Final Days in London

The latest free internet is courtesy of the British Public library where we are sitting on a bench and listening to bird noises coming from an exhibit on Darwin. I posted some pictures at the bottom of this entry, so hopefully it worked. They are rather random, as I don't have much time to go through them all but I wanted to make sure that you all could see a few. (I just noticed that if you click on them they become quite large so feel free to do that.)

Earlier today we went to watch the changing of the guards and had our first encounter with Italians. They swarmed around us and were rather pushy and loud. and kept complaining that we were too tall and about my winter hat I was wearing, that apparently was in the way. At least I could understand, right? The ceremony was nice, if a bit hard to pay attention to, and the music played by the soldiers was very good. I found it odd that they kept playing bits from music from the Wizard of Oz because I had expected something a bit more patriotic. At one point two of the guards marched right over to where we were standing and I was surprised because they began talking to us, asking where we were from (that's your line, mom!) and things like that. I laughed when Chris was right in one of their faces taking pictures so I even got a smile out of one of them. Definitely not the British stiff upper lip.

After that we went to the British Museum, which was much like the Met, and saw the Rosetta Stone, which was really cool. (I suppose I should mention that for some reason I had always thought that the Rosetta Stone was some sort of myth, like the Holy Grail, and not an actual item. A bit embarrassing but it certainly amused Chris a lot.) We got more hot chocolate because it's really that good and ate lunch back at the hotel before heading over here to the library to use the internet.

Below I will paste what I wrote back at the hotel on the computer about the latter portion of our third day and the entirety of of fourth day. Hopefully this is not too confusing. I hope you're all doing well!

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After we left the internet café we walked more around Notting Hill amusing ourselves but a bit bummed that it was nothing like expected. As we were walking to the Tube station Chris made a comment that it would be funny if it ended up that an area like the one we had expected was just off the section we had been in. We passed a sign that said Portobello Road and I mentioned that that sounded very familiar. Chris sagely informed me that it was a kind of mushroom. Ignoring this, I asked if we could walk down it a bit just to see and, sure enough, this area was more like the described Notting Hill. The houses were colorful and there were all sorts of unusual shops. Still nothing like the charming area depicted in the movie, but it was interesting nonetheless.

For dinner we had bought a loaf of bread, cheese, carrots, and these cookies with the odd name Digestives (they’re basically plain cookies, or rather, biscuits, dipped in dark chocolate) and decided that we should count our money to see if we needed to take more out. It was at this point that we realized we had been super thrifty and definitely had enough for the rest of the trip. It was kind of funny because we had been so careful and Chris was even making comments about how a poor person could easily survive on three dollars a day. Guess we’re not big spenders, even in London.

That night we decided to go to Baker Street, as it is a stop nearby on the Tube and is where Sherlock Holmes “lived.” However, once we got off and began walking we realized it was not the nicest area and so took a quick picture of a giant statue of Sherlock and got right back on the Tube. Chris mentioned that perhaps the nature of the area was why Sherlock was able to get so many cases.

Since it was still relatively early we decided that a milkshake sounded pretty good and so we went to a McDonalds near our hostel and asked for one. We paid, waited, and then after a while were told they didn’t have chocolate but did have banana or strawberry, to which we said no thank you, and then he helped another customer and we had to point out that we needed our money back. Then we went to one across the street, paid and got handed the milkshake. I took one sip and realized it was banana (it was just like with you, mom) and had to once again ask for our money back. We stopped at a Burger King, which did not have milkshakes, and after much walking finally got one at a third McDonalds. A tale of perseverance, indeed.

This morning we went downstairs to get our continental breakfast and were all prepared to pack away a croissant each and some apples and bananas for later in the day. I guess when Chris went up he was told by the man serving that he could only come up once and was only allowed six items, which he thought was a joke, so he laughed. In a while I went back up to get some more food, as I had only gotten a bit the first time, and he glared at me and said “one time only.” So I asked if it would be alright if I just took an apple to which he replied “one time only.” I guess we have a Breakfast Nazi. I was rather upset because I would have piled more things on my plate if I had known. Tomorrow I think I will carefully pile six croissants onto my plate while watching him.

After the breakfast encounter we headed back to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards but were greeted with a sign that said that that was not happening today. Sigh. However, there were finally blue skies so we took advantage of this and took more pictures. We also got the courage to take pictures with the guards. We got on the Tube to head to the London/ Tower Bridge area but as we were passing the Westminster stop I suggested we get off quickly to take some pictures of Big Ben and such while it was actually sunny. We did that and then got off in the other area and ate lunch on a bench overlooking the Tower Bridge. We walked along this path that led to the Tower Bridge and also the Tower of London. The Tower of London is a much bigger site than I had thought and was really beautiful. There was an ice skating rink in front of it, which seemed so out of place but must be a nice experience. At this point we were taking more pictures of the Tower Bridge and noticed a couple trying to feed birds. At first I was quite terrified of the huge swarms of birds but I really wanted a picture of these massive amounts of birds up close and with the Tower Bridge in the background so I stayed very close to Chris and have some very cool pictures. Oh I should mention that the Swiss Re building (I believe) was also in sight in this area which is that really modern looking building that is often depicted in shots of London. It definitely sticks out, especially from the thirteenth century buildings that we were amongst.

We headed back to the hostel and decided to stop at the British Library which is home, apparently, to tons of manuscripts, ranging from famous literature to Beatles lyrics. However, once we got in we saw that getting into the exhibits required passes and so we just looked around the other areas. This evening we got more of that really delicious hot chocolate from Caffe Nero and then went to McDonalds and made use of the free wi-fi before heading back here. All updated now!

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Chris in front of the London Eye.


This girl was rather less traditional than the guard.


Across the Thames viewing Big Ben at night.


Because there aren't garbage bins around people tend to leave their garbage grouped in random places.



Amazing hot chocolate.


New Year's Parade


More patriotism at the parade.


Big Ben is my favorite site in London.


Look! I found Guilford!


I was very afraid. But I also really wanted the picture.


That's Chris running out of the phone booth I asked him to pose in, saying "that's not a phone booth, that's a urinal."


The Celtic cross that I thought Dad would really like. It was huge and very beautiful.


See? We're having a pretty okay time.