Three Days in London

So... I was hoping to post pictures, but that doesn't look possible from the computer that I get to use. So hopefully I can describe some of this to you...

London is walking walking walking, on the streets, but mostly getting to and from the Tube -- the London Underground. But when I'm on the streets I'm stunned at just how much brick architecture there is in this city. Just about everything is built with brick, except for the landmark monuments.

England is moving too quick! After arriving on Tuesday, we checked into the hostel and went down to the London Eye for a view of the city, and then Parliament Square, and walked around the Houses of Parliament, and then Westminster Abbey.

On Wednesday, we had a great English breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon on toast near Leicester ("Lester") Square, before heading over to the O2 for the Tutankhamen exhibit. All the walking had us thoroughly exhausted by the time we returned to the YHA Hostel. After about an hour, we finally got back out and headed over to Covent Garden for dinner, looking in vain for a Fish 'n Chips place. We were foiled but found a decent place to eat nonetheless.

After dinner, we finally made our way over to the Queen's Theatre to see Les Miserables, which was absolutely incredible. They used this rotating stage to move around the action and the set. We had excellent seats too, first row of the first balcony for halfprice -- £28 + tax -- because we'd waited in line after breakfast.

Yesterday was Wimbledon. I didn't know this, but most of the tickets are first come, first serve. The queue for it is enormous, but moves fairly quickly. We got £20 ground passes, having lined up around 9am, for gates that opened at 10, and we actually made it in aroud 11:30 I think. The other thing that surprised me about Wimbledon was how close you get to most of the matches. We didn't go to the main courts, but we did make it to the side courts. Many of which you're standing right alongside the court, though we sat in seats for the two that we saw the most of, including Haas upset Robredo.

We finally got our fish 'n chips dnner at a pub off Trafalger Square, which was under construction for Veteran's Day, which is today. So there were a lot of barricades around. Much to my surprise, the Square includes a statue of George Washington, which Virginia donated about 70 years ago.

After dinner we walked down Mall Ave to Buckingham Palace and looked around. It's actually bigger than you might think. From there we walked over to Hyde Park corner and took the tube over to the British Museum, whose exhibits closed earlier than we expected, so we only got to see the Great Hall. Don't know if we'll get to return. Someday I'm going to come back here and see more of it!

Today we're off to Stonehenge and the town of Bath, and tomorrow we'll hang out before making our way to Portsmouth, and the ferry to Caen, France on Sunday. Hopefully tomorrow we actually get the chance to go inside Westminster Abbey, but nonetheless we're going to see the Tower of London.

Please pray that my feet survive their blisters! :)