Week 10 Day 2 of 6: London, England

March 7, 2010

I woke up at 8:30AM after more than 13 hours of sleep. Ahhhh…refreshing! I packed all my stuff, lugged it down to the lobby, checked out, had the concierge store by bags, and headed to breakfast. For breakfast there was a wide range of things. I had some bacon/ham – one side of this looked like a strip of bacon and it was connected to a chunk of ham. They also had some raw looking eggs (poached I think), which I avoided, lots of fruit, granola, and tons of sausage (yuck!). I ate lots of toast.

Before I realized it, the time was 9:30 and the changing of the horse guard was at 10. I rushed to the bus stop and struggled again to choose the quickest route. I arrived to the Horse Guard Station at 10:15 and thankfully only half of the troop was lined up. I hadn’t missed much. Little did I know that at the changing of the horse guard, the new horse guards process down to Buckingham Palace. I raced after them when I realized this. Yes I was the crazy tourist running down the street, camera in hand, to follow the horses! I’m sure it was quite funny because people were staring. I wondered around Buckingham Palace to find a spot that I could stand to wait for the changing of the guard. I found a spot on the side of the front grounds. I had to wait about half an hour. It was hard to follow exactly what was going on. Groups of soldiers were filing in to the grounds in different uniforms with crazy bear skin hats and all at random times. Two marching band groups showed up at different times playing different songs. A soldier from this group or that group would yell some gibberish and pace around a bit. The only thing I could understand was “new guard” and “old guard” I watched this for about 45 minutes before I left. I was tired of the rude non-English speakers pushing me against the fence and elbowing me.

From the Palace I wandered up to the National Gallery. I wasn’t quite sure what I would see. Little did I know, a grand surprise awaited me inside the gallery. All I have to say is Monet! Monet! Monet! And van Gogh! van Gogh! van Gogh! They also had a few other famous guys like Rembrandt and da Vinci. I just could not believe it as my eyes feasted on the-real-deal Claude-Oscar Monet paintings – The Water-Lilly Pond (1899) my personal favorite, The Thames below Westminster (1871), The Gare St-Lazare (1877), and so much more! I wandered to the next room to find Vincent van Gogh. The gallery didn’t have Starry Night, but they did have Sunflowers (1888) and van Gogh’s Chair (1888). I stopped in the café and had a rhubarb-black current crisp. It was delicious!

After leaving the National Gallery, I headed out to find Harrods. I was told it was a must see. Harrods is a ridiculously large department store. It takes up almost a whole block and is 5 stories. It has every thing expensive you could want besides a car. Harrods had a huge section that was dedicated to pet fashion. I’m not kidding! They even had a pet dressing room. At the entrance was a huge golden statue of Diana and Dodi. I left Harrods and went to a pizza place. Yep, that’s right, pizza 2 days in a row. Again, they didn’t cut my pizza pie. I had a coke in a bottle. I haven’t seen fountain coke anywhere.

After eating I got back on the tube to see my favorite site of the trip – the Tower Bridge. This was amazing and beautiful! I walked across the bridge and learned that I could go up inside the towers for a fee. Thus far I hadn’t paid to see anything, so this was completely worth it. To get to the top, there was a series of twisty stairs. At the two landings, a screen was set up, each playing a movie about the history of the bridge. It took over 8 years to build, 423 workers, 11,000 tons of steel, and 31 million bricks. I feel like they also said some ridiculous number of bolts (2 million) were used in the bridge. I walked across the top support bridge for a fantastic view of the Thames and down the other side. Back on the riverbank the tour continued in the engine room. Massive hydraulics and steam engines are used to open and close the bridge. This was the highlight of my London adventure.

As I headed back to the hotel to collect my belongings, I began to frantically search for my luggage check ticket. I couldn’t find it. I searched my pocket and my bag many times. When I arrived at the hotel, I had to describe my bags, tell them what was in each bag, and show them my passport. The concierge verified that my name matched my baggage tags and I was on my way. Back to the bus and onto the train station. I created quite a stir on the overly crowed bus. My luggage was in the way of everyone. Oh well! I purchased my ticket for the train that too me further north in England. Then I stood and watched the display screen with tons of other people to see what platform the train would be at. As soon as the platform was displayed, there was a mad rush to the train. You would have thought it was Black Friday at Wal-Mart. Finally I was off to work for the rest of the week. Booooo! As I arrived at the train station of my destination, the sign read as follows:

London Top 5:

5. Guy with yellow jeans and cowboy boots

4. CBB (crazy British Bum)

3. The Tower Bridge

2. Monet / van Gogh

1. MIND THE GAP