Wednesday Kelsey and “her friend Jen” arrived in London after a hellish journey that saw their plane delayed 3 1/2 hours because of a hurricane or something, then Jen was harassed at Customs. But eventually they made it to their hostel and I took them out to My Old Dutch Crepe Restaurant in Holborn. The food was really good. The crepes came out on these giant plates and they were really tasty – although none of us could finish a whole crepe – they were that big!
Afterwards I took them down to Trafalgar Square to enjoy the night life and take pictures near the fountains. We walked through the National Gallery for a bit – although Kelsey wasn’t too impressed with the art. I enjoyed some of it – especially the Ninja Turtle room with paintings from Leonarda Da Vinci, Michaelangelo, and Raphael. After I thoroughly exhausted them with walking (didn’t take much considering they were up for 36 hours straight). I got them on a train bound for Greenwich and told them I’d meet them bright and early then next morning. They of course protested (as it would take them hours to get “ready” so we compromised on 10:30 am).
At 10:30 we walked down to Greenwich Park and we ate breakfast in the park (some groceries and left-over crepes) and took pictures at the National Observatory site of the Prime Meridian and the birth of GMT. We then jumped on a DLR and a tube and headed up to Tower of London.
We spent most of the day at Tower of London learning about beheadings, death, and murder – they sure like their gory stories here. I was impressed that Jen was interested in the history and wanted to learn as much as possible from the tour guides. Kelsey was more visually impressed and like looking at the displays (and couldn’t care less who was beheaded by whom). I spent most of the day trying to appease both of them and make sure they didn’t snap on each other – they were a still a bit sleep deprived. I hope that they had a better day today.
It was already 4 pm by the time we left the Tower of London. The plan was to walk down the South Bank to Westminster, but our feet were really sore from a day of walking. So we tried to find a bus to take us, but eventually gave up and took the tube. We got some good pictures at Big Ben and in front of Westminster Abbey. We then walked off toward Buckingham Palace in search food. We found a really cool pub on Victoria St and dined on fish & chips(Jen), a veggie burger(Kelsey), and veggie lasagna(me). We also had a pint of Abbot Ale (me), Carling(Jen), and Strongbow(Kelsey).
After filling up we went to visit the Queen, but she must have been out because she no one came to greet us. I guess we did drop in a bit unexpected, but Kelsey had sent her a letter warning her she might come. Oh well. After Buckingham Palace, we parted ways and promised to meet up on Saturday. I’m not sure what the girls were up to today, but I think they had planned on shopping on Oxford Street and maybe hitting some museums. Kelsey is supposed to call me tonight, but no word yet.
Canadian Veggie 