Busy day

Yesterday was a very busy, exciting day. We all climbed on a red double-decker bus and took a guided tour around London. We saw everything... Tower Bridge, The Tower of London, Big Ben and Parliament, St. Josephs Cathedral (from quite a distance), The London Eye, Buckingham Palace, The Wall of London, and tons of other great places.

We got off the bus at The Tower of London, and then took a boat tour up The River Thames to Parliament. I even put my feet in the river! It was yucky though... All slimy and dirty. I had typical British fast-food for lunch-- Fish and Chips, which was pretty much a deep fried fish stick about the size of my forearm and a handful of french fries (Here, french fries are called chips, and potato chips are called crisps). The fish was the greasiest thing I had ever had in my life. It seemed like something that should be served at the redneck county fair.

We started the tour with one group of 15-20, and by the end I think we had four or five smaller groups. We can basically go wherever we want and do whatever, which is kind of fun, but also a little scary because we don't know where we are. But I guess if you don't have a plan or schedule, you can't really get lost, can you?! Anyway, after getting off the boat, two other girls and I decided to go visit Westminster Abby. Wow. We didn't go inside it because it cost about 15 pounds, which is about $30 USD. The outside was beautiful. It was so huge that I couldn't fit it in the viewfinder of my camera without standing in the middle of the street.

After that we walked to Buckingham Palace, which wasn't what I was expecting. It's pretty much a stone building with a pretty gate and gold statue. At some point we'll go see The Changing of the Guard, which happens every other day at 11:30 am.

We finished our day with dinner at the original Hard Rock Cafe on Park Lane, near Picadilly Circus. Circus is Latin for "circle", and is not referring to a spectacle of lion tamers and elephant rides under the big-top. It's essentially a much larger, more exciting Times Square. I paid ten pounds (about $15) for a chicken sandwich, but above our table was Mick Jaggers green sequined jacket... Pretty sweet.


I couldn't figure out how to put my photos from the day directly in my blog, but you can look at them through my Picassa Web Album at http://picasaweb.google.com/lmsr46/BusBoatTourOfLondon#