More pictures from London

London - Pip pip!

Another day of oversleeping.... stinkin' time change is still getting the best of us.

After rolling out of bed and having a wonderful proper shower we headed out to explore the street around Susannah's place. We headed into our first catalog store that totally confused us at first but by the end we thought was a pretty smart idea. Charlie got a new memory card (yeah we can put up photos). We enjoyed our second lunch of tasty fish and chips.

We grabbed a train then the tube back into downtown London. We exited on Trafalgar Square and Lord Nelson's monument (he fought Napoleon), really big lions and pretty fountains. The National Museum was right on the square and we spent a little under and hour before they closed trying to see it all. We saw Monet, Picaso, Leonardo DiVinci, Michelanglo, Raphale, Degas, Renoir, and a million other things that totally moved and impressed us.

After the National museum we wondered into China town, Soho and other little parts of London. It was so busy at all the pubs we decided to head back south and grab dinner at the local "cheap" pub. Chili and rice and cottage pie.... yum.

We are trying to call it an early night tonight just to get back on track and not over sleep... wish us luck!!

Only one more full day in London, I'm already a bit sad. But I'm guessing I'll cheer up in Amsterdam.

Cheers!!

PS (parents don't read any further) we saw a crack deal go down at the train station, pretty sketchy. 

London - What's all this then?

Great success! We woke up on time at 8:30am and got to have the free breakfast at the hostel. We cleaned-up and packed-up ready to head out for the day.

Another day of finding everything free we can do in London. We bought a day pass on the bus which is good for the trains too. We got off in Victoria station, found our way to the theater district. We got a GREAT deal on tickets to see Wicked. We had time before the show started. We walked down Victoria street to tour Westminster Cathedral (free). It was built in 600 and is being completely restored, it was amazing to see how that is all done. We walked to Westminster Abby after that, then to Parliament and to see Big Ben. We sat down in the park there overlooking the Thames river and made good use of the Queen's wi-fi (hope she doesn't mind). We walked to Buckingham Palace, checked out those famous guards and then took a walk down the Princess Diana memorial walk in Green park. Charlie got his first small taste of some world war monuments in Hyde park including the Wellington Arch.

We grabbed sandwich to share and took off to explore more.

We took the bus back to the hostel and picked up our packs. Then we took the train/bus down to Straetham to meet Susannah. We are "couch surfing" at her flat for the next 3 nights. (again can't beat free) We had a LOAD of trouble on the trains that is really a long and boring story. We ended up meeting her, her boyfriend, and three other couch surfers almost two hours late. 

So here we are, tired as usual... and happy of course. All five of us couch surfers are in the living room now. Charlie is planning out our day tomorrow.

We are both excited to be sleeping in a real bed with a normal shower :)

Did we mention we LOVE London... cause we do.

PS... photos are on hold... bug charlie about it, he needs a new memory card

London, day 2

Today we slept in until a bit past 11am, guess we were both way more tired than we thought, and not used to London time yet.  

We walked over to a market near the London Bridge train station and got an awesome lunch of a prawn/rice/pea shoot salad and a couscous/roasted veggie side we shared.  We walked down to a park a few blocks off the river and ate on a bench where we were joined by an older man and butch the dog who entertained us with tricks.  

We started walking towards the river and came upon the Tower bridge and crossed. We took a short break at the Tower castle and explored the shops around there.  From there we walked towards St. Paul's cathedral, finding many cool old churches and buildings along the way, along with TONS of cool looking pubs and restaurants.  We decided to come back at 5 for evening mass (free to worship or 10 pounds to get in to tour), and since it was kind of rainy, we crossed the river to the Tate modern art museum to spend some time in doors. 

We checked out the Shakespeare's Globe theater afterwards then headed back to the St Paul's cathedral.  We were both impressed with the cathedral, it was the kind of place that gave us goosebumps walking in, and neither of us realized its where princess Diana and prince Charles 

were married.   

We spent the rest of the night eating at a pub with a traditional english meat pie a couple blocks from the hostel and hanging out at the hostel bar over a beer catching up on emails.

We did our best to make to bed by midnight but adjusting to the time change is a bit challenging.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

After a few very very short hours of sleep we woke up, and in under 15 minutes made our way down to the street and hopped in the cab. We caught the Mega Bus to Chicago then the train to O'Hare. Our flight on Air India was actually the best either of us have ever been on. We had individual TVs that we could watch any movies, play games, TV shows etc. We got 2 full meals and even blessed when we boarded.

It was only an 8 hour flight and we slept all but an hour of it. Getting into London was a bit harder. We were very tired and what should have been a 1/2 hour ride in the "underground" turned into 2 hours because we took one wrong tube.

The Dover Castle Hostel we are staying at was only 1 block off of where the tube dropped us off. So far so good, we got so rest then walked around a few hours.

We are sitting in a Pub a few blocks from the Hostel and Charlie is about to fall asleep so I think we better head back.

H & C

So far we LOVE London. 

Yes we already had fish and chips :)

Going Away Party

Thanks to everyone that came to our party, we had so much fun. It was pretty hard only getting a total of 5-6 hours of sleep between that last few days then getting up at 5:30 am to start our travels!