Eventful day 2

What a day...both good and bad. I'll give you the bad first. We had some time left on the hop-on hop-off busses and decided to take one to the London Tower this morning. We planned to tour the inside. We "hopped off" only to find that I had left my tripod on the bus. As the bus drove by, a woman was waving it at me saying "you forgot your thingey." So we took off running hoping we would be able to catch them at a stop light. We ran a few blocks until we couldn't see them anymore. We went back and waited for the next bus hoping that they would leave it with one of the attendants at the on/off locations. The bus driver radioed to the other busses to ask if the tripod had been turned in, but it hadn't. We rode through until the route ended and it still had not been turned in. I guess the woman figured out that the "thingey" was a tripod and decided to keep it for herself. Europe - 1; us - 0

The tour ended in Picadilly Circus which is quite a ways away from the London Tower and our hostel. We walked around a little longer and even found a China town. After eating the smallest ice cream I've seen (and i it was about $3 US), we decided to try to get back on the bus and make our way back to the tower. The attendant told us the "Gold" line would take us right to the tower. We hopped on and after about 45 minutes, we still were not there. We finally asked the guide how long it would be and he said, "oh, another hour." We explained to him that we had been told we would go straight there and he said we had been "misinformed." We apparently should have gotten on the "Green" line. By that time, we could not catch the green line and by the time the gold line got there, the Tower would be closed. So, we decided to hop of the next stop and just make our way back towards the hostel. We found an underground station and hopped on the tube...just in time for rush hour traffic. We were literally sandwiched...I have never been so crowded in all of my life...and at every stop, more people piled in. Luckily, no one around me had bad breath or smelly arm pits.

We got to Earl's Court Station only to find that the next tube we needed to take was not running due to a union strike...and Earl's Court is further away than our original location of Picadilly Circus. So our options were to pay even more money and jump on a bus that we hoped would take us there, or walk. I nice "civil police man" helped us with directions to walk back and warned us of the long walk. We had already walked quite a ways, but we thought we would just try it. On our way, we walked past Kennsington Palace. Almost the entire length of the front rod iron fence was covered in flowers, photos, poems, and posters in remembrance of Princess Diana's death 10 years ago.

We continued walking for what seemed like 20 miles...but was closer to 5. At one point I stopped to take a picture of a garden and house and stepped into the parallel parking area. A man driving a Mercedes honked at me as if I was in his way and Wendy looked at the car and said, "she's not even in the road." The next sound we heard was screeching tires and the man rolled down his window and said, "what did you say?" We both ignored him and he drove away...then we almost fell over laughing. I told Wend that she needed to be sure there were witnesses before she yelled at a passer-by again...just in case. :-)

Now, the best part of our day was definitely our tour of Westminster Abbey. It was breath taking! I was slightly creaped out that we were literally walking on tombs, but I was amazing nonetheless. I can't even explain the intricate detail carved in the stone walls, floors, and ceiling. My neck ached by the time we left from looking up. Once we entered the Nave, there was a stand that would hold hundreds of tea candles. A not on the stand invited you to say a prayer for your family, friends, and country and light a candle. How could we resist? In fact...we came back and lit another one, just because we can. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures, but take my word for it, it was magnificent!

We also walked around St. Paul's Cathedral. It, too, was beautiful. Riding in the tour bus, we were able to learn little tid-bits about the area that we would not have known otherwise. Such as, there is a Texas Embassy with the flag flying and all. But, it's a steak house. It is there because it was the location that the documents were signed to give Texas independence from England.

All in all, we still had a great day. We have been laughing the whole time I wrote this blog just thinking about how our day went. What a crazy day!

Well, tomorrow we will head to Paris! We are very excited...but unsure of how we will get to Waterloo station because of the strike. I guess we will worry about that tomorrow.

Cheerio!