London Calling

The London Eye
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After a wonderful time in New York City my next stop was London. I was staying at my friend Munni's house and I hadn't seen her in over a year so I was excited to get a chance to catch up with her again. I arrived at the airport at about 7pm and Munni picked up and drove me back to her house the scenic way so that I could see some of London. I was blown away by how beautiful and big everything was! After dinner and a chat it was off to bed. Since it was the weekend Munni would have some time to show me around London for a few days.

Big Ben and Parliament
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My first full day in London Munni and I walked ALOT! We went around Westminster, around the government buildings, down to Buckingham Palace, up through the parks to Wellington Arch and down to Picadilly to have some yummy fish and chips for lunch! it was good to know that alot of the sights that I wanted to see were so close together.

Sunday Munni and went to tour the Tower of London and I really liked Tower Bridge. Probably the most beautiful bridge in the world! Our tour of the Tower was great. We had a very good Beefeater guide and when we went to see the Crown Jewels it was not crowded at all so we go to ride through on the conveyor belts a few times to get a really good look! After our tour we had lunch at Wagamama, which I would highly recommend to anyone! Great food! Then we went up to the lookouts in Tower Bridge for some stunning views of London along the River Thames.

Sovereigns Entrance of Victoria Tower
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Monday I was on my own since Munni was back to work. So I headed for Westminster Abbey. I was overwhelmed with how big it is! And how much stuff is crammed in all over the place! Its really a huge beautiful cemetery. After the huge-ness of the Abbey I went to tiny Jewel Tower for a quick tour there and then walked across the street to The Houses of Parliament. I was in luck! I was told I could go into the House of Commons and listen to some of the Question Time. I went but only stayed for about 15-20 mins sicne I really didn't know alot about the issues that they were talking about. I wandered around Westminster a bit more and came across Westminster Cathedral and found out there was a viewing platform in the bell tower 80 stories up...and there was elevator access! So up I went to see London in the fading afternoon sun. Beautiful!

Downing Street
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The next day I wandered back to Westminster and visited the Churchill Museum and War Cabinet Rooms. This is where Chuchill and his Cabinet had to hide out during the bombings of WWII. It would have been quite a scary time to be boombed and have to live in underground bunkers. Then I started another long day of walking starting in St James Park and went up to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, stopping to take in the amazing view of Trafalgar Sqaure. For lunch I headed to Picadilly Circus and after walked through Green Park. Dinner was another batch of yummy fish and chips with stawberry beer!

Mounted guard
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Wednesday I went out to Kensington and decided that if I was going to live in London I would have to be rich enough to afford to live in Kensington! I stopped for a look at Royal Albert Hall and the area around before going up for a tour of Kensington Palace. I was lucky to catch the last days of the Diana Tribute that were set up in a few of the rooms there. It was very moving and beautifullly done. I wandered around through Hyde Park and then headed back for dinner with Munni and Rob,her roomate from Melbourne, who was also living back in London, that I had met a few times when I visited Munni in Melbourne..wheew!