London!

Thursday, the 27^th of Jan.

I am so pumped to be headed back to London WITHOUT all the luggage.  Good grief that was so miserable hauling all that gear around the Tube and train.  We took the train from Cambridge to King’s Cross and changed over to the Tube (the Underground).  From there we went to Buckingham Palace.  Quite regal.  There was some kind of ceremony going on and we could see in and watch them taking pictures with some dignitary.  The Palace is quite impressive and their guards look way cooler than our Secret Service, but if I wanted someone protecting me, I’d pick our boys every day of the week.

The English are quite thoughtful of us poor ignorant Americans and I kept cracking up at the street paintings which remind us to look the other way before crossing.  I finally took a picture of one just because it amused me.  (FN1)



Haley missed Elizabeth’s “look serious” memo.



Next, since any tour of London is not complete without large department stores, we went to Harrods of London.  It wasn’t my choice to go there, but man, it was something else to see.  We never even made it past the first two levels.  It was HUGE.  Easily the entire city block and I think seven stories tall.  They had about eight restaurants in the bottom.  They had several large rooms for watches only.  It was ridiculous.  We saw a watch there that was £750,000 ($1,200,000)!  For a WATCH!  It was wild.



We at lunch at this place called Pret, and I only mention it because I HIGHLY endorse it.  It was awesome and fairly cheap for London.

Next we moved on to the Thames, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and the Eye of London because they are all right together.  Big Ben is really cool looking and impressive.  It looks simultaneously futuristic and historical.  It sits on the corner of the Houses of Parliament which were also cool looking, especially for government buildings which are normally quite drab.  We didn’t go into Westminster Abbey because it costs a lot of money and I wasn’t presently interested in paying money to see dead people.  Some day when I have more money and time I definitely want to see it though.

Big Ben and the Tube

Parliament and one of the iconic double-decker buses

Another shot of the Houses of Parliament

Westminster Abbey

The River Thames

Then we moved on to see the changing of the guard at the Household Calvary.  It was kind of cool, but not a lot of action for the time it took.  It’s like all the other changing of the guard ceremonies I’ve seen, except on horseback, which was kind of cool. 

Then we moved on to

Trafalgar Square

, which is a place I’ve always wanted to see.  I think it’s because every good novel set in England mentions it (authors from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Tom Clancy have used it).  So even though there’s not much there the girls graciously indulged me. 

It was only a short walk from the Square to Café in the Crypt.  Which is at St. Martins in the Fields! The NPR nerd in me got really excited when I realized that.  *smooth voice talking* “And now we’ll have Gianni Schicchi’s O mio babbino caro played by the Orchestra of the Academy of St. Martins in the Fields directed by Peter Frankl.”

 The Café is actually in old catacombs and it was so cool.  We had a spot of tea nestled in the catacombs and it was delightful.  As we were leaving they turned out the lights and lit candles so I made a mental note to go back some time in the evening.  (I am DEFINITELY going back, despite the fact that Elizabeth and I separately spotted mice roaming.  Haha.)

We spent the rest of the day wondering the shopping district.  Anthro was my favorite because it had great chairs for me to sit and read emails on my Blackberry.  I also have to give a shout-out to FCUK.  As in French Connection United Kingdom.

FN1.  Traffic.  Actually, it isn’t just Americans.  Brits, and their former possessions/territories, are about the only people in the world who drive on the left side of the road. In fact, about 2/3 of the world drive on the right side of the road.