We got up a bit early and started our day with some breakfast from a little donut place down the street from our hostel. We then took the subway to the Westminster Abbey near Big Ben and the Parliament. We took some photos of the massive building and clock before heading over to the cathederal. It was a beautiful sight in the morning too, especially when the sun wasn't shining in your eyes when looking at it! We didn't go in the Parliament - we didn't even look up on whether we could or couldn't go in for some kind of tour or whatnot. Guess we weren't all that interested in it. ;)
We then walked over to the Westminster Abbey - and they had an entrance fee! We didn't want to pay the pricey fee just to go in, we wanted to save it for some other sights in the city. So we just looked at the architecture and took a ton of photos... It was like 9:00 am when we were done with this area, and next on our list was the Buckingham Palace. The change of the guards isn't until 11:30. We had plenty of time to kill. We discussed our options on what we could do to pass the time by before the change of guards. We wanted to see the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and some other things but they were at a different area than where we were... Harrods came to mind! We figured if we took the subway to Harrods, and went in the store for only 30 minutes to find the Princess Di statue, and leave quickly (a 30 minute limit) and go straight for the Buckingham Palace. Perfect. Except it was shortly after 9:15 when we figured this out, and our "daily pass" for the subway wasn't good until 9:30 am. (or we'd have to buy another one way ticket like we did earlier for our trip to the Westminster Abbey from our Hostel) Nice...
We looked for stamps to buy at this station, and found a mailbox to mail our postcards back home. That was a good way to pass the time! Then the clock struck 9:30. Yay. We ran our tickets through the machines, and they wouldn't let us through! The clocks with the scanners and the one on the wall were obviously not in sync. The station staff let us pass through because he knew we were waiting for our tickets to work!
We arrived at Harrods just before 10 am, and there was a crowd already waitin
g to enter the store! After going in, we followed the directions from the Rick Steve's book on where to find the statue, and we followed them exactly as it was described and could not find the statue! So we had to ask some of the staff where it was. After asking two or three people, and getting the store map, we finally found it in between some escalators. Some text stating that it was in between the escalators on the map would have been nice! The statue was beautiful though. We then looked at the children's department, and then the Pet Kingdom department. Both were ridiculous for they were filled with expensive toys (like a £20,000 car that actually drives!).After our "pricey" experience in Harrods, we headed out for the Buckingham Palace. The area in front of the fence and at the fountain were filled with people. We got a good spot on the fountain and just waited for the action. This was the time I had to change the memory card for the camera and fortunately I did it before the ceremony started! I had some trouble with the memory card - it was locked, and it was FULL of photos which took some time to erase! *sigh* The next time I borrow m
y dad's camera, I'm going to check every memory card to make sure they're not locked or full, BEFORE the trip!The Changing of Guards ceremony lasted a lot longer than I had imagined, and we took many photos and videos of the action. Okay, maybe not so much action, but the times where there was something happening like more guards arriving, a couple of guards from each group meeting up and doing some salutation of some sort. After a while we gave up and decided to head for our next destination, the Tower of London. As we were leaving the Buckingham Palace, we had the opportunity to be close to the front fence, on the far left side. I was able to slip my camera through the fence and take a photo of the guards, without the fence obstructing the view! They have cute butts!
We got to the Tower of London and the place was massive. We entered the landmark and it was like a mini-town of it's own with walls surrounding it. The walls had several towers to them, and we were able to walk along the walls and into the towers. The history behind the building of the area was amazing, and who slept where, etc. At the last tower we were able to enter, along the walls, held some of the older crowns, without the diamonds and jewels - they were just bare skeletons of the crowns. The history behind them was so fascinating. Some newer crowns were made and the stones from the older ones would be moved to the newer ones. Queen Anne had a beautiful crown and was on display here. We didn't take any photos in this particular tower, and lots of people did anyway. Suzy and I told some people not to take photos and they didn't care for the world. That was quite disrepectful to the Royal family. Ugh. This tower did not hold any of the crowns or jewels that the current Royal family uses - they were stored in another building, in this area. We wanted to check them out, but the line was LONG and it was already 3:30 pm. We still had quite a bit to see, including the Tower Bridge and the St. Paul's Cathederal. We skipped the viewing of the House of Jewels (I think that's what it was called).
We went into the White Tower - the building in the center of the Tower of London lan
dmark. Thid building held a lot of history about King Henry the 8th. (I don't remember which roman numbers are used!) We enjoyed the first floor of the history, and then went to the second floor and became bored. Perhaps because we hadn't had anything to eat since our breakfast, except for some ice cream we just had in this landmark. :) We decided that was the end of our visit at the Tower of London and made way to the exit. On our way to the exit, we spotted a guard that stood completely still, dressed in the same uniform as those at the Buckingham Palace. He didn't budge! While Suzy observed the guard, I watched a couple of raven eat up some raw meat, and they were teased by a couple of seagulls, who eventually stole one of the larger pieces of meat. It was fascinating to watch the raven eat the meat slowly by ripping up parts - as they would with their real prey. The seagull that managed to steal one of the pieces swallowed it in whole. I was upset at the seagull for stealing the raven's dinner! It seemed as if those two raven lived in the area, for there were some more ravens nearby in a large cage. I didn't bother to ask anyone about the raven.We then left the Tower of London and made way to the bridge
(those two things were separate, and not connected at all, but were close to each other). Some people went up to the top and walked across the bridge, Suzy and I didn't want to see the museum portion, but in order to go to the top and walk across, you have to go through the museum, which had an entrance fee. We skipped this and just walked across on the main part of the bridge. The architecture and detail were amazing.Our next and last stop was the St. Paul Cathederal. We decided that we would take a look at this place, then immediately grab some food prior to heading back to the Hostel or going anywhere else. The Cathederal was beautiful, but was also being restored in some areas. We were fortunately that the restoration was only happening on the North side
of the cathederal. The West side had some beautiful statues with some gold parts, of Queen Anne. This was probably the only statue that I've ever seen with a fence around it (not visible in photo - Queen Anne was high enough that you could skip the fence, but the other people at her feet were just barely above the fence from a good viewing area). The original statue was burned down and this one we see in the photo here is the duplicate version. I don't remember if the Cathederal burned down or the history with this, but would definitely need to look it up again. There was also an entrance fee for this cathederal, just about the same amount for the Westminster Abbey, and we decided not to go into this one either. We were too hungry to stick around for another hour or two to take photos inside.We then found a french place nearby, I objected and wanted to find a pub - we're in London, not France! So we walked towards the subway in hopes to find a pub but there were none. We took the subway to Picadilly Circus where our hostel was, and knew that there would be several pubs available. We ate at a really good pub, just less than a block from our hostel, and sitting down never felt better.
We both were spent, and took a nap for a couple of hours. After my nap, I was wide awake and ready to go out again - it was only 8 pm. I needed to get out! It was my last night in London, in Europe after all! Suzy wanted to stay in and relax. I went ahead and walked around the Picadilly area - it's sort of like a combination of a mini version of NYC's Times Square, and State Street in Madison. There were plenty of lights and plenty of people. I felt pretty safe, and still kept my bag close to me. I checked out some stores, took photos of the sights in this area, and bought some souvenirs. I needed to get myself a London t-shirt! I found three... thank goodness!
It seems that the street I walked on was connected with the Theatre district, for I saw a bunch of theatre advertisements, and naturally I saw some Wicked ads. I was ecstatic! (not really that ecstatic). :)
I then found my way to a small version of Chinatown - interesting area I might say, but I took a snapshot of the area and quickly left. There were not as many people in this area, and I didn't want to get lost, so I headed back towards the busy street filled with people and walked back to the hostel. It was time to get some sleep. I had to get up early the next morning for my flight back home, and getting a full night's sleep would be a good idea.
Good night, London. Til next time!
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