Day 12: London

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I love London! After some slight confusion trying to find the correct tube station, we made it to Hyde Park Corner where we met up with the New London tour, as we'd previously done in other cities. Our guides name was Catie, and she was brilliant. We were lucky enough to not have much rain until later in the afternoon and enjoyed the sites of Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, St. James Palace, Green Park, 10 Downing St (Home to the Prime Minister), the Horseguards (my favorite of course!), Big Ben (better known to Londoners as the Clock Tower), Churchill's War Cabinet bunker, the Houses of Parliament (housed within Westminster Palace), Westminster Abbey, and pretty much every other important site in London. Did you know that Green park got it's name because Charles II was quite the ladies man? Apparently, he would pick flowers along his way during his morning constitution through the park and take them to his mistresses. His wife, not likely this too much, ordered all the flowers be removed from the park and it remains that way to this day.

Once the tour was over, Robert and I grabbed a bite to eat at this quaint little Italian restaurant, which turned out to be quite a bustling place. After we were rushed through our meal, we ventured over to the Horseguard museum and were lucky enough to be just in time for the daily 4 O'clock inspection of the guard; Much more entertaining than the actual changing of the guard at the Palace. I found out that the guards will respond to you but only in very, VERY small ways; one of them winked at me! By this time it was raining, but the sinister weather seemed the perfect opportunity to visit the Tower of London. I find it amazing that a building that was started over 1000 years ago is still standing. After that we walked over the Tower Bridge to explore the south side of the Thames. We visited Shakespeare's Globe Theater, and it was beautiful; it's such an amazing feeling to stand in a place that Shakespeare once stood. Our last stop was St. Paul's Cathedral, and I'd like to say that it was just as amazing as everything else, but to be perfectly honest I don't remember all that much about it because I was about to fall of my feet!

Good news is that we made it back to the hostel! After taking a small break, drinking sounded like a pretty good idea, so for the first time on this trip I had more than just one pint of beer, and it was awesome! We met some Aussie's, James and Sam, in our room, and went to the bar at our hostel for happy hour. I finally let loose and had some fun that didn't consist of history. It's great meeting people from all over the world, and this was by far the best night I've had on my trip so far.

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Photos

Night at the Generator
James, Me, Sam and Robert