The B's Have Landed

We made it to London! and with our last 12 hours in this town I finally found free internet to blog with - although we've been able to update our status and make comments via FaceBook, I have been desperate for some real internet. So where do we finally find it - not at Starbucks, but at the game arcade, of all places!

We were staying in Camden Lock until today, when we moved hotels because we added a day way back when and couldn't get the same hotel for another night. Camden is a very unusual and eclectic place - I call it Punk Bohemian, in that most everyone has one or more combinations of the following: hair with two or more colors, black leather clothing with studs, fishnets of some kind, and copious piercings. Needless to say, I would've loved this place in high school, and can appreciate it now, but most of the peeps seem to be under the influence of something at all times. But the people are really harmless, and the place has an overall carnival feel (I mean that in a horrified curiosity kind of way...)

So here is our adventure so far, working backwards from today - feel free to scroll past the drivel and just look at the pictures!


Wednesday July 22 - The London Eye and Madame Tussuad's:
It's just after 2 pm our time and we just got off the London Eye. They call it a flight, and it's pretty cool. The ride is sweet! - Smooth and roomy! Nice views of Parliament and Big Ben (which is really just the bell inside the tower), and Westminster Abbey, among many other sites.

This morning we went to Madame Tussuad's Wax Museum, which was a lot of fun despite the crowds which seem to be clueless as to any sort of order or manners. Pretty much par for the course here in London - since everyone seems to be from out of town. The figures are just placed about in different rooms based on themes, and people just wander willy nilly up to one to have their picture taken. Imagine this though with hundreds of people... Most of the celebs look really good and realistic, like Samuel Jackson, Tom Cruise, the Queen... Nicole Kidman's is really amazing, and Jim Carrey was picking Emma's nose. I got to whisper my phone number to George Clooney...we'll see if he calls or not!

Tuesday - Windsor Castle
Missed the 7:45 am alarm, so got a late start to Windsor. The weather was drizzling on and off, starting as soon we got off the train and to the castle. They give you an audio tour, in which you enter the stop number you're at and it gives you all sorts of good info. Prince Charles even welcomed us to the castle - via audio, that is!

It is gorgeous there and the castle is at the top of a hill of row shops. St. George's Cathedral is just stunning (no pictures allowed) and the Queen's parents are buried in a small chapel off the knave there. King Henry VIII is also there, and surprisingly, not in any fancy burial vault of any kind.

Saw a changing of the guard at a guard shack, and although it wasn't all the pomp and circumstance of the guard changing at Buckingham Palace, it was still interesting and amazing to watch the precision of this seemingly ordinary military maneuver.


Monday Buckingham Palace Changing of the Guard and Tower Bridge -
Our first full day! Operating on fumes ... and only 3 hours sleep in 36 hours...
First off; the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. We procured our place at the front of the golden gates early enough to get front row, only to be smashed like mushy peas (mashed green peas - yummy!) against the fence when the crowds started to build. Poor Emma was really smashed, but she held on long enough to get a good view.

The military band played, and that was quite a sight to see the changing of the guard band. Once they were in their general place in front of the gates, they were put to company rest and ordered to get their music stands, which happened to be directly in front of us. It was quite funny when the soldiers approached the gate to gather the stands, and the crowd gasped with oooo's and ahhhs! How the soldiers must feel like they're in the zoo at times - being the gorillas that break out of their normal behavior to beat on the glass and startle the masses. They must secretly roll their eyes at us.

The lead tuba player walked up to the conductor and told him the song to perform, at which time the tuba player walked the inside of the horseshoe formation to tell each musician which song to prepare for. Of course it featured the low brass section, and I'd like to think they chose it especially for Austin! The band sounded AMAZING, and with only one flutist (a woman!) I was amazed at how well I could hear her playing above all the brass. It was quite a spectacle, indeed!

We booked it right to the Tower of London and went on the Beefeater's tour - that was pretty cool. So much historic death and mayhem, I'm surprised the walls don't bleed!

The Yoeman Warders are all retired military service men, and had to have served at least 15 years in one the Queens forces and be of a certain rank; our guide having served 18 in the army (and not looking old enough!).

Get this for perks: you get to live in the Tower with your family, and when you retire, the Queen buys you a house in the country! The yoeman's only have to conduct a tour once or twice a month; the rest of the time they have security service elsewhere - either in the Tower or "Wherever else the Queen deems our service."

Every day a secret password is issued to the guard workers and they can get into the Tower any time up until midnight. Good luck trying to leave the Tower after midnight if you don't have the password... Like our guide said, it's the safest place in Britain to raise your 16 year old daughter!

Toured the Tower Bridge (that's the FAN-cy one that most people call the London Bridge) - you go in one tower, walk up a ton of stairs, cross over the pedestrian bridge on top, and walk down the other tower. The bridge opened up for a tall-masted sailboat while we were up there. Couldn't see much of that, but we got to see it lift again to let the sailboat back out when we back down to street level and looking for the Tube stop.

Found dinner someplace (don't ask me where because I can't remember!) but it wasn't pub food; as we have yet to have any authentic pub grub yet! Boo!