London, United Kingdom

Ways to get over jet lag….
1/ spend the day resting with a beer or two,
2/ slowly work your way into the holiday, or
3/ smash out the kilometres walking all over London

Guess which one we chose?

We have walked forever today, checking out heaps of sights.
Started by wandering aimlessly trying to find somewhere to buy a day pass for the tube. The local line was shut for the weekend. Finally bought tickets in Vauxhall, and made our way via double decker bus into the city.
First stop was Westminster Abbey, which was pretty spectacular, as was Parliament House.
Didn’t go into Westminster as the queue was forever, but saw William marry Kate on the TV, so got some ideas as to the interior!

To appease Brendan we dropped in on Westminster Cathedral instead, which I must say is a little drab by comparison.

Easy to see who’s running the show in England!
Made our way to Victoria Station, pass a multitude of Starbucks, and on to Buckingham Palace.
As we got closer the crowds got bigger and bigger…..couldn’t work out what all the fuss was about.

As luck would have it, the Queen was in town so they had the full changing of the guards ceremony which we fluked seeing.

Plonked ourselves front and centre, and didn’t see a thing ‘cos we were too busy videoing it!

Kidding…..pretty impressive show, and probably the only free one we’ll get!

Thru St. James’s Park to Downing Street, which had some of the most impressively armed coppers, but not much of a view of no. 10.
More walking to Trafalgar Square, which had some concert on, so didn’t see much except crowds, so on for our cultural moment at the National Gallery.
The National Gallery’s main attraction is Van Gogh’s famous sunflowers……which was on loan to Amsterdam.
Oh, well……Some pretty groovy Picasso’s and Monet’s made up for it….sort of.
Up Regent Street, a quick bite at a quaint little cafe called “pret-a-manger”, one of only about a thousand in town, then thru Soho and on to Oxford Street.

Crowds!
My God, how many people can be shopping in one area?
Answer……heaps!
And, unlike on-line happy Australia, they are buying.
Anyway, we battled our way thru they crowds and ended up at Hyde park, which I thought was famous for its speakers corner.
Speakers anywhere….hello speakers…..
None! Bloody useless name for this corner!!!
Nice park, though.
Coffee at The Serpentine, then via tube to London Bridge.
‘London Bridge is falling down, falling down….’, well, it’s replacement is a bloody disappointment.
Swan Street bridge is more exciting.
Just a bog standard concrete nothing.
Still the Thames is interesting, very tidal. Flowing very quickly.

We see Tower Bridge in the distance, pretty cool, so head off that way, and discover the Tower of London.
Probably the first to notice it…..not!
As it’s now 5.50, and the gates close at 6, we decide to buy tickets for tomorrow. Might be rushing it a bit to get thru all the beheadings in 10 minutes?!

Bus home.

Picking dinner was tricky, one place was a nice Thai style pub, the other welcomed you with a big sign at the bar letting everyone know that “David Naught is BARRED!”
Guess where we went.

Great day, covered most of the colours on the monopoly board.
Much murder and mayhem tomorrow!!