Clocks, the "Tube" and Kamakaze Pigeons

Look! We have a stowaway!

Okay, so I'm doing a little bit of blog catch up because our London days were so packed full that I didn't have time to organize thoughts for a blog. Now I'm sitting in a hot little hostel room in Dublin and can barely walk because of blisters, so I have plenty of time to think about what to write!

Our first day in London was fabulous! We walked everywhere... or at least it seemed like we walked everywhere.

Since we had such a creepy experience on the tube our first day we decided to avoid it and walk into town from our hotel. It was a nice enough walk, but we discovered that we were definately in the "bad" part of town. We found a Starbucks on our way and all was right with the world.

Olympic countdown

We started at Trafalgar Square. There's an olympic countdown at the foot of the steps to the National Gallery. Eric got dive-bombed by a kamakaze pigeon! Apparently the pigeons don't care if you're in their airspace!



After looking around at the Square, we took a stroll up the Mall toward Buckingham Palace. The palace was bigger than I thought it would be. It was fun to see all the funny guards marching around and getting their pictures taken. I'd hate that job!

We also walked along Victoria Embankment and saw Parliment and Big Ben. I even got a video of Big Ben ringing in noon! (SO COOL!!)

Westminster Abbey is right there so we walked all the way around it too. We didn't take the tour because it was Sunday and they weren't open for tours. We decided against attending as worshippers because we had other things we wanted to get to.

Westminster Abbey

Once you figure out the Tube system, it's not that bad. It's pretty efficient and amazing how extensive it is. The voice with the english accent that says, "Please mind the gap between the train and the platform." never gets old! Although, we are easy to entertain...

We ended our evening by walking along Victoria Embankment again and getting nightime shots of the Tower Bridge and some of the other sights that are lit up at nighttime.

Tower Bridge

My feet hurt so bad by the time we got back to our hotel that I could barely walk. It was worth every blister though!