First day in London was an 8am arrival after a restless night aboard the
bus. Found our hostel, ontop a great little pub, and set out. London
gives off the grandest, most majestic aura of anywhere I've ever been.
Each building is old, intricately designed, and solid heavy stone. We
started off by doing a Sandaman tour: a free 3hr tour by kids in their
20s that highlights the city and gives great knowledge. They operate in
many euro major cities. Through this we learnt of the drunken homeless
man that managed to scale the buckingham palace wall (which is
alarmingly low), set off every alarm, drink wine, and get into the one
bed out of over a hundred that held the queen. They just chatted until
she could get security. Apparently the top security official thought
there must be a malfunction when ALL the alarms go off, so he just
unplugged the whole thing. We went into Pollock - the biggest toy store
in the world, saw the changing of the guard, went to Hyde Park, the
national portrait museum, and saw Big Ben, Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar
square, and the Horse Guards. There are castles, churches, and actual
palaces every corner you turn, with beautiful statues commemorating I'm
pretty sure every war hero of England. Made friends with the girls in
the 18 person hostel and drank and listened to live music downstairs for
the evening. And of course, borrowed the bars only deck of cards to
teach the gang Sociables;)
Why yes your majesty, we would love to accept your informal invitation to your royal birthday party! Our thoughts when we realized we were in town for the 87 year olders royal birthday. Military helicopters and fighter jets streamed red, white and blue across the sky in a spectacular display. There was a royal parade with William and Kate, as well as the royal family - too bad we were a bit late for it! We've had 3 days of the London Pass, and went absolutely crazy with it.
One thing about London- even the Londoners say not to trust the news weatherman. It rains at some point everyday, and the temperature is all over the place. We regularly duck into pubs or cafes when it rains (in addition to the one or 2 coffees we've already had to fuel our body for our daily activities), and one day ducked into Londons very impressive Chinatown for lunch. Westminister Abbey is one of the best things I've ever seen. Huge cathedral filled with the most elaborate marble and stone carvings that make up the enormous tombs and memorials to Londons finest. War heroes, past leaders, and a number of prominent Henry and Edwards. The unknown soldier was a beautiful grave representing all those who lost their lives fighting in the war, and was surrounded by flowers and a beautiful poem that hit the heart hard. Tate modern gallery and Shakespeares Globe Theater were pretty amazing displays of art and literature. We took a canal boat cruise where we got to the base of the London Eye ferris wheel, and went under all of Londons famous bridges. After that got terrified by the London Bridge Experience - a horror house that features the bloody murderous history of the London bridge, with such bright characters as Jack the Ripper. Tower London is a huge castle where we saw the royal armoury and the invaluable Royal Crown Jewels. Hundreds of karats of diamonds on just one crown!! I literally shivered to be in the presence of it all. And huge collections of gold and jewel encrusted kitchenware for feasts. Saw and climbed the looong way up St. Pauls Cathedral and walked through the crypts below. During the 1666 fire that we've learnt burnt down a huge amount of londons prides and joys, the first thing the royals ordered to be saved was St. Pauls. Churchill War rooms were really cool, and kept as similar as possible to the time. Learnt that for fun, the great politicians would roll toilet paper down the halls in races. And Churchill could be funny. Secretary says "you sir, are drunk!" churchill says "and you ma'am are ugly. But in the morning I will be sober."
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