Another Full Day

Didn't quite make it to the blogging last night because we fell asleep after another full day of wandering around London.

Andrei pinpointed the source of our exhaustion-the changing of the guards. We got there by 10 am and the ceremony starts at 11:30am. Not too crowded when we arrived, so we got a pretty good spot at the top of the Victoria memorial steps. Every time we looked up, a hundred more tourists arrived so by 11am it was packed and people were being herded by police officers on horses. This is about the time everyone stood up for no reason. The ceremony itself was interesting but puzzling because it was hard to tell who was switching with who, and again the shouting police officers on horses. There was a comical moment when an Asian tourist who apparently did not understand English was escorted out of the area by one of the horsemen by holding his hand the whole way.

So that was that and we wandered past Hyde Park to Kensington Gardens for a picnic mainly of bread, meat, and blueberries. It is a huge park with a small lake running down the middle with paddle boaters. Busy as most other places we've been to so far. Then we went on to see the main reason I wanted to go to this particular park-the Peter Pan statue!

We then hopped on the Tube with our new Oyster card to go to the other side of town over by the Monument(we decided not to climb the spiral staircase inside to the top) and London Bridge. Wandered over the London Bridge to the south side of the Thames River. Here is where we followed the cobblestone path to the replica of the Globe Theater. Unfortunately, the 7:30 pm showing of Henry VIII was sold out. So we stopped by the Southwark Cathedral where they have excavated a piece of a Roman Road and some other archaelogical treasures. Then we crossed over the Tower Bridge which is our new favorite bridge. We had plans to visit the Tower of London, but would have only had an hour by that time, so skipped it.

Our new plan-search for some fish and chips. And it was a success after a long walk down the side of the Thames. We went to a pub called "Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese" which I found in my guide book as the closest one to where we were. It was definitely "olde." Dark atmosphere, small seats, benches, low ceilings, several levels. Perfect. We got our fish and chips accompanied by a half pint of lager each.

We resumed our walk down the Thames down to see the London Eye, Big Ben, the Parliament buildings, and the Westminster Abbey(lots of name dropping). Huge buildings which look more like churches than government housing.

Having walked for about 10 hours straight, we decided to return to the hostel for a nice shower and rest.

Today will probably be another full day.