This day began relatively early (although not with a 4am wake up like the following morning… yikes!!) with a bus tour of London, including many sights we'd seen before, many new ones and such things like the outside of Westminister Abbey. This was continued with an hour to watch the Queen and other royals parade with the military down the Mall toward their Trouping the Colour ceremony (it was the Queen's Official Birthday). We saw people such as Prince William and Camilla; Prince Andrew and his daughters; and the Queen and Prince Edward.
The tour concluded at Harrods where we wandered around for a few minutes before attempting to take the tube to Madam Tussauds. Here's where I say attempted, because I had my bag caught in the train doors on my way in and my mom didn't get on the train car. Suffice to say I couldn't find my mother for a seriously long period of time (she ended up going to Madame Tussauds, while I gave up on finding her in the line and went exploring). We eventually reunited at the hotel quite a while later.
While my mom was waiting in line/exploring Madame Tussauds (which while she didn't enjoy it alone, I may want to visit it some day, with friends [not alone]), I wandered… from Southbank on foot I found a great market (which I wasn't in the mood to eat from, but I enjoyed exploring), the Globe (which I still want to see a show at but didn't), some cool looking museums which I wanted to visit but didn't) and ended up crossing the Millenium Bridge toward St. Pauls and took the Tube back to the hotel… where I fortunately found Mom… who had somehow made it back (yay!).
From there we took a confusing journey by Tube back to St. Pauls (various tube lines were closed due to construction or whatever that day) and looked around the Cathedral for a while before finding a sushi shop (with conveyer belts!!) and then heading to Southbank via the Millenium Bridge.
I dragged my mom around the Tate Modern. Her feet hurt but I was SO enjoying myself. Gosh how I appreciate Barb Churchill (one of my fave profs) for teaching me about some of this stuff before I actually got to see it… Italian Futurism especially! And Cubism… and other great stuff! And how about my Non-Fiction profs for showing me so many great altered books so I could get an appreciation for them in the museum and… GOSH I loved that!!
We walked about some more to find London Bridge (which we saw from afar) and then we returned to the hotel… (en route we found some fish & chips… which was mediocre). The next morning would be an early one… so while it was a full and amazing day we did end it before long.
General comments about London:
-I want to see more shows in London in the future!
-I want to see the British Museum and many other museums
-I would enjoy seeing Madame Tussauds with friends
-I want to see a show at the Globe
-Seeing the Tate Modern again would be cool
-I do want to eat a bit more English food…
-And yes, there remains SO MUCH more to see!
-But I loved the London Underground system.