LONDON

October 19 saw Stephen and I traveling to a place affectionately called "The Smoke," that is to say, London. We boarded the train in Bradford between 9 and 10, and arrived around 2. We sorted our "tube" tickets out for the weekend, familiarized ourselves with a map, and hopped on our first underground train (which would take us a whopping one station to our destination) to our hotel. We arrived about 3, and after checking-in we had a quick recoop (nap). We fought with the wi-fi for two hours, then managed to find ourselves a Wetherspoons, which is a lovely restaurant that we need in Canada, and what stations to use and we were off!
After supper we took the tube to look at Big Ben, the Parliament Buildings, and the London Eye, which was absolutely gorgeous by night. There may have been a slight mist, but the weather was calm and it added to the British experience. We decided we would take our time walking around as the weather was cooperating and there were not too many people about, and who wants to be cooped up in a hotel when you could be exploring anyway?
We started at the London Eye, walked along the Thames to cross over to the Parliament buildings and Big Ben, also known as Queen Elizabeth Tower, renamed this year for the big celebration. We crossed the road behind the Parliament buildings, and by chance happened upon Westminster Abbey (as neither Stephen or I knew it was located there, that's how we "happened by chance"). We made our way down a backstreet and accidentally ran into an informal changing of the guard. I asked him if at the next corner we would turn right to get to Trafalgar Square, and he told me I was correct. On our last full day in London, it would occur to me while on our bus tour that I had talked to one of the guards of number 10 Downing Street!
After we had briefly explored Trafalgar Square, Stephen and I headed down a long, straight tree-lined road (which I have recently come to realize is called the "Mall"). With no rush and good weather, we weren't bothered to be wandering around London in the pitch black. There were many street lights, of course, and a steady flow of traffic, but nowhere in London did we feel unsafe. As I'm sure those of you who are familiar with the "only city in England" layout, at the end of this tree-lined road, we found ourselves at Buckingham Palace.
What we then did was take our time going around the circumference of the palace, taking our time to see the gates for South Africa, Australia, and then of course, Canada. The flag was not flying at the palace, however. It surprised me on the walk back from the palace that we had seen everything I associate with London in the span of two hours, minus St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge and Windsor Castle. This was nice though, because we knew where we would have to go in the daylight without any fuss. We also managed to see Piccadilly Circus as our final sight before we caught the tube back to our hotel.
When morning came we started our journey the same way we did the night before. We had it set in our minds that we would go on the Eye, but that we would rather see the changing of the guard at the palace first. We walked through a park (the gardens in front of the palace) and arrived just in time to watch the guards march down the streets. We did not attempt getting any closer to the Palace than the far side of the Victoria monument, as it was difficult enough to move on the far side of the street.
I was quite annoyed at what happened next, on our way back to the Eye. On our way back from the palace, back down the Mall, some guards were marching out of the Royal Stables. As is to be expected, all of tourists assembled on the sidewalks to take pictures, as that is where the guard responsible for the overseeing of the stables told us to go. Well, all of us except one. One foreign lady (from Eastern Europe) decided to run,yes, RUN, directly at the guards to take a picture. The guard supervising yelled at her threateningly several times before she got off the road. This woman was in her 40's and thought it was absolutely HYSTERICAL that she had done that. I know more issues would have come from this situation had she been struck, but her behaviour undoubtedly called for it. I simply could not believe her (and her friends who joined in laughing) blatant ignorance. It definitely soured the experience, as is want to happen at times - something is just so good, and one person ruins it for the whole group.
After walking (VERY quickly) away from the scene, we ate lunch just down the road from Piccadilly Circus. We then wasted about an hour and a half of our lives in the lines 1) to get tickets for the London Eye and 2) to get on the London Eye.Although it was a long wait and a tad expensive, the experience was certainly worth it. It was absolutely magnificent to see London laid out in front of you, stretching on for miles and miles all around you.
Tower Bridge was our next stop. We thought it might be nice to explore the Tower of London, but the prices were quite extortionate. Had we more money than our meager students' allowances, we would have embarked on the tour, alas, it was not to be on this particular trip. We had a nice surprise on the way to the tube station from the Tower of London - we decided to pass over the bridge, and were stopped because there was a ship going under. It was nice to experience while we were there. We also saw the HMS Belfast and passed the Dungeons of London center also.
That evening (Saturday) was a very special night. As our one year anniversary gift, Stephen bought us tickets to see Wicked at the Apollo Theatre in London's West End. It. Was. Fantastic!! Even Stephen loved it, and was singing the songs for weeks after. This has been a show I've wanted to see for many years, and the show definitely did not disappoint.
Sunday was Trafalgar Day, and on the way to our bus tour company, we watched some of the ceremony that took place in Trafalgar Square. Before arriving at our bus tour, we found Canada House. It was lovely to see all the red and white in London. The bus tour took us many places in London, most of which we had seen before. However, we did get to finally see St Paul's Cathedral, the Victory Arch, the Wellington Arch, and the business/bank sectors. It was interesting to note that the actual area of the city of London, and not any of the suburbs, is one mile square! We learned so much on the tour, but when it started to rain and there was no room inside the bus, we decided we had seen enough.
On Monday we had only a few hours before we needed to catch the train. We had rented bicycles the night before so that we could get to Vapianos for supper, and ended up cycling up and down Oxford Street. You rented for 24 hours so the next morning we made use of our money (only 1 pound each!!!) and cycled to 221 B Baker Street to glimpse the Sherlock Museum. And what to my wondering eyes was RIGHT beside it (on the left, technically if we were facing it), but a Beatles Store. I couldn't resist running in to look around, but that was the end of our adventures in London.
We both got pictures at platform 9 3/4 before we left though, and snuggled in for a comfy train ride. It was an entirely lovely trip, minus the black mucus that came out of our noses when we blew them for the next few days. However, getting back to the fresh Yorkshire air cleaned out our systems well. And thus, the end of our London adventures.
I hope you enjoyed this post... I apologize for it being so late and so long, but I hope you feel "caught up." There will be two more posts coming your way, Germany and Christmas/New Year's, so stay tuned for those.

Wishing you all the best in 2013!!

Love,
Janean X