Our affordable London hotel (lower left) was under the Eye!
It wasn’t that long ago when finding a hotel meant pulling out my Lonely Planet Guide and telling the taxi/rickshaw/tuk tuk driver to take me to whichever guesthouse was recommended. Many other travelers used the same method and inevitably places became too popular and overcrowded. Sometimes I found lodging by word-of-mouth and by getting advice from other travelers, but often these recommendations were based on the very same guidebooks. Sometimes lodging solicited me. I remember coming out of immigration at the Kathmandu airport and being accosted by a sea of people offering beds in their various guesthouses and feeling overwhelmed by it all; the sights, the sounds, the hustle, the bustle. But that was in the 80’s, when international phone calls were only for periodically checking in with worried relatives at home and incoming mail was so slow it had to be sent general delivery weeks in advance. Read more
Flying with a baby might seem intimidating, but it’s a lot easier than flying with a toddler. Babies don’t cry particularly loudly, they don’t want to get up and run around, they don’t kick the seat in front of them, grab germy handrails, order sugary drinks, play loud video games, drop their toys, or say embarrassing things about other people very loudly. In exchange for a little milk, they will lie peacefully through the whole ordeal. 
On my first flight alone, breastfeeding was pretty stressful. First, I was seated next to an older woman who asked that I move. I don’t know why exactly but she was clearly not at all interested in observing any feeding or changing activities close up. Not interested at all! I was then re-seated next to a young guy in a fancy business suit. “Great” rattled sarcastically in my head. I started to wiggle around, trying to figure out how I would ever discreetly feed this baby who was now making motions and noises that were definitely not discreet. The man looked at me, smiled, and 
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