London - day 6

We had to switch hotels today so a few hours of our day was wasted on that. The hotel we stayed in at first was nice but a little uppity for our taste. It was very expensive but thanks to Kim and Jeff who told about "cash and points" we got to stay there for a much more reasonable price. The second hotel, however, was recommended by Budget Travel and was hip, cool, and modern. The staff was very nice and helpful and they had a business center that didn't charge you!

Residential street:
First stop was Harrod's again, with their egyptian escalators (I don't know what makes them egyptian).
Inside Harrod's:
Here's my reason for coming back - I bought the blue purse as my own souvenir to take home:
Picture of Harrod's in the background (the big building all the way in the back), and a London taxi in the foreground (which you see everywhere).
The Hoxton Hotel:

After we checked-in, we went to the British Musuem:

Second to Egypt, Britain has the most egyptian artifacts in the world, most of them here:


Real live (or dead) mummies:

Unwrapped mummy:
Bodies of the poor were often dumped in the desert sand which actually preserved them quite well:
Later, they started putting bodies in wooden caskets, which didn't preserve so well:

Chinese heritage:



Afterwards we ate at a pub (again) then headed back to the hotel as we had to get up early the next day for our tour to Stonehenge.

London - day 5

On day 5 of our trip, we got up, got ready to go, then decided to sleep some more because jet-lag was taking it's toll. In the afternoon we went to Greenwich. We took the light rail most of the way and then walked thru this under-river tunnel.
In Greenwich:
The Maritime museum, where once again we were not allowed to take pictures, but they did have Nelson's uniform jacket that he died in, complete with the bullet hole. He never married but he had a mistress for a long time, even had a daughter through her. The husband of the mistress even knew about, or at least looked the other way, isn't that weird?
The naval academy which was split in two down the middle so that the queen could get a better view out over the river. (We are standing next to the queen's house taking this picture).
The view from the Royal Observatory:

I am standing in both the Eastern and Western hemispheres!
Chad is standing over the Prime Meridian too.
Greenwich mean time:
The happy couple...
Afterwards we went to a pub, I even got strawberry beer!

London - day 4

Our first full day in London was spent looking at a lot of historical buildings. A lot of them you could go into but they charged an entrance fee, which was normally between 10 and 15, which is $20-$30, so we mostly just looked at the outside! Luckily, a lot of the museums are free, so we visited the National Gallery (where we got to see a lot of the Renaissance painters) and the Tate Modern on day 4.

First we went to Buckingham Palace hoping to see the changing of the guard, instead we just saw these two guys walk by...
Buckingham palace (really not that spectacular):
As we were leaving we saw these ?(what do call them, they're not knights are they?) heading toward Buckingham Palace.
Nelson's Column. Before going to London I had no idea who Horatio Nelson was. Thanks to Chad that is definitely changed now. We saw Nelson's column, Nelson's grave/memorial in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral, and an entire exhibit on Nelson's Navy in the Maritime museum.
We ate lunch at the Cafe in the Crypt of a nearby church.

Big Ben:
Parliment buidings:
St. Paul's Cathedral:
We payed the $20 entrance fee to go into St. Paul's Cathedral because you could climb the 534 stairs to the top of the dome and get great views of London. It was well worth it. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral but it was quite impressive.

It was very windy up there...


After the Cathedral we walked across the millennium bridge to Tate Modern art museum.
River Thames:

Again, we were not allowed to take photos in the museum except of the huge crack that was supposedly a piece of art in itself. Actually, they had this whole write up about what it was called and what it signified, pretty interesting, and a little weird, but then again, it is modern art.
River Thames at night:

That night we ate in China town at a place called upstairs-downstairs. Actually ,that is not the official name but that's what it's been nicknamed because as soon as you walk in, there's a guy standing there telling you (or barking at you, rather in an Asian accent) to either go "upstairs!" or "downstairs!". Well, we got upstairs and had to sit at a table with 2 other people. We ordered what had been recommended by one review that I read, but I thought the food was rather horrible. Probably the worst Chinese food I've ever had. I'd rather have China Express at Safeway. Feeling rather unsatisfied I topped it off with Hagaan-Daz ice-cream and we caught a movie at a mega-cinema, No Country for Old Men. It was a very good movie, dark but pretty funny and sarcastic. However, I've never paid so much for a movie: at 13 pounds a piece, that put the grand total at $52!!! Owell, I guess it was far cheaper than going to a show, which I'm not sure I would've really liked anyways.

London - day 3

It was 10 am when we arrived in London the next day. It was almost noon after we arrived at our hotel. We were so thankful that they had a room available for us early because we were so tired and took a nap for most of the afternoon. That evening, we walked to Hyde Park, then Kensington Palace and the Orangery at Kensington Gardens. We didn't get to go inside the Palace as it was closing but we got to have high tea at the Orangery (tea, scones, clotted cream, tea sandwiches, and orange cake - YUM!). Then we had our first experience on the tube (London's subway), and went souvenir shopping at Harrod's (a massive department store).

King Arthur memorial:
Orangery at Kensington Gardens:
High tea:
The tube: