking in online yesterday, but the thing flat out refused me, so I hope the airport staff will be able to help us out. Also, we're not landing anywhere near London, but in Southend, and will then take a train to the capital.
It all kinda feels like backpacking again; not being able to arrange your stuff through the Internet, relying on unknown public transport after landing, staying in a hostel... To quote the Hobbit film reference: we're going on an adventure!