Thursday, May 7, 2009

The weather was turning on us and the rain was coming, so things in Piccadilly were pretty quiet.

You know you’re in London, when you see stuff like this...

... and these!

If I was going to be a London Cabbie, I would love a pink cab like this!

After Piccadilly Circus, we walked over to Buckingham Palace to check out the Queen’s digs.

The gates and gardens around Buckingham Palace were very pretty.

The big fountain/statue in front of the palace was also impressive.

I loved the lights around the palace.

Since we had such limited time in London, we skipped the changing of the guard.  We didn’t want to take the time to wait for it.

The gates around the palace were pretty cool too.

After Buckingham Palace, we walked by the Palace Guard Museum/Academy and saw these dudes outside training. We watched them for a while marching with their drum and guns.

I have to say, Westminster Abbey was my very favorite place in London.  The Wayneman didn’t go in because it cost 12 pounds to get in.  I thought it was money well spent.  I wish he had gone in because this place is absolutely incredible.

I loved this quote engraved on the outside of the church.

They had this big tank outside that the Wayneman thought would be cool to  test drive.

Look out! The Wayneman’s getting serious now! Guess he missed his calling in the Marines when he became a Bank Auditor.

After Buckingham Palace, we headed over to the coolest church ever - Westminster Abbey.

The interior of the church was just beautiful.  It was too bad you couldn’t take pictures inside.  I was only able to sneak a few with my iPhone.

The sweeping ceilings when you enter the Abbey take your breath away.

This place is a virtual who’s who of burials and memorials. From Mary Queen of Scots & Elizabeth to Lawrence Olivier.

Poets Corner is yet another who’s who of burials and memorials.

This is the Coronation Chair. Since the coronation of Edward II in 1308, almost every monarch has been crowned in this chair.  Imagine the history (and royal butts) this chair has seen!  Sorry my picture isn’t too clear of the chair.  It was tough to sneak this one without getting caught, so this was the best I could do with the chair.

So, as you can see, Westminster Abbey is really an incredible place. You could easily spend hours in there checking the place out.

After Westminster, we walked over to the Houses of Parliament and got a closer look at Big Ben.

The London Eye was built temporarily for the millennium celebration. But, Londoners loved it so much, they are keeping it.

The Houses of Parliament building is enormous.  Here’s a view of it from our next stop, the London Eye.

The London Eye is basically a very slow moving ferris wheel that you ride in while enjoying the best sweeping views of London.

Each flight around the wheel takes about 30 minutes.

I think the London Eye is an absolute must for any visit to London.

When in London, you have to take a cab somewhere just to ride in the big cabs and enjoy the London cabbies.

Some rides aren’t so enjoyable though.

Just kidding! We enjoyed our short taxi ride and our cabbie was great.

We took the cab from the London Eye over to the famous Tower Bridge.

Everyone recognizes this awesome bridge!

Just our luck, the drawbridge was raised right while we were there!  That was pretty cool!

It was unfortunate that we were running out of time and didn’t get a chance to go inside the Tower of London.  It looked pretty neat.

Once the bridge came back down, we walked across and took a stroll by the Tower of London.

One of the must-do things in London is to see a play at one of London’s many West End theaters.  When it came time to buying tickets for a London show, I did lots of research to find a good play to see. I gave the Wayneman lots of suggestions (from Dirty Dancing to Grease), but he said no for each of my ideas. So, we settled on Three Days of Rain starring James McAvoy.

My cousin Laura, is seriously in love with James McAvoy. She was pretty jealous that we got to see James in person in the show. She was even more jealous when we got to meet him after the show!

But, we kept Laura in mind when we met James McAvoy.  We got Laura his autograph in the program and I also had him say hi to her in a video.  This thrilled her of course!  (Please disregard my horribly shrill voice).

As for the show, it was just OK.  During the intermission, the Wayneman asked me if he could leave and meet me afterwards because he wasn’t enjoying it at all.  I just told him to take a nap.  He was fine with that and settled in for a snooze during the second act of the show.

After the show, we strolled back to our hotel.  First we made a pit stop at Piccadilly Circus to see it all lit up at night.

This was not only our last night in London, but also the last night of our Europe trip. 

Our trip sure has flown by fast!  The next day, it was off to Heathrow for our long flight home!

For dinner, we wanted to have a London staple - Fish & Chips!  So we asked our cabbie for a good place in the West End area to get great Fish & Chips.  He recommended The Rock & Sole Plaice.

The Wayneman and I split this honkin’ piece of cod and fries!  It was very good too!  We left off the vinegar and just used ketchup.