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.