Yes, you read it right. We spent 53 hours in London, and other than missing Harrod's (pretty much the only thing I really really really wanted to do in London) we covered a lot of ground.

Day 1: We landed at Gatwick and took the subway/train system into town, arriving at Waterloo station. Since our hotel room wasn't ready, we stored our luggage and dragged ourselves over to the London Eye. It was pretty much right next to our hotel and was a low-stress activity to burn off a couple of hours...in other words we didn't have to think too hard with our sleep deprived brains.
Here's Godric taking in the sights.

That's one happy Godric.
Here's pics of Parliament, Big Ben with Westminster in the background.

After taking in the London Eye (which is totally a tourist thing and totally worth it) we ate what some in our group considered a crappy lunch and then made our way to the hotel. After a couple hours of sleep, we went out to forage for some more food.
Fish and Chips, sure.
While Godric shopped at a record store, I walked around and TheDad and The'Rents went off to find a pub to partake in some tasty fish 'n' chips. After finding what could be the only heavy metal gay pub in London, much less the world, my family elders found a place more to their liking. So, some of us had fish 'n' chips and some of us (me) had Goat Cheese 'n' Pepper Pasta (and it was darn fine).

Walking home I got some cool night pictures of some of the London sights.

Day 2: An 8 hour tour with Godfrie
We (I) decided that since our time in London was short, we should pay for a tour that would show us the major sights in a short amount of time.
Our tour started at 8:30am and ran until 4:30pm or so...here's what we saw/did

Saw Prince Albert's statue that was pretty much right across the street from Prince Albert Hall.

Westminster. We couldn't go in because it was Sunday and all the god-fearing folk were in there. This was the first instance where asian tourists got in my way. This will become a theme throughout our time in Europe.

Here's one of the cool carvings in the stone on Westminster Abbey.

Of course we went to the changing of the guard, we wouldn't be able to call ourselves London tourists if we didn't. I managed to film and get pictures over the heads of asian tourists. But still some of my shots have little black heads at the bottom.

The gate from St. James park to Buckingham Palace. Notice: Asian tourists...

The pub we ate lunch at, right near Trafalgar Square.

Yep. Trafalgar Square.

After being carted around in a bus for most of the day, we took a boat ride (still on the tour) up the River Thames to the Tower Bridge.

Where we went to the Tower of London and saw the crown jewels (which are housed in this building). There was a moving walkway in front of the crown jewels so the asian tourists could not linger. But they still got in my way.

Here's Godric and I in front of the Tower of London. You can see that his mouth is open, actually, he's saying:
"Sure, take a picture of us, make sure you get JulieU turning sideways like she does in every picture we take together so she looks slimmer. You are so busted"
Damn! He knows my trick. Turning sideways and sort of hiding behind him. Yes, that's me, busted.

After the Tower, we were picked up by our bus and taken back to our hotels (or in our case, into town so Godric could try to find the Virgin Megastore-which was totally disappointing-and TheDad could get a Hard Rock shot glass from London.

Later, on our way back from our adventures, TheDad, Godric and I were walking through St. James park and got a shot of Buckingham Palace through one of the clearings...pretty!

That concluded that day...
The following day we made our way to the British Museum before our death defying trip through the chunnel.
Here's Godric checking out the rosetta stone (which to his disappointment had been encased in glass a mere 2 years ago--the last time Godric saw it he could have touched it).

Since I'm not the most museum oriented person (I know, being a history major, I am an anomaly), I busied myself by taking pictures of greek/roman carvings that featured guys taking it in the 'nards. I had a whole series going but decided to show you only the cream of the crop...

I think you have to be a pretty good warrior to take it in the jewels from a half man/half horse thing while getting choked. That's all I'm sayin'.

Finally, our last picture from London is this one...

This is where I told Godric to look at whatever it was the guy in the kilt was looking at so I could take a picture without him knowing. Nice.

Well, that was our 53 hours in London.
I've loaded these pictures and many more here. Take a look if you are interested.

Next up will be the summary of Paris. Since I hated the city, it should be a pretty short post.

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8.09.2005

53 Hours in London...

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