See London...Check!

I think we can officially say we've seen London.

London Day 2:
After an early morning start of around noonish...we headed off for some sight seeing. We became your typical tourist on a fabulous open top double decker bus snapping as many pictures as possible. So much for blending in! It was so much easier letting the bus driver take us around those crazy streets than trying to navigate on our own.

We went by Buckingham Palace just as the guests from a fancy Garden Party were leaving. All the women were wearing hats and the men in suits, some even in top hats. It was fun to see them all parading out of the front entrance, although it would have been so much more fun to be apart of the festivities. I've been saying all along that we were going to have tea with the Queen, little did I know she would actually be having a tea party when we were there. I'm sure she would have invited us in if she knew we were there...oh well. Next time!!!

We also got to take a river cruise down the Thames, where we went under the famous bridge in Harry Potter that they blew up. We got to see Shakespear's Globe Theater (the replica), the actual London Bridge, a real Egyptian Obolisk, and a bunch of other really famous and important things that I don't remember. We found out that the actual city of London is only one square mile in the middle of Westminster and the Queen has to ask for permission from the Mayor of London to do any business within the city limits. Who knew?!? We walked around the Tower of London and over the Tower Bridge and then down a few more street until we gave up and hopped another bus back to where we started. By then we were starving and just happened to find the Hard Rock Cafe, which by the way is the original. It all started when some American guys complained that they couldn't find a decent burger anywhere in London, so they started a cafe and made their own. Then Eric Clapton, who loved the place, came in one day and someone was sitting on his favorite stool. He gave the Cafe a guitar to hang over his stool, so anytime he came in to eat and someone was sitting in his spot, they would have to move. (So the story goes according to our tour guide.) We got there just in time. We didn't have to wait, but right after we got seated the "que" to get in began to get really long.

After we ate, I really wanted to see Big Ben after dark and take some pictures, so we began the long trek back across, what felt like half of London, to get there. It was a long walk, but it was pretty neat to see London at dusk. It was beautiful!! But the very interesting thing I noticed was how quite the city is. Yes, of course there is the noise of a typical city, but you really don't hear much "people" noise. Everyone speaks pretty softly in public areas and everyone just keeps to themselves. It's also extremely clean for such a large city. Everyone here is very determined in their walking and driving. If you are not watching, you will get run over. All very interesting...

So on our excursion after dark, we walked through the Piccadilly Circus area (and made it through just fine without running into anybad things that mom had heard so many stories about), Trafalger Square (where they were celebrating Canada day), past the last licenced brothel left in London, and loads more of very important (yet beautiful) buildings of which I have absolutely no clue what they were....

The walk was long, but I think it was totally worth it!!! The view over the river of Parliament and Big Ben was just amazing!!! Almost magical! You half expected Peter Pan to come flying through the sky and land on the hands of the clock face. So we snapped a few last pictures (plus the batteries were dead) and then headed back to the Tube for the ride back to the hotel. Now that we're leaving, I think I finally have the Tube and the streets all figured out after all of our wrong turns... I'll be ready for my next visit, though!!
On to Venice in the morning.