Day 3 - London

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After getting to bed at about 3:00am I couldn't sleep, probably from being over tired so was waking up on and off from about 6:45am and the sun was shining through the window, so that wasn't helping me either. And, because of that the room had warmed up enormously so was kind of waking up almost in sweats.
Moving on. I had a quick shower and Mary attempted a run, I got ready and headed down to the lobby to use the internet and Mary met me there so we could head in for our included breakfast. Toast with strawberry jam, fruit and juice.
Mary headed up to shower and get ready and I stayed in the lobby until I broke the internet on my phone. I headed up then Carl messaged to say that he was in the lobby waiting for us. Carl is from my first USA Contiki tour from 2009 and he lives just out of London so had caught the train in to spend the day being a tourist with Mary and I.
We jumped on the tube to Waterloo Station to go and see our first stop, the London Eye. We took some photos then walked along the river Thames toward the Houses of Parliament and crossed over the Westminster Bridge to take photos with Big Ben. We then moved round the corner to Westminster Abbey. We walked further again to Downing Street, the home of David Cameron, the British Prime Minister. After that we moved on to the Horse Guards Parade that was actually being set up for an Internationa Beach Volleyball Competition at that point, and will also house the Beach Volleyball Events come London Olympics 2012. After that we headed up The mall toward Buckingham palace and took some photos there before heading back down The Mall, through Admirality Arch to Trafalgar Square. There are huge lions here that we attempted to climb on but failed so we resorted to standing next to one. There was also a big like, boat in a bottle there which was really cool. We also saw the offical Olypic countdown clock they have in the middle of the square. From there we moved up in the direction of Picadilly Circus but stopped on the way for some lunch at a little Italian Place. We moved from there to Leicester Square and on to Picadilly Circus where we today went in to the M&M's store. It was much like the one in New York but probably even bigger again. Very impressive. They even had the four colour M&M's copying the Beatles crossing the zebra crossing at Abbey Road.
From the M&M's store we walked up Regent Street past a lot of the big name shops the caught a bus up Oxford Street to the new forever 21 store that opened 2 days ago. It's the first one to open here but doesn't come close to the stores in USA. From there Carl and I had well and truely had enough so we jumped back on the tube at Bond Street leaving Mary to shop her lil heart out. I'd managed to hurt my ankle either when I tripped on dodgy pavement or even just for walking. Either way i could bearly put any pressure on my left foot without pain shooting up the outside. We managed to hobble back to the hotel where we spent the next few hours reminising of our 2009 trip and looking through Carl's photobook that he'd done of that trip. It was probably about 2hours before Mary came back and I typed this up.
Mary was having a snooze so Carl and I decided to go and get a bite to eat and try and find something open to get something to put on my ankle to try and stop it hurting but by this time everthing nearby was shut so instead we found Nandos. After our big pizza at lunch I wasnt really hungry so just got a small chips and a drink. I said my goodbyes to Carl as he was catching the train back home and I walked back to the hotel.
When I got back Mary was still asleep so i had a lay down and drifted off before very qucikly Mary's phone ringing and I woke. We were supposed to catch up with someone from our USA/Canada Contiki tonight but I decided against it with my ankle.
Mary decided she would still go out briefly with the boys and girls from last night so I stayed in and had a lovely relaxing bath, sorted out 3 days of photos and prepacked my bag for tomorrows flight to Athens. I finished this off, and went to sleep. Mary texted me at about 2:45am to say she was staying at her friends place and would meet me in the morning for breakfast.

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Comments

[Carl]

Yay! It's me! In your blog again for the first time in 2 years!! hehe Had such an awesome day with you hun. Was so great to explore London's touristy stuff together, but also so great to reminisce back at the hotel too. Looking forward to September now! x x