A Ten Mile Day...

Today's adventure was London...
I had to wake up this morning at about six thirty to get ready, and of course I hadn't been able to fall asleep until after two last night so I had only gotten about four good hours of sleep...not the best way to start a day in London, but it couldn't be helped. I met up with Deanne, Tyler, and Michelle at about seven twenty and we all headed off to the coach station where we loaded onto our coach and settled down for the two hour ride to London. I dozed off and on, but finally we were there. We got off the bus, got outside, and immediately looked like tourists not knowing exactly where to go...a nice taxi driver asked us if we were looking for the Coach station, but we said no we had just arrived...and we headed off down the street. The first place to go on our list was Buckingham Palace, which we found without difficulty. We peered at the palace through the gates, wondering what it was like in there...what the Queen was doing, where the Princes where. After thinking about it for a while though, I wondered how awful it would be to live there...not being able to go outside your house without having dozens and dozens of people swarm you...even though it is a Palace, it almost seemed to me like a cage. But anyways...It was nearly eleven so we were anticipating the changing of the guard...until we saw a sign that informed us that the changing of the guard only happened every other day during the winter and of course today was not one of those days. That was rather disappointing...that along with the fact that we didn't even see any of the guards...the ones with the bright red coats and big black fluffy caps. Well we were taking pictures, when we noticed that there were a bunch of guards...not the ones we were looking for...on horses riding very stately down the street. Of course then there was the question of if they were escorting someone...perhaps royalty...but no, they were just riding down the street. We didn't stay there much longer.
Next on our list to see was Westminster Abbey, so we started heading in that direction. We got sidetracked on the way because we saw a bunch of people gathered on front of a building. After investigating we found that this was where the guards on horses had been going, but now we wanted to know what they were doing because they were just sitting there like they were waiting for something...or someone. But it just turned out to be a drill and they turned their horses around and rode away. Oh well...we left and made our way to Westminster. Having been to London before, I had been to the Abbey, but my memory was a bit foggy and I forgot how totally majestic it is. The stained glass, the high ceilings, the inlaid gold...and I just discovered thanks to Google that it is in the shape of a cross, which I think is pretty cool. I was annoyed that I couldn't take any pictures while inside the cathedral, because it was just so gorgeous and amazing. We wandered around the Abbey, looking at all the tombs and memorials to kings, queens, and other important people. It was really neat. Then we stepped out of the Abbey and there was the great icon of London...Big Ben along with the Houses of Parliament. Naturally we had to stop and take about a hundred pictures of this great grandfather of all clocks...it really does get a lot of attention for just telling the time properly. Then we crossed the Thames...pronounced Tems just in case you were wondering...and headed to the London Eye, which was next on our list. We had some time to kill though because our ride on the Eye wasn't for a while still, so we stopped at a Subway to grab some lunch. After lunch we still had some time, so we decided to walk over to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Well, we walked for about fifteen minutes and realized we were not going to make it there and back before we had to be at the Eye for our ride, so we turned around. We got to the Eye on time and saw the 3D video that came with our tickets which was kinda interesting...it was just a bird's eye view of London and the Eye. The we went outside and waited in line. We didn't really have a very long wait...maybe about fifteen minutes, but it really wasn't bad. Then we got into our pod, and the next half hour mainly consisted of taking pictures and enjoying the scenery. When we got to the top, we could see all over London...Big Ben and Westminster Abbey in one direction, and St. Paul's Cathedral in the other direction...it was an awesome view. After our ride was over, we walked along the Thames in the direction of The Globe, and along the river we saw mimes, dancers, and actors doing different things. The sun was starting to go down so things were starting to light up. But by the time we finally got to the Globe, we were really starting to fade. We decided to head back to Victoria Station, which is where we had to pick up our coach to get back home, and to just get some dinner on the way. Well, lets just say it was a very long walk...and of course we had to stop to take pictures of Big Ben again because he was all lit up. We walked nearly all the way back to Victoria Station before we stopped to get dinner, and we were all dead. My entire body was aching and sore and I just wanted to sit and eat and sleep. But we finally got some dinner. We left the restaurant at about seven thirty-five and our bus was leaving at eight, so we rushed over to the station and got there just in the nick of time. We pulled out of the station at eight, and I was asleep within five minutes and I slept the entire ride back. I finally got back to my room around eleven, and as much as I wanted to collapse into bed, I knew I had to write everything down, otherwise it would not be as fresh in my memory. So it was a long day, but definitely a good one. And after walking about ten miles today...yes its true, I looked it up...its definitely time to sleep.