2nd Day in London

I didn't think I would write again today but there is so much to see and do in London is was worth another post. We started our day by having breakfast here at our hotel. It was called a "full English breakfast" and consisted of half-runny eggs, toast, nutella, a tomato, mushrooms and baked beans. Trevor seemed to enjoy it but I had a hard time getting it down. We then hauled to make it to the 11:30 famous daily changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. There must have been at least 5,000 other people there coming to see the same thing. It was actually quite an experience and definitely worth the rush and fighting the crowd. All of the guards that I mentioned yesterday came out and did a marching routine followed by knightgs on horses. It reminded me of something you would see in Disneyland.

We then went into Picadilly Square and purchased tickets to the "Original London Bus Tour" which is the big double decker red bus that you think of when you picture London. We grabbed ourself some KFC (how American of us :) and hopped on! It was a good thing it was half warm and sunny out today because we sat right on top of the bus in the open air. The bus toured all around for hours and hours and we were able to get on and off whenever we liked. We passed by Kensington Palace (where Princess Diana resided), the gigantic ferris-wheel lookout, and the Parliment. We first stopped at the National Museum which contains original art from DaVinci, Van Gogh (my favorite), Monet, etc. The paintings were beautiful and I have never seen such historic and famous masterpieces.

Our bus tour pass included a boat ride on the Thames River. It was a ferry-like boat that fit 500 people. This was very exciting as we were able to see European midievil-like buildings on one side and city-like buildings on the other. We also saw several original warfs and bridges (including the famous London Bridge). We accidently stayed on the boat when we were supposed to get off and headed all the way to the end of the river into the city of Greenwich (about an hour and a half away from downtown London). This pushed our day back a little but we finally made it back into the big city and decided to goto the theatre to see a play. There are several famous plays going on in London but most were already sold out. We decided on the Sound of Music located right in the theatre district. I had seen the play before, but Trevor had not. We both loved and enjoyed it either way!

After the show we were starving and stopped at a Pizzeria nearby. We had "dough balls" for an appetizer (because they sounded yummy) but they were nothing more than round pieces of bread they we would get for free back at home. They did not serve tap water (which I had been warned about parts of Europe) so we settled for a 2 pound 16 oz bottle of water (equivalent to about 4 bucks)! Our food was delicious however. Trevor had a pizza and I had a tuna nicose salad. I have realized that London definitely has Italian-influenced food, but does not have it's own "speciality." However, I hear that they have fabulous fish and chips which I would like to try tomorrow. I have not been dissapointed with the food at all but can't wait for crepes in Paris and Pasta in Italy.

Hope you enjoy the pictures and the video of the changing of the guards. This is something everyone should experience at some point in life!

XO

Shawnie