A Day in London

On Saturday the 12th, we decided to go to London for the day. We boarded a train and 2 1/2 hours later, we were in London. Sara slept on the way there, but I just couldn't get comfortable. Anyways, once we got out of London, our first objective was to find out just exactly where we were. We exchange US Dollars for GB Pounds so we could have some spending money. We put down $60 and receive 23 pounds, depressing. Our first purchase was a map and some Burger King to refuel and figure our day out (Burger King is much better in the UK than in the states). After our quick snack and map look through, we decided to head to Big Ben which meant we needed subway (the tube) passes. This was an adventure in itself. We went to an automated teller and bought 2 tickets but only received one. This led to us standing in line to get our other ticket. We got a nice guy who helped us through the process, but made us say we were Canadian before we got our tickets, hmmm, America isn't well liked there. Well, us Canadians then hopped on the tube which is packed and headed to Big Ben. As soon as we walked up from the tube, BAM, Big Ben was right there and boy is it big. To get it in a picture, you literally have to walk about half a mile away. Across the river is the eye of London (the big ferris wheel) which seemed really fun to ride but we couldn't because it wasn't operational that day. From there, we walked around to the front of the parliament building to West Minister Abbey and then took the long way through parks and churches to Buckingham palace. We missed the changing of the guards, but there were still some guards there we got to see walk back and forth. The palace is quite large and is surrounded by parks and other statues. From there, we headed through Green Park to the tube to head to the British museum to spend our last hour and half in London. It was a sprint through to see as much as we could see. A personally favorite spot of mine was the room of the history of currency and printing currency. It was amazing to see how currency has evolved from the weights of certain metals to the printing of bills and coins. They even had a currency mint from the US that was used until the 1960's. We spent maybe 45 minutes there so we had time for a quick bite to eat. We had about 12 pounds left to spend so we headed to a local restaurant to have some fish and chips. We did and it was really good. After our quick meal, we jumped on the tube to head back to the train station to come home. It was a day that was tiring but filled with many memories that we will never forget. Probably the best thing about London was being somewhere where they spoke English and not French.