London Day 2 - Mind the Gap Please

After eating breakfast at the hotel this morning I took a bus to the London underground. It is a subway/rail  system that can get you almost anywhere in London you want to go. I took it to a park just outside of Buckingham Palace. Seeing the Palace in the distance I went check it out. There was a huge crowd gathered outside the gates waiting as though a parade were about to begin. I waited with them but had no idea what was going to happen. After about 15 minutes of waiting music began and soon I saw the source to be a marching band. Those doing the marching were the Queen's Guard. I watched the changing of the Guard for awhile, but didn't have a great view from where I was so I didn't stay for too long. It was cool to see though, since I've heard so much about it.

I then took a bus tour of London. There was a tour guide who pointed out all the important landmarks and told of some of the history regarding them. At one point I got off the bus and went on a short boat tour up the River Thames. After the tour I got back on the bus and finished up the bus tour. It was really fun to see so many historical landmarks. After I got off the bus, I walked around for awhile until I came across Hyde Park. It was huge and it was packed with people. It looked like Gas Works park on the 4th of July. I thought something might be going on, but it seems it was just a lot of people deciding to enjoy the warm weather. I spent a lot of time walking through it, but probably didn't make it even half way through. I was getting tired of walking so I went back to the Green Park, next to Buckingham Palace, and ate lunch.

I then took the train and bus back to my hotel room. I didn't plan to sleep but my bed felt so good when I lied down to read that I couldn't keep my eyes open and I fell asleep for a couple hours. Fortunately I woke up before getting too much sleep that I wouldn't be able to get any sleep tonight. I'm hoping to beat Jet Lag by tomorrow.

London Day 1

It's 3:41 a.m. here. Perfect time to write a blog post. The flight over was good. From Seattle to Washington D.C. me and the two people next to me spent most of the flight working on crossword puzzles together. It made for a quick flight. That and I was given a free upgrade to my seat and put in an aisle row because there was a couple trying to get seats next to each other. On the way from Washington D.C. to London I tried to sleep but probably only got in one hour or so.

I checked in to my hotel at 11 a.m. London time. Apparently by plane ticket was booked using my corporate credit card, which went against the limit of the account. That meant that when I tried to pay for the hotel room I wasn't able because it only has $300 left on it. I had to use my personal funds...so hopefully that gets taken care of soon.

Though tired I didn't want to sleep when I got in because I knew it would be too hard to get up. So I went out. I took a bus to a train station and then took the train (like a shuttle train) to Windsor. It is famous for the Windsor Castle which I toured. I took video but I think I forgot to bring the cable to connect my video camera to my PC so I'll have to post videos later. Inside the Royal Palace you're not allowed to take pictures so I didn't get much inside...but the entire thing was beautiful. I was especially impressed with Queen Mary's Dolls' House. The level of detail was amazing. All the history, and the armor, and Knight's seals, and paintings were very impressive as well.

I got home very tired. I ate a small dinner, read, and went to bed. I woke up at 3 a.m. I think I'll try to stay up until tonight to get on the right sleeping schedule.

Here are a couple pics from my travels.

This is a picture of some street signs. Bridget always wants me to take pics of street signs.

Here are some classic British phone booths.