London Day 2

Today we spent the day wandering around London with our mouths open in awe at the size of the city. Seriously, it’s huge and there are so many people everywhere. My dad would hate it. And honestly, I don’t blame him; by the end of the day I felt the same way.

We saw the changing of the guards today. We walked through St. James Park on our way to Buckingham Palace. The park is full of war memorials and ducks and swans and a big pelican that we stood around with a group of people. So glad the pelican pooped right as we took this picture!

By the time we got to Buckingham Palace, the place was already overcrowded with spectators. We got there right before the ceremony, we should have gone earlier but there was just so much to see along our way! We did get to see the procession however, and it was neat. I’m glad we did it.

After that we went to the National Gallery; a British art museum. I’m not really into art, but they had a lot of really beautiful paintings. They had one of my favorite pieces, I can’t remember exactly what it’s called, but I think it’s called The Lily Pond and it’s by Monet.

We ate at the café there and had the richest piece of chocolate cake I’ve ever had. Mitch made a good point: they probably put more butter and less sugar in their desserts than we do and that’s why European desserts can be so rich but not sweet at the same time. My hubby is so smart.

Next we saw Big Ben, the House of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey, all of which were way cooler then we had anticipated. I never knew that Big Ben was so ornate and fancy. And huge. I wished I could be Wendy and Mitch could have been Peter Pan and Brock and Jordan could have been John and Michael and we could have flown around Big Ben like in the movie. And Westminster Abbey was SO huge I couldn’t believe it. It’s a really neat building.

After that we went to one of my favorite things we’ve seen so far: The Tower of London. They have an exhibit right now of King Henry VIII, whom I find very intriguing, in a weird, murderer kind of way. Seriously, the guy ticks me off but he interested me at the same time. It was neat to see the tower where he imprisoned people. The castle itself is so incredibly old; I worried that it would crumble in on us or something. It was really neat to see and totally worth the money.

By the end of the day my poor feet were so tired and sore I could barely walk. It was sad. And painful. I was so happy when we made it back to the hotel room. We are going to bed halfway early tonight since we have to wake up so early to go to Paris tomorrow.

Oh, and if we ever live in London, I want this job:

a horse cop.