London - Day 2

There is nothing like a big, air conditioned, luxury hotel to make a person feel better. The hotel offered (for a large price, as are all things in London) a wonderful "traditional English breakfast" which I loved (as I do all breakfasts) but which also offered some surprises: eggs (poached, scrambled and hard boiled), potatoes (wedges and formed hash browns - like McDonald's), black bacon (what is this?!?), weird sausage links, regular bacon (sort of), mushrooms and tomatoes. Mmmmm mmmm!

Off we went to Buckingham Palace to catch a glimpse and see if we could see the changing of the guards. A police officer told me that the changing of the guards would take place at 11:20AM ("twenty past eleven, miss"). That wasn't too far off so we walked around, took some photos and waited. And waited and waited. If it weren't for the fact that we have 2 days in London and a lot to see, I don't think I would have lost my mind like I did, but by noon I was incredibly irritated. It was noon on day 1 of 2 and we hadn't done anything yet. As we started to walk away the changing of the guards process began and we were very happy that we stayed long enough to catch it.

The next stop was Westminster Abbey where we were blown away at every turn. If you haven't been, please read more about it. The opportunity to see the graves of Isaac Newton, Charles Dickens and insurmountable kings and queens and hundreds of others - as well as the place that held Princess Diana's funeral was incredible.

As we left Westminster we took a moment to take in the sights of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliment. Then we crossed the Thames River and took a ride on the London Eye. Wow.

After the Eye we parted ways as UB had plans to attend a Public Enemy show with some friends and I had plans to relax. I decided to walk for a while to take in the sights and pretend I was big-city-Gootch, versus suburban-mom-Gootch for a little while. I quickly came upon Trafalgar Square, which is a beautiful area filled with people relaxing. It was about 6pm on a Friday night and it was packed with people just starting their weekend. I decided to keep moving and possibly walk all the way back to our hotel. I walked and walked, and kept checking the buses to make sure they were the ones headed in my direction. Soon enough I came upon St Paul's Cathedral. The bad news about this sight is that it was in the opposite direction of our neighborhood. Oops. I stopped in a Starbucks and humbly got out the map. Once I found my way home I called room service and enjoyed a quiet, relaxing night in.

Brad came home late - and extremely frustrated. We found the public transportation system in London to be lacking - mainly because they shut down large portions of it for the "Bank Holiday", deeply effecting our ability to get around how we pleased. This said, he loved the Public Enemy show. Good for him, I say.