Sight Seeing

Day One           In order to get into town you have to take the Tube ( London's underground train system) which is incredible!! Soo many different levels of train stations and escalators(rule: go on the right if you are just going to stand, go on the left if you are going to walk up/down it) . You could easily get turned around haha We took the Tube from Morden station to Embankment where we walked around and saw St. James park, Buckingham Palace, lots of military and Parliament buildings, Big Ben, London Eye, and Trafalgar Square. Across the street from Trafalgar we ate at my now favorite place 'Pret A Manger'. EVERYTHING there is made the same day and thrown out at night so it is really fresh and VERY healthy and every package they use has either been recycled or can be. A weird thing I learned is that if you Eat in you have to pay taxes and if you don't then there are no taxes. The weather has been pretty gloomy (with a bit of rain) so we ate in. Afterwards we took the Tube to Westminster to see the Westminster Abbey. INCREDIBLE! It is a must see for everyone! Just seeing all the memorials and tombs and also the detailed ceiling blew my mind! I wish I could go to church in that building everyday! haha I made sure to send up a quick prayer while walking around. It is so magical.
         Walking around I saw soo many different architectural buildings which really makes me wish that Canada adapts this style of building haha. Also, it was different to see all the Guards and soldiers on their horses or standing at their post. It is crazy how they can keep a straight face for soo long..I would fail at doing that =P. I have officially fallen in love with this City...although I can't get over how people don't smile or say thanks or excuse me. That needs to change! haha
        Once we arrived back home I took a nice hot shower,a nice long nap and got ready for dinner. It has been hard with the time change being hungry at meal time here! I have been forcing myself to eat atleast half of everything. After dinner Jake,Isobelle and I went out to Kripsy Kreme donuts for a while. I could only manage to eat two (my record is 12) and we talked about a lot of interesting stuff! Afterwards, we headed home and I went to bed. What a great day!! Filled with soooo much history!

Day Two

           I am getting use to taking the Tube now. All the signs and directions are starting to make a lot more sense! We took the Tube to Bank and switched to St. Paul's. Here we went into St. Paul's Cathedral which is nothing like Westminster Abbey. It is a lot more spread out, less detail to its architecture but a lot more murals, and the memorials are all underneath the church. We walked around listening to a tour on headphones for an hour and then I went up to the Whispering Gallery (it has been said that when someone whispers, you can hear it from the other side of the dome! and this dome is the second largest in the world..the first one is the dome in Rome). It is 259 stairs up a winding staircase (makes you dizzy) but so worth it! I really wish you could take pictures because the view below is like nothing else!! Soo high up...and I am not a person of heights! Then I dared to go up 152 more steps to the Golden Gallery. This is a circular porch outside where you can get the perfect view of London. I overestimated my 'height limits' and so I tried to go up another 152 steps to the Stone gallery but only made it up 10 steps. It was a tiny spiral staircase with see-through steps so I chickened out haha. I headed down, found Grandpa and found myself at another Pret A Manger for lunch! This made me VERY excited! I tried a different kind of sandwich, yogurt and bought myself a gingerbread man named Godfrey(apparently a little kid walked into a Pret one day and asked why they didn't sell gingerbread men..they had no reason not to so they started making some!). The Tube welcomed us yet agian as we headed to the Tower bridge. It is the tallest bridge I have ever seen! I wanted to see if lift up to let boats through but it only happens ever so often. We didn't spend too much time there since we didn't go inside the building for a tour. Back to the Tube and went to the V&A (Victoria and Alexander) Museum. We headed right for the interior/furniture/tapesty section and spent quite a while (and many pictures) there. I loved it! I need to go to Museums more often...seeing all the art students there sketching statues inspired me! Afterwards we headed home in amazement that it didn't rain at all today! God has blessed us with 2 days of no rain when it was suppose to!! =]  A nap was in order once again and now I find myself here, recording my London experience! =]