Oiye London! Day 5 Sunday - heading home

Called our mini-cab buddy the next am when I got up 6:30 local time (2:30am eastern) Peter got up just after me – we grabbed everything and ran down stairs, checked out and took off towards the 2nd barrier like usual. I videotaped the entire cab ride to the airport about 30 minutes – not too bad for 23 pounds.

We got to the airport around 8am – took us a while to find the right terminal since things are very clearly marked. The check-in luggage line was packed – we had to queue on the opposite side of the aisle to wait to be called to the main line. The girl at the check-in station said this was the busiest they’ve been since Christmas – go figure. We got through and got our VAT (some money from our spending) back. Then decided to spend the rest of my £ since the exchange rate there was terrible.

We went to a sit down breakfast about 9 (flight isn’t until 1030) we ate for a while – 945 then grabbed some stuff and ran toward the flight – They paged us at 10 – “last call for party of Lancaster”. Evidently they were trying to leave early and we were the only people not on the plane – they had to reopen the cabin for us to get in (they were pissed at us but I was annoyed they are trying to leave us early…)

Continental 757 was awesome – little smaller than our 777 on the way to London but they had tons of free movies/tv/music on the screens on the way back. We had time to watch 3½ movies…we were very dorky and started Harry Potter Half Blood Prince at the same time and essentially watched it together. Then we watched the Deathly Hallows pt1 together as well since we had just seen all of London it made the movie more fun. I made Peter watch Slumdog Millionaire and part of The Hurt Locker while I watched the Percy Jackson and part of Tangled in Spanish. – LANDING IN NEWARK WAS A FIASCO

We got off the plane fine and took off to customs - the line took a while to get through but they were efficient and polite enough. The guy didn’t believe that we were related, just thought we were traveling together as friends. We had to show him our passports to convince him. We got through – had to claim our luggage, then put some stuff in our carry-on or checked bag to make room and had to go and re-check it in. Then the trouble started.

We got to the main terminal – caught the train to the C terminal and tried to figure out what line to get in (about 5 directions to choose from and lines everywhere but no signs). We asked one guy he says go back the other way, when we get there they sent us back again, the same first guy then sends us up the stairs, and the woman up there told us to go back down….I found a self-check in kiosk and just did everything there then headed the ONE direction no one sent us in. I got flagged for ‘extra security’ woohoo. Sadly I got patted down, had all my electronics wiped down, and had my bag thoroughly searched and STILL beat Peter through security by about 10 minutes. After this we finally made it to our terminal C96, well our plane was moved to some other terminal suddenly, C30 – across the building. We stopped to eat – got some pizza and drinks before our last flight. Our terminal was supposed to be for a separate flight to Milan boarding at the same time and didn't bother to tell any of those passengers so we had about half of our line sprint away last minute since they weren’t notified until they tried to board the wrong plane.

In the meantime we had a pigeon hopping around the terminal and no one looked twice at it – either it was something only Peter and I could see or it was such a common occurrence that no one else seemed to care. We then sat on the plane for a few minutes and the pilot reassured us that we were about to taxi off and leave right on time (6:20) we then waited in the plane smelling exhaust for about 15 minutes, then they ventilated the plane and we sat for another 20, we finally ‘short’ taxied out to only wait in line for another 20…the flight over was short though – I only got to watch about an hour of Iron Man 2 and peter read some of his book before we landed. Getting our luggage and to our car from that point was a piece of cake – it was funny to notice the difference in people since I had been out of the south for so long(Philadelphia then Boston for a week then London for a week). I never noticed how slowly people walked or in general how much fatter people are until I got back (people also asked much dumber questions in general – but then again people in London didn’t really talk to you without a legitimate reason).

I dropped Peter off around 10 or so then took off for Atlanta. I didn't get in until almost 2 which by my math means I was up for only about 24 hours solid. I don't think I recovered from my lack of sleep until the end of that week.

Oiye London! Day 4 Saturday

Saturday the game plan started out as the London Zoo then the British Museum. This was nixed because we realized that both of those things alone could take up the entire day! We changed it at the last minute – St. Paul’s Cathedral – Tate Modern Museum – London Film Museum – Westminster – If time permitted British museum (although out of the way) and then shopping down old and new bond streets and to Piccadilly circus.

Starting out the day at St Paul’s not only set our mood but also started the day off in I think the best way possible. It was sunny all day Saturday so it was beautiful all day long – and even a bit warm at some points. We got on the Edgeware station and went straight down to St. Paul’s stop. We got there early morning – probably around 9 after the train ride and cab. We got in for free with our London pass which was totally worth the money since we had free tube/bus all day for 3 days and more passes into events than we actually used. St. Paul’s is amazing and I was crushed to find out we couldn’t take pictures or video inside (even though I think we each snuck one or two). We decided to climb up before going down into the crypt. I am so glad we did this before walking around all day because I was winded on the way up. It was 270 some odd steps just to the base of the dome. The pathway after that is one direction only because the corridors are so narrow and short if you want to turn around you’d have to make everyone else on the way up turn around also. We got to the inner lip of the dome and its really incredible to think about how on earth they could’ve built something so crazy detailed and humongous way back when they did. After hanging out here for a few minutes we decided to start hiking to the outer lip of the top of the dome. We took tons of pictures and videos from here between the columns and iron bars. After a few more minutes up some very windy spiral iron stairs we got to the topmost part of the cathedral. There is only room enough for maybe 15 people and that’s being crammed – you had to turn sideways to squeeze by people and try to take pictures. After a while enjoying our cool breeze from our 15 minute cardio hike we started back down. After our hike down(I tried to count stairs but got dizzy and gave up – got to almost 300 from the tiptop to the bottom of the dome, but there were at least twice that since we had just started down from the dome. We headed down to the crypt where Admiral Nelson’s body was (he was the center tomb) and it kind of creeped me out that there were restaurants down there near the dead people but I guess they didn’t have room anywhere else.

From here we headed to Tate Modern but found a little pub that served “official English breakfast” which I hadn’t had yet since I’m not a breakfast person. The food was good, just an odd hodgepodge of food(egg/”bacon”(ham)/mushrooms/chips(fries)/tomato…).

After that we ran across what I kept calling the “Harry Potter bridge” because I just remember it being destroyed in the new Harry Potter movie – it’s a cool suspension walking bridge straight to the Tate Modern Museum(pic). We walked around there for a while and looked at what people in London consider “art” which is always a hilarious concept to me. I think defining what art means would be harder than defining the purpose of life….anywho you be the judge.

From there we walked down to the tube and hopped it over to the film museum just next to the London eye. It was 11£ to get in and they wouldn’t take our London pass – so we bucked up and paid to get in. We walked through what we thought was the museum for a few minutes and then realized it was just the hallway that lead to the museum full of models and posters. We finally made it to the actual museum and it was very interesting – lots of movies were produced/filmed/etc through London that I had no idea had anything to do with London. Aliens, Planet of the Apes, Krull, Ali G, Chronicles of Riddick...the list went on. We took pictures of Star Wars and the Dr. Who exhibit. All in all we were sorely disappointed. It was maybe 3 hallways and they advertised a lot about Harry Potter and Bond and there was a few HP posters and one Bond little area which was just a little fake plane used in the movie.

We finished this museum in maybe 30 minutes and ran back out near the Eye to cross back over to try and hit up Westminster. We started to get hungry but there were so many people (mostly tourists) in that area we knew everything would be way overpriced and overcrowded. After fighting through the crowd to get some pictures of Big Ben and Parliament from the riverside we walked back across the bridge and took some pictures in the sunlight since all we had were gloomy pictures from Friday. We took a few and fought the crowd to get by Big Ben – they closed down a lane of Westminster bridge to add sidewalk space. We got to Westminster around 2 – plenty of time to go see it since it closes at 530 right? WRONG – They close at 130 to visitors on Saturday….so yet again we missed Westminster.

At this point we were not too far from Trafalgar square so we hopped a bus up to Trafalgar and walked over to Piccadilly circus. We started up the shopping route backwards which was a terrible idea since we found that this was all designer stuff that we could not even begin to dream about affording - most brands we didn’t even recognize. After about 20 minutes of walking we decided just to go to Harrods since its so famous. We got on the tube and rode it over to Harrods – we ran back into our bagpipe guy (video?) and there was a cool guitarist in the tube (they have designated areas for music). We stepped into the gift shop at Harrods and everything seemed trivial and crappy and way overpriced. We stepped out to look at shoes/jeans/shirts and found a 4300£ leather jacket that looked like it had been put through a pasta cutter…at this point we decided it was a waste of time to be there.

We got on the tube and headed back to Piccadilly since we had seen a shop there that looked cool/trendy. We headed in and after a few minutes realized if we wore any of this in the US we’d be THAT guy. We started to look for food and actually saw a small shop offering buy one get 2 dress shirts free and at 79£ for one shirt – that’s not a bad deal. We headed in and I started grabbing shirts only to realize a lot of them were weird collared and had to have cuff links. I made Peter get measured just so he could look around. We ended up with some really good stuff for cheap AND they have something called VAT (value added tax) which is about 20% that as non-UK citizens we get back. It’s a deal, it’s a steal!

We took off after that and ran to get food – we wandered around for a while and fought about what to eat as our last meal, peter wanted pizza (some chain) and I wanted Indian but we ended up with Asian – not sure how that’s a compromise though. The place was tiny but smelled delicious. We ordered dumplings and if you’ve ever seen Kung-fu Panda we fought over the dumplings with our chopsticks like they did and like idiots knocking them out of each other’s chopsticks and onto the table and laughing really loudly. The owner walked over and asked as nicely as possible in his thick Asian accent “do you need fork?” I thought he said 4 (like maybe we were shorted a dumpling or something) – but we both lost it and died laughing! We got rice and chicken(pic?) and took off back to the tube to get to the hotel early to pack and leave early in the am – the guy at the tube actually remembered us this time and called us a cab to the hotel without us even asking! Turns out he was from DC (where we flew out of – chatted about the NBA for a second then took off). Got back to the hotel at a reasonable time and started trying to fit everything back into our luggage.

Oiye London! Day 3 Friday

It was your typical London day – Gloomy, rainy all day but never a down pour just a light rain. Peter woke up at 9 ran down and got an “English breakfast” which is an egg not completely cooked through but not runny, toast, some sort of baked beans(but different) chips(fries) and bacon(ham) and sometimes sausage and a roasted tomato and mushrooms. Odd combo I know…I got up around 10 and got ready – we bolted for the minicab and started off towards London Bridge.

We got all the way down to the London bridge stop only to realize what we call the London Bridge is simply a bridge that has been burnt down and rebuilt numerous times. The big tall

double decker bridge we all think of is known as the “Tower Bridge” since the London Tower(castle/fort) is right there beside it. We walked back to the north side of the Thames across the London Bridge and took some pictures and video but it was

raining just enough to keep our electronics on a short time table.

We then walked, or tried to walk, to what we thought was the Bank of England (egg shaped building) actually called the Gherkin(not open to the public). We then found this little covered area like an outdoor mall (quite a few in London actually) where it is like any other cobble street with shops only there is an arching glass roof overhead.

It was freezing on Friday and we didn’t realize the restaurant we ate at (burrito) had an entire downstairs floor so we ate outside under cover but still quite cold. The Comic Relief troop(organization) was walking around in the rain in costume and happened upon us right before we ate – we ended up giving a few pounds over to a penguin and a giraffe to feed the starving children of Africa. We later saw a storm trooper, Cartman, Chef, tiger, wizard, a guy in flip flops(Gilligan?) and a few more. We then figured out where we were and rode a bus to the other side of the London Bridge. We walked aimlessly for a while down back alleys and random roads by the big train station, past Guy hospital and a few shops. We popped out next to the London Egg (city hall –which I realized after the fact that we could go into for free sadly) and

we passed by some sort of human bowling/tether ball combo thing for charity (pic/video) where they push a hanging heavy bag over an inflatable bouncy castle while people stand still wearing bowling pin costumes and try to knock over more people. From there we headed over to the tower bridge(which is the bridge everyone thinks of when they think of London). It

started raining a bit more and we were hungry so we stopped into a restaurant/café built into the bottom of the bridge just opposite the tower bridge tour exit.

We had a cheese and fruit plate, I got a coffee and peter got a coke/pepsi as usual. I made peter try the brie (who ended up eating most of it) and the weird other green marbled cheese. That is the restaurant with the small hallway to the bathroom because it must have been built after the bridge because even I had to duck to go into the hallway (video). From there we went on the Tower bridge tour backwards(free with our London Pass) – from the engine room to the

history and blue prints. We took loads of pictures from the top, there were a few videos on the construction and how the bridge lifts to allow the passage of boats. The North upper hallway has an appreciation of world famous bridges some of which I didn’t realize existed in such remote places. From there we left the Tower Bridge on the North end (technically the beginning) and headed toward the London Tower- which houses the crown jewels or at least the retired crown jewels. The castle itself is guarded by “Beefeaters” like the guy on the bottle of Beefeater Gin – no idea how they got their name. Peter got assaulted by the guard while walking into the vault because you can’t video or take pictures – woops. We walked around the castle there for a while – they had all sorts of cannons from famous ships and other castles that usedto be around London.

From here we headed out toward St. Paul's Cathedral to try and hike to the top and look around there – but they were having a service at 6 and stopped having visitors

at 530. After that we decided to just go walk around this section of town since we hadn’t gone west of Parliament (Thursday we went east towards the London Eye). We headed down some very small alleys and saw some really cool shops. I had to use the bathroom so we ducked into what was essentially a roadside cart restaurant – only in building form. I had always heard about carts selling fish and chips on the side of the bridges and on the sidewalks but all we ever saw was a few places on the Westminster Bridge cooking peanuts in some sort of sugar/honey/molasses and grilled sausages – we were always in a rush around them so we never tried them. When they cooled they looked like honey roasted peanuts. The hole in the wall we stopped at would fry anything. Peter said he saw them batter and deep fry a hamburger while I was in the bathroom – we had eaten just before or we probably would have eaten something odd here.

We then tried to see Westminster Abby, but they too were closed or closing. We missed Westminster everyday for some unfortunate reason. From here we ran over to Buckingham palace and the park associated with it (Hyde Park?). We were attacked by Squirrels and Pigeons(viddy). We started making noises because, well we’re us, and they came right up – one actually stood on my shoe for a second! We walked over towards the palace while the sun was setting in the park – for the first time Friday we could see sky and it was quite gorgeous. We took pictures until dusk and then

went back to try and find that restaurant that fried everything but were essentially lost so we just stopped at the first hole in the wall we could find and got food there – Peter had probably the (not probably per Peter but THE) best burger we’d ever seen/had – I got another steak and ale pie (best one yet) and then hung out for a while just to relax- chatted with the bartender and a guy sitting at the bar watching football/futball (not soccer – they had to correct me multiple times). From there we wandered around again for an hour or so until it got too cold to handle it walked back to Piccadilly circus and caught the tube back to the hotel. I was determined to make an itinerary for Saturday since we still had so much to see and only a day to do it in.

Oiye London! Day 2 Thursday

We both slept until about 10am local (6am Eastern) which means we didn't hit the city until almost noon- my alarms had gone off all morning to no avail. We took off to the London visitor’s center for our passes and tickets. We got a one way pass on the tube for 4£ which in comparison to our 8£ all day pass seemed a bit ridiculous but we were on the way to pick up our 3day passes that let us ride any train, bus, or public transport we wanted for free.

They were quite helpful at the office - she gave us all sorts of guides and books of attractions

that we had free passes to. We stopped at a little 'gastro-pub' is what I think they call them. Seat yourself order at the bar kind of place. I got a steak and ale pie, mashed potatoes, and peas, peter had sausages and mash (not called bangers I guess) - I feel like a lot of the slang was toned down in the city. We kept expecting other words although a few funny signs are:

"Mind the Gap"

Way out = exit
Give way = yield
Litter/Rubbish = trash
And all their signs are of the man running- not walking to wherever (bathroom/exit...)

We caught the tube to Trafalgar square after lunch.

Saw a "magician" attempt magic to

entertain some school children but we got bored went inside national gallery- saw Van Gogh, Rembrandt, etc although we weren't

allowed to take pictures I didn't

know that for the first few rooms so of course I have a fe

w snapshots. We then left and walked all the way down

the street through the

federal district toward

parliament. Peter was videoing and I was taking pictures and I got stopped by a copper/bobby/police and asked "do you mind if I ask what you're taking pictures of?" And when I answered "buildings" he was less than enthused...I eventually said "architecture" because it sounded more legitimate and he explained I was taking pictures of the war room(their Congressional building) at odd angles and just wanted to be sure I wasn't taking pictures of

CCTV(all security is called that here). After that we finally made it down to

Big Ben (the name of just the bell actually not the building) and parliament - we didn't realize Westminster Abby was right there or we would’ve gone then (Westminster was our elusive white unicorn-we never got to go inside) crossed the bridge over to the London eye to see it and to look for drinks and bathroom and to cross the Westminster bridge and take better pictures/video. We walked back toward parliament to catch the Westminster tube over to the natural history museum.

We walked back toward parliament to catch the Westminster tube over to South Kensington tube for the Natural History Museum and Hyde park. Natural history museum around 430 and they closed at 530 so we had a good hour to look around – dinosaur in the main lobby – skeletons of mammoth ancestors, whales, bugs…etc. We then headed out to Hyde park since it wasn’t quite dusk. On the way we saw a very angry brit – probably skipped a few doses of anti-depressants or something screaming “F-off “to all the minorities he passed then when they responded he retorted with “I’m not talking to you – leave me alone!” quite ridiculous(Peter had a video - I'll see if we can't post it to youtube). We walked for a while and finally figured out where we were in the park and ran across the park down to Kensington palace and

court yard. It was pretty dark by the time we got done with that so we tubed back to Trafalgar square and ate at a place called Gandolpho’s(Galdolphino's) – walked around Piccadilly at night saw the bagpipe player(video) tons of people out celebrating St. Patty's and stopped in a shop or two just to see what it was all about. Walked back over the Big Ben for a few more pictures. Hit the tube after and the Picadilly line was backed up from some fire so we hopped trains and headed north. Headed back probably around 11 as usual and got in to Edgeware around midnight saw a few Brits relieve themselves as it were on the side of the building – then got a minicab to the 2nd hotel barrier (our nightly routine).