London is big (and I took pictures!)
Posted April 27.
I set off for Higham's Park, London (where my cousins live) on Friday. I was very proud of myself actually, I navigated the train, underground, more trains and made it all the way to their place without getting lost.
Friday night I was taken out for a pint or two with my cousin (Third cousin or something? We share a great-great-grandfather), Rob. Of course it never ends up being a pint or two and we were taken home at about 3AM.
Because of that we ended up leaving a lot later than we meant to the next morning (regardless of the fact that the sun woke me up at 6AM and I couldn't get back to sleep). It turns out that everyone decided to play tourist for the day so five of us set off for London proper (Me, Rob, Chrissy (his sister), Frankie (his mother) and Terry (his father)).
We got into London at about 11AM and set off towards Tower Bridge. We went by the Tower of London across Tower Bridge and set off down the Thames. I took lots of pictures and it was nice and sunny. Once we were across Tower Bridge a tail ship came by and the bridge had to raise. It seemed a little silly to make everyone wait for this one fairly small ship but no one complained.
We got to see some living statues which were pretty cool. They seemed to make a lot of money though. I kinda wanted to see someone grab some money out of the hat so he would get tackled by a living statue but didn't happen. Damn.
We stopped at a pub for lunch and the prices were absolutely ridiculous. I was a bit spoiled and my cousin's treated me to lunch. It was great that they did though because all I would have been able to afford otherwise was a coke (which was 6 dollars by the way).
Afterwards we headed back across the river and towards St Paul's Cathedral. We took a quick look inside but were running short on time and had to hurry back towards the London Eye. It didn't really seem to matter though because even though we'd purchased our tickets online (I was treated to that too, I was starting to feel a bit bad at this point, as I was ALSO treated to my day pass for the trains) we still waited for over an hour in line (or a queue as they call it here).
They wouldn't let me take my multitool on the Eye. I wasn't sure what they where afraid I was going to do but is owned by British Airways so perhaps they consider it a type of plane? The Eye was pretty cool though, great place to take pictures from (man I sound like a tourist, don't I?).
After we came out we headed back down the river towards the Parliament Buildings, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. It was getting late by this point so we headed towards Buckingham Palace and then home. We encountered 8 policeman arresting one drunk guy (even though he wasn't disorderly at all) and some guys dressed up as cows with a cowboy.
Tired, we all headed back home to watch a movie and head to bed. Today, Terry was heading towards Portsmouth so they dropped me off back at Viv's place. I was still exhausted so I made some lunch and took it easy. I went to Paula and Del's for a lovely dinner (man that was REALLY British wasn't it? Good thing I'm leaving soon) this evening and to put my London pictures up before I forget what they're about.
Tomorrow I clean up Viv's place, get some last things together, and pack up again before I'm off to Portugal on Tuesday.
You can see London pictures on Facebook or
HERE.
I set off for Higham's Park, London (where my cousins live) on Friday. I was very proud of myself actually, I navigated the train, underground, more trains and made it all the way to their place without getting lost.
Friday night I was taken out for a pint or two with my cousin (Third cousin or something? We share a great-great-grandfather), Rob. Of course it never ends up being a pint or two and we were taken home at about 3AM.
Because of that we ended up leaving a lot later than we meant to the next morning (regardless of the fact that the sun woke me up at 6AM and I couldn't get back to sleep). It turns out that everyone decided to play tourist for the day so five of us set off for London proper (Me, Rob, Chrissy (his sister), Frankie (his mother) and Terry (his father)).
We got into London at about 11AM and set off towards Tower Bridge. We went by the Tower of London across Tower Bridge and set off down the Thames. I took lots of pictures and it was nice and sunny. Once we were across Tower Bridge a tail ship came by and the bridge had to raise. It seemed a little silly to make everyone wait for this one fairly small ship but no one complained.
We got to see some living statues which were pretty cool. They seemed to make a lot of money though. I kinda wanted to see someone grab some money out of the hat so he would get tackled by a living statue but didn't happen. Damn.
We stopped at a pub for lunch and the prices were absolutely ridiculous. I was a bit spoiled and my cousin's treated me to lunch. It was great that they did though because all I would have been able to afford otherwise was a coke (which was 6 dollars by the way).
Afterwards we headed back across the river and towards St Paul's Cathedral. We took a quick look inside but were running short on time and had to hurry back towards the London Eye. It didn't really seem to matter though because even though we'd purchased our tickets online (I was treated to that too, I was starting to feel a bit bad at this point, as I was ALSO treated to my day pass for the trains) we still waited for over an hour in line (or a queue as they call it here).
They wouldn't let me take my multitool on the Eye. I wasn't sure what they where afraid I was going to do but is owned by British Airways so perhaps they consider it a type of plane? The Eye was pretty cool though, great place to take pictures from (man I sound like a tourist, don't I?).
After we came out we headed back down the river towards the Parliament Buildings, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. It was getting late by this point so we headed towards Buckingham Palace and then home. We encountered 8 policeman arresting one drunk guy (even though he wasn't disorderly at all) and some guys dressed up as cows with a cowboy.
Tired, we all headed back home to watch a movie and head to bed. Today, Terry was heading towards Portsmouth so they dropped me off back at Viv's place. I was still exhausted so I made some lunch and took it easy. I went to Paula and Del's for a lovely dinner (man that was REALLY British wasn't it? Good thing I'm leaving soon) this evening and to put my London pictures up before I forget what they're about.
Tomorrow I clean up Viv's place, get some last things together, and pack up again before I'm off to Portugal on Tuesday.
You can see London pictures on Facebook or
HERE.
