, So our last couple of days in London have been by far MUCH, MUCH better. Thusday we went on a three hour walking tour. We met at Wellington Arch, walked through Hyde Park and Kensington Park...saw the Changing of the Guards at Bukingham Palace and then proceeded to see where Charles, Camilla, Harry, and William live. As we rounded St. James corner we saw a motorcade drive up...it was the QUEEN and Prince Phillip, but no one cares about him. So as our tour guide told us that we were standing in front of Henry Tudor's old house, we asked the nice policeman when the Queen was expected to leave and he curtly replied. "Yes, I do know when". And walked away. So we stayed for ten more minutes with the stuipd guide cracking stupid jokes (he was from Canada and his name was Marcel...right!) anyways, we wait for a little bit and then she came out!!!! We then waved to her and to our surprise she waved back! hat, gloves and all! tino was so excited that he took a picture of the front of the car instead of the back! haha. well after getting lunch we decided to see if there were anymore cheap tickets for shows. When I saw that Avenue Q was listed I knew we had to see it. It's kind of like the Muppets but for adults. It has songs like "If you were gay", "the internet is for porn", and "I wish I could go back to college"....It's amazing. My favorite musical by far. MammaMia and Thriller and Marilyn were all playing but I nixed those and tino's not really a fan of Abba anyways.
We also saw the Free Mason's lodge, more of Trafalgar Square (did you know that it's the second most visited square next to Times square?) and Drury lane. Of course the great weather couldn't last and it started to rain last night. But that's ok. It's a nice 55 degrees right now...slight rain...and nothing i would trade. But at least we'll be home soon..enjoy the pics!
I'm sorry to report that we simply do not like London as much as Edinburgh. For starters, it feels like were in San Francisco, just with some old buildings OCCASIONALLY popping out of seeming nowhere.
Let me back up. Our train from Edinburgh to London was bad, JUST to begin. We sat next to this SCREAMING child. When asked why he was crying, he would stop and look at his mum and say, I dunno. Great, good times. That went on and off for close to 3 1/2 hours. great. Anyways, we make it to London Kings X, then proceed to get ripped off by the "TUBE". 4 pounds for a one-way trip. Yeah, the next morning we just got a weekly pass which ripped us off as well, but we're using it a lot so we're okay. Anyways, we then take three different tubes to get to our hostel, which we blow right by bc they dont have a big sign. So after we backtrack, we find our room. Not as cool as the last one to say the least. Back to metal bunks, and no air conditioning. Not normally a problem, but unfortunatley the "great" weather is following us. We then proceed to buy a towel....which was more like a hand towel, so we had to go down the street and spend another arm and leg to wash ourselves.
That was day one. Yesterday was ALL bad. We got up early for the walking tour, only we didn't bring the map so we didn't know where to go, so we missed it. We then proceeded to Westminster Abbey and the bridge and Big Ben, and then did a Bike Tour. THAT WAS AWESOME. we had a great guide, Owen, or something like that, maybe Nigel, and biked around London for 4 hours. We saw everything. Diana's tribute, Buckingham, Hyde Park...we took lots of pictures and the ones above are only a few. But it was great fun and the sun was shining. That was fun. Well, we heard from the girls in our room that Hairspray was playing, which gave us the idea that we should see a play too. So yesterday we went to the ticket office and got WICKED tickets for like WAY half price, way discount, and today at 230 we saw the Matinee of the show. It was amazing to say the least. So cool. After the show we stumbled upon the actors exit and saw the Wizard, Fiero, and I said Hi to a bunch of the dancers which made them laugh. I also want to see Avenue Q, but trying to convince Tino is taking some work. If we can find discount tickets then maybe....maybe...Tomorrow we're on for another free tour, and then we'll see from there! See ya soon!
So here are the rest of the pictures from our beloved Scotland. Some are from the Greyfriar's cemetery...which we visited during the day. But the ghost tour was so awesome that the cemetery at sundown is a sight to see. Especially when you visit the tomb of David Hume, whom I am a big fan of. Not to mention there's the birthplace of Harry Potter, which I was really excited about. The cafe sits where you can see the "original" Hogwarts school and the castle which looks EXACTLY like the castle in the movie. way to go producers there. Anyways, there's also the pictures from our bunks in Fridge where we stayed in Corona and Miller...of course we stayed in the alcoholic room...And our tour guide who looked like Mr. Ray and such. Hope you like them. In the next blog we'll tell you about our HORRID 4 1/2 hour ride to London!
Unfortunately, we have left the greatness that is Edinburgh, Scotland. We lost the internet connection late Saturday due to someone in our room ruining the firewalls, but now that we are in route to London aboard the Express train from Edinburgh we have free wi-fi! I thought that was pretty cool that the TRAIN has free wi-fi, but maybe that's just me. Anyways, Saturday we went to the Edinburgh Castle, which was by far the coolest thing ever. Our tourguide looked like Mr. Ray and he wore a kilt. Pictures of our adventures will be above if you haven't yet viewed those. We have a lot to upload considering our loss of internet, and my loss of SD card not working, but it's okay cuz we're back in action.
Anyways, the castle was awesome. We got to see where Mary Queen of Scots lived, the Honors of Scotland (the scepter, crown, the sword, and the Stone of Destiny). We had amazing views of the rest of the city and got to see the prisoners of war section and all that is the fortress of the castle. After the castle we decided to do some more walking around the city and then had dinner at a cheap restaurant that gave deals to people who stayed with the hostel. We ended up drinking cider with the people who worked at the hostel and ended up playing card games and drinking games with them. However, we ended up going to bed fairly early for our last day in Scotland. We had to check out by 1030, and make it to the train station for our 1pm train to foggy London-town. Some of the above pictures are of the views, some of the friends we made on our pubcrawl, pictures of the castle and other various adventures around Edinburgh! It was an awesome 4 days in Scotland and we both thought that this was by far one of our favorite places. We definitley want to come back to Scotland and see some more of it! I'll upload more pictures when we get a full connection, and not one that just comes and goes like on the train!!! see ya soon!
