London --October 8

DAY 4
Tourist day, basically. It was the first day we didn't have any pre-purchased tickets needing to be used so we had a lot more freedom this day. And by freedom, I mean sleeping in. By the time we finally roused our weary carcasses out of bed, it was late morning and time to get a move on. We decided to go all out on the tourist schtick and bought a London Pass (a superb way of getting into all the major attractions of London at a discounted price. Can't recommend it enough) and tickets for the Hop On Hop Off bus (the best way of getting to all of the attractions. These buses are everywhere and you are free to jump off at any stop to check out the site and then hop on to the next bus that comes around).

Included with the bus pass were walking tours, and we arrived just in time to go see the traditional Changing of the Guard ceremony with one of the walking tours. What was neat about this tour was the fact that we saw where the new soldiers about to begin their duty start out before marching down to the Palace. It starts at a different, older castle where the monarchs use to live. The soldiers are all inspected before the brisk march begins to trade with the other guards who are to be relieved from their 48 hour shift.

According to our guide, the Changing of the Guard ceremony actually began as a punishment for the guards. The Queen (I forget which one, but not the current one) had been away on vacation and returned a day earlier than scheduled. She found the guards to relaxed and ordered for the whole ceremony to happen as a punishment in order to whip them into shape. It was only suppose to last a few months, but over the years turned into a tradition that now attracts unbearably large crowds. As you can probably tell from the picture. And yes, the building is Buckingham Palace.

Since there is such a large crowd for this event, our tour took us back routes so we could get quite close to some of the soliders. However, a police officer decided to hold us up which set us behind the schedule which meant at one point, we were sprinting down the mall in order to catch up to the Guard. It's unbelieveiably how fast those men can march!  It's kind of cheating when they ride horses, though. Anyway, we wound up losing half of our tour group by the end of the tour. The guide congratulated us for surviving until the end. I just wished I'd done some leg stretches beforehand. 

After that, we finally jumped on a bus to begin the city tour. London is a beautiful city, a strange mixture of modern and history on every street. The architecture of some of the buildings is so eye catching that I snapped off pictures left and right of things that just looked neat, but afterwards i couldn't even remember the purpose of the building. We did stop to wander at St. Paul's Cathedral, a breath taking church teeming with history. And we drove across the London bridge. Luckily, it wasn't falling down, my fair lady. Its quite sturdy, as you can see.

Our next stop was the infamous Tower of London. The Yeoman Warders, or better known as Beefeaters, offer hilarious tours through the keep. While explaining about the numerous deaths that had taken place at the Tower, our guide was thrown off by a little girl asking why he was wearing a dress. Personally, I thought his "dress" was rather adorable. Probably not something an honored and decorated solider would want to hear about his uniform...

Dotted all along the grassy areas of the Tower, ravens watched vistors with dark beady little eyes. There are 7 ravens kept on the premise at all times, wings clipped so they can't go flying off. A legend states that if all six ravens ever leave the Tower, then the kingdom will fall. They keep a seventh as a spare, in case one of the six gets sick, dies, or manages to escape. However, the birds don't seem too eager to vacate the premise seeing as they are fed chunks of raw meet and blood soaked biscuits several times a day. Yum... The crown jewels are also kept at the Tower and visitors are allowed to gape wistfully at the royal bling. Personally, I'm not sure how they were able to balance those massive crowns with snapping their necks.

Back on the bus! This time we stopped to see the Shakespearean Globe Theater. It is a reconstruction of the 1599 theater Shakespeare worked and wrote for, and built only 750 feet from the original theater site. The reconstructed version opened in 1997, and puts on actual performances every year that are reminisce of how it would have been in Shakespeare's time. Meaning there are no fancy props, no speakers or microphones, and groundlings have to stand around the stage and stare up at the actors. It was also an open air theatre, so weather can play a big part on how a show will go.

Unfortunately, some construction work was going on around the stage when we visited. But it was still a grandoise view! The entire stage, and theater, is made of oak and oak nails. Handmade oak nails. Not something I'd want to have as my job, but the finished product was amazing. It would be a dream to get to see an actual production on that stage someday. Especially Hamlet. Anyhow, by that point it was early evening so we scurried back to the bus to get in as much time riding around the city.

Dinner was a very exciting affair. We ate at the Sherlock Holmes pub! And I even ordered a pint (okay, not really, I just got a small one) of Sherlock Holmes ale. If I'm honest, the food left something to be desired. The beer was great though, and they had a big selection. The place was absolutely packed with Londoners unwinding after work. But even better was the fact that it was crammed with Sherlock memorabilia!

Upstairs they had a corner roped off and dedicated to all things Sherlock. Basically a mini museum to the great detective. Even their menu board said "Mrs. Hudson's Kitchen." The windows had cutout Sherlock silhouettes. It was a really cute place and a great way to wind up the evening.

To check out more photos, take a look at my Shutterfly site.    

London --October 7

DAY 3
This morning was the thing I absolutely most looked forward to. The reason I was so desperate to get to London. THE DOCTOR WHO EXPERIENCE. Oh yes, it was entirely worth it. And it was so wonderful that I'll actually be dedicating a whole separate post just to it. Just a preview: you get to go on an actual adventure with the Doctor and then check out the actual exhibit. If you ever get the chance, do it. And if you are utterly confused, then check out Doctor Who. You'll be hooked. Not to fret, its on Netflix.

Anyway, that grand adventure took up most of the morning.  Our afternoon followed the same media theme with a tour of the British Broadcasting Company television center, or better known as the BBC. Oh the famous feet that have tread the same halls we wandered through! Ah, but half the adventure was just getting there. We had some difficulty figuring out the Underground, and wound up getting on the train going the wrong ways. Whoops. By the time we made it to our stop, the tour was suppose to stop. We sprinted across the street (nearly getting run over by a bus) and raced up to the doors just as a large group of people were leaving.

"Oh! Are you here for the tour?"
*gasp, pant* "Y-y-yes."
"Thought so. No need getting hit by a bus, just follow me."

Yeah, that's pretty much the conversation we had with the tour guide. She was rather fantastic. We then got to see the BBC news center. That was quite the technological hub. We saw the weather studio, also. It was surprisingly about the size of a closet. And then we made our way to the green room and heard some ridiculous stories about the different demands celebrities have insisted upon having in the room. Jennifer Lopez wins for being most ridiculous.

Finally they took us to a fake studio and asked for volunteers to re-enact the news and then a few to play on a pretend game show. Dana was a superb news reader and I came in second on the game show. But that's mostly because I didn't want to keep hitting the button all the time and steal the spotlight. Honest.

Anyway, after that we went to Harrods to have dinner. Ah, Harrods. The biggest store in the UK. And when I say big, I don't mean like a super center Walmart. I mean about ten super center Walmarts. This one store contains 330 departments and is over one million square feet. It's basically the Mall of America in a single shop. But its a must see place...which is why we went back several times before our trip was over.

Their pastry shops (of which they had several different types to choose from) were divine. And utterly unique. The picture to the right is what we chose for dessert, flavored marshmallows! The purple was a currant and lavender flavor, very floral and rather intense. The other two were passion fruit and strawberry. If only we hadn't gotten there so late, we might have had time to get one of their many cupcake flavors. However, because they bake their pastries fresh every morning, the last hour or so of the day the prices on fresh food items are cut in half so they sell pretty quickly. The marshmallows were tasty, though, so I can't complain! 

However, what was even more exciting than that was the fact that our Underground station was closed by the time we finally stumbled out of the shop. Apparently that station closes early, earlier than Harrods which doesn't really make much sense to me. And since we weren't too comfortable figuring out the bus system yet, we hailed a cabbie.

In order to understand my excitement (and justifiable fear that the driver was perhaps a serial killer) you must watch the BBC version of a modern day Sherlock. Like most of my british show repitoire, its available on Netflix. And only three episodes long. Granted, each episode is an hour and a half, but it doesn't take long to watch the series. Thaknfully, they are in the process of fiming the next season.

Anyhow, that pretty much concludes our second day in London. To view more photos, check out my Shutterfly site.

London --October 5 & 6

DAY 1

Beh, the travel day. However, I lucked out on this overnight flight because I had three seats to myself! Nothing like trying to stretch out across three metal seat belts to catch a snooze. Though if its any consolation to my travel mates who did not have the same spacious accommodations, I really did not get much sleep. But we arrived in London safe and sound and set off to our first merry adventure in the beautiful city!


DAY 2
Despite a minimum amount of sleep, we dove right in at London. The two things on the schedule were tickets to the magnificent London Eye and Madame Tussauds. Since it was early morning, we couldn't actually check into our hotel room. Urg. But we were able to drop off our luggage, pick up the cameras, and figure out the Underground! Easier said than done. The most difficult part was actually figuring out how to buy the tickets rather than riding the trains.

We took a scenic walk around the Thames to make our way to the London Eye. The Eye is basically the world's largest Ferris wheel. It was made in honor of the new millennium, but was such a popular attraction that's its become a permanent fixture of the London landscape. Its actually pod-like capsules that made mostly of gigantic windows. Each capsules holds probably between 10-20 people.


When at the top, and granted its a clear day, you can see 25 miles across the city in any direction. The most impressive view is of Big Ben and the House of Parliament. The two historic buildings are 10 minute walking distance from the Eye, basically over the Thames and there you have it. In fact, we walked right by them in order to get back on the Underground.  Overall, we were actually on the Eye for about 30 minutes. It's constantly moving. Yeah, even when loading and unloading people. Not terrifying. Not terrifying at all to run into a pod that one mistep would end with a swim in the Thames.

After the Eye, we headed to Madame Tussauds, world famous for creepily realistic wax figures of famous people. Basically, its a gigantic photo op place. There were the typical characters you'd expect to find, like actors and movie characters. The best being Robert Downing Jr version of Sherlock. But there were plenty of England related figures, such as King Henry VIII and Mary, Queen of Scots. The two princes made appearances as well as Princess Diana. Of course, I was stoked to be able to pose with some of my favorite London boys: the Beatles.

By then, we were absolutely exhausted. It had basically been a 30+ hour day and filled with plenty of walking. But there was one thing we absolutely had to do for our first meal in British country: eat fish and chips at a pub. After desperately scouring the neighborhoods near our hotel, and asking every local we passed for recommendations, we finally settled on a quaint little place called the Princess Victoria. It was a tasty meal and hit the spot.

So we finally made it back to the hotel and collapsed with joy into our beds...but not before we couldn't figure out how to drain the sink, the toilet wouldn't flush, and my cot bed collapsed twice. Ah, but that was nothing once sleep finally came. Until the alarm went off. At 2. In the morning. Turns out no matter how hard I hit the snooze button, the alarm wouldn't turn off. That's because it was the fire alarm going off. Thankfully, there wasn't any actual fire. It probably had to do with the fact that there were renovations going on at the hotel. Overall, it only took 45 minutes to finally get back into the warmth of my bed and back to sleep. Again.

To see more pictures, check out them out here.