Sitting at the train station in Venice waiting for mom and Megan to arrive, since I read during the train ride I figured I could start typing up London for the 15 minute wait for them to get here.
July 8:
Got up early (7am) and finished packing, then off to the bus stop. Jumped on 197 and had a long ride to Schiphol. Traversed the airport, checked our bags, then off to the gate. Now on the bumpy delayed plane about to take off. London here we come! Gatwick airport - tix to Gatwick express train to London. 20 pounds each - pricey! Got to the train station and got some "King Tango" (like Fanta) and a sausage roll (not bad). Got on the train. Now off to London for reals. Arrived, waited in line to buy an Oyster card at Victoria station and ended up buying day passes instead. Rode to Pimlico, walked to our hostel and up 2 flights to our room (#8). Got settled in, changed to shorts and a tank top (hot!) and headed out to try to find a place to fix my phone and explore. Took double decker bus #24 to Victoria again and found the Apollo Victoria Theatre playing Wicked. Checked out the box office and Nathan bought two tickets for tonight! 25 pounds each, not bad. No luck on the phone - they don't make this model in the UK :-(. Hopped on the underground and got off at Westminster for exploring! Big Ben, London Eye, parliament, and hot dogs and roasted peanuts for sale on the bridge. Finally grabbed pasties and headed home to shower, change, and back to Victoria for the show! Great show - could really hear the accents! Weird thing was the crowd - people in tank tops and ripped jean shorts eating chips and popcorn, more like a movie theater! Bought a poster there - hopefully we can keep it nice. Hanging out at the hostel bar now - looking up phone info and skyping with the fam. Hopefully its not too hot to sleep!
As an aside, melting here in Venice (at the hostel now), I didn't know what hot was yet in London :-p
July 9:
Writing on the tube. Woken early by Aussies having a chat in the room at full volume around 7am - no respect! Got ready late and barely made breakfast at 10:30. Too late for the free tour so we took our time and then headed to the Tower of London (bus 24 to Victoria then train to Tower Hill). Huge place! Latched on to part of a tour, saw exhibits on the mint and torture, and inside the white tower was a big exhibit on weapons and the armory. Also waited in a long but quick line to see the crown jewels. A lot of gold, etc but almost just looks like costume jewellery. Grabbed some ice cream and a pin of the white tower, then went to a ticket shop to see if they had Book of Mormon fix - no luck. Now have to rest, relax, hopefully grab some fish & chips for dinner, and maybe see some sites at night. Took a long nap then up and out walking looking for food. Finally decided on Prince of Wales - took us awhile to figure out that we had to order food at the bar. We got bangers and mash (but they ran out of mash so subbed chips, and the sausage was gross) and fish and chips which were greasy and delicious. Caught the 24 bus home then hung out and in the room and chatted with Lyle from Louisiana (34, in the army, bearded). Now hanging out in the hostel bar trying to figure out how to do the rest of London in a day and a half. Looks like an early to bed night, shower, and breakfast tomorrow. (The hot chocolate here was not good).
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