London: Day 2

'Old on to your knickers! Best night sleep for me ever! Steph somehow managed to stay awake from midnight-6:30 am, so she's felt refreshed all day... not! We changed rooms for free to a huge executive suite. Jeff and Steph have their own room within a room and I have a nice, comfortable cot in the front seating room. It is great! We also have a train that goes by every minute or so, just like on Harry Potter, but no "Monster Book of Monsters" on the floor eating up our shoes. Plus the room doesn't shake and get all dusty when it passes. It is very fun. I think growing up with train tracks in my backyard trained me to sleep through it all! Someone must have put a pea under Steph's mattress.

Today was an absolutely GORGEOUS day in London! Like my Dad said, we felt like a couple 'o school gurls on 'oliday! We woke up with a free room service breakfast at 8:30 am. Jeff left about an hour earlier than that to start his day. Room service breakfast is free every day of our stay and it's incredible! Duke does it right!!! (sorry Dave :) We got pasteries and 4 tiny jam jars and butter to spread on rolls. The best hot chocolate ever with cream and sugar, thick and sweet pancakes, fruit and cereal. Steph almost downed the mimosa, but I have luckily been around a few of those before and saved the day, so she won't have to go talk to her bishop. :)

After an incredible breakfast and getting ready we headed out to the "tube". But our whole area is shut down because of construction this weekend, so we got on a double decker bus! They are red and are just like the night bus on H.P., except, no shrunken heads or evil Stanley Shunpike drivers. Jeff has been the only one to get an evil, mean driver. He came out to meet us (side story) and got on a bus, asked the driver if it would take him to the right street. The driver told him to go out and look at the number... and then drove OFF!!! Leaving Jeff in the dust! Scrunch! Steph and I were a bit overwhelmed at first making sure we got off on the right exits, so we got off a bit early on our way to Buckingham Palace- which was actually awesome! We ended up in Trafalgar's Square, walked around in a few shops and then headed down toward the palace. We veered off of the main road and walked down by St. James Park. By this time I was feeling pretty confident and handy in my map skills. As we walked through the street, there were people walking, huge trees, beautiful leaves, and a little lake over to the side. It reminded me of the walk-way up to the White House in D.C. Colorful and peaceful with an occational taxi cab passing by. The taxis are old fashioned England looking and very cute! We'll use one on Monday when we are headed to the train station to go to Paris.

So the craziness began as we reached Buckingham Palace. Not only was there going to be the changing of the guard, but also a little parade along with it! It was packed! Shorty Steph and I did the best we could, but were seeing a lot of the backs of heads. My favorite were these real knights riding horses that looked absolutely stunning and regal with these metal helmets and tassels. They were incredible to watch. After the fanfare, which was pretty neat, we went over to a quiet park (Green park) across from the palace. Steph got a mini ice cream called "mint chocolate tiny chip" or "mint tiny baby" something like that! I got a diet coke and a blueberry muffin and discovered there was cream inside! DIVINE!!! We sat, enjoyed our little treats, and looked at daggum Buckingham Palace!! By this time the crowd was dispersing, so it was peaceful and relaxing. On our way back we saw a group of about 16 soldiers walk by flanked by police on horses, walking in step towards another area- which was rather fun and unexpected! By the way, Lily there are sculptures of unicorns everywhere at the palace! Everytime you see a lion, you see a unicorn opposite it!

Then we made our way over to the National Gallery. Jeffy was able to meet us here. I led us on a fun walk through the streets a different way to the Gallery. It is free, but they ask for donations (which we made there AND in the gift shop!:) It was incredible! The art collection they have is amazing. You go from the 1500's to 1900's in succession. We started out in the old and went to the newer stuff. The beginning paintings were almost all Mother Mary and baby Jesus paintings. My favorite was a painting called the "Creation of the Milky Way". It was a Roman myth that said said Jupiter (Greek Zeus) snuck into Juno's (Hera) room while she was sleeping and put one of his babies (Hercules?) on her breast to make it immortal. But instead she woke up and her breasts shot milk out everywhere creating the Milky Way! You can't make this stuff up! There were milk and stars shooting out of her boobies, seriously awesome! (Jake would LOVE this story!) Anyways the paintings went from Mythological to Christian. Lots of scary Christian piety paintings depicting men rolling around on thorny bushes to conquer their sins of the flesh. Saints getting eaten by dragons and then escaping alive miraculously. What happened to Christ's church in the 1000's??! It was pretty incredible to see the results of the dark ages and then the beauty that came with the Renaissance.

Anyways after the beautiful Carravaggios, Peter Paul Reubens, Botticellis, Michelangelos, Rembrandts (now I know I only have Rainock's reading from here.... :) and Velasquezs, we got to the Monets, Manets, Renoirs, Van Goghs (the chair, the sunflowers...) and Cezannes! Then we were done, disillusioned from the art (we started getting picky, a tad critical, and over tierd! :) We ate at the little cafe at the museum. I am so weird and got an egg salad sandwich, I mean, who does that?! But it was good and I am pregnant, so I can get whatevs I want. Steph got a nice hot beef soup and a roll. Then Jeff had to leave after lunch to get back to his classes. He ended up getting on the wrong bus, getting his rear kicked again and calculating that he could just run the 2 miles to get back and with a 10 min/mile pace, get back to the hotel just in time! He seriously ran two miles through London. He also accidentally got lost and ran right by Buckingham Palace! Thank goodness Steph and I went our own way! :)

We then went off towards St. Paul's Cathedral- built in scrunching 600 AD!!!!!!! There is no 1 in front of that number. That is very old. We rode the bus (which we are getting the hang of) to the church just in time for their evensong. The choir sings hymns and its a worship service. You also get in the church for free. Unfortunatley for us the square in front was full of psycho, hippy, occupiers. There was seriously a sign that said, "Criminals can make more money bills! Why can't the Government!!" Seriously? Sure! Just print off a few more pounds for everyone! That'll solve your problems!! Crazy. Then some bearded hippy stood up and yelled very dramatically, "Tomorrow! The sun will rise! On a New Jerusalem!!!" everyone cheers and then I panned my camera over to an old, skinny man with a hiked up kilt dancing a gig! It was a prefect moment. I am so glad I have it on film. It's too bad those stinky people were out front. The church is massive and so ornate! We didn't get to go inside and who knows if it's even open right now anyways.

We walked down the street, hit some shops and ran into some guys from New Zealand, Spain and Chico California! Weird! They were headed to a pub that Steph and I had been looking for and so we found it and met Jeff there for dinner. It is the oldest pub in London- built in 1667- called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese". It was really old. Talk about a hole in the wall. It literally looked like each room was carved out of the wall. The tiny hall was pokey and dimly lit, the stairs were short and dodgy, but it was roaring with life and drinkers. We went down to the bottom floor of three and found an empty table, ordered our dinners and had a great time. I got fish 'n chips! Super good! Though somehow whenever Steph would try a bite of mine she'd get a bone! 6 in all! We got cute custards and "puddings" for dessert. They were a'ight. Jeff had to order a real Coke, not a diet one in front of all of the burly men at the bar. The drinks came in these small little glass bottles that the bar tender poured into a glass.

Then it was night life time. We went out on a bus towards Soho. We ended up around the area, walking, shopping, people watching, just enjoying a night walk around London. It was teaming with all sorts of people, families, couples, but mostly the drinking kind. So far Steph and I have found everyone to be so nice. I loved seeing a young English Dad lift up his giggling little girl in his arms and give her a kiss when she asked for a "sweetie" (treat). Ok, that's all for now, it's nite nite time. Love ya'll! Tomorrow we might just become Catholics for the day and go to a service in Westminster Abbey. :)