London Days 1-4

Well I'm safely in London and on my feet after a day and a half of travel.

I left Sangin at 830am London time (430 there) and took the subway to Dongdaegu station, the KTX to Seoul and the airport express (only built last year) from Seoul Station to Incheon. That was three and a half hours. After that is was a check in with Emirates Air and a 9 hours flight to Dubai, three and a half hours in Dubai and a seven hour flight to Heathrow. I met Rosie at the airport and took the tube to her house. We arrived at 2pm on Friday (10pm Korea time). However it was Greta's last day at work and her company was having a party for her. Being that the last time I saw Greta we were probably in grade 10 and 8 respectively I went, had a few beers, chatted with Rosie's coworkers. Rosie and I left around 10 and made it home. I went upstairs and was asleep in five minutes.

The next day I got up early (I find myself up at 7am a lot here). It was actually quite sunny so we made our way downtown for a bit of a sightseeing walk. We got out near Buckingham Palace and walked through Canada gate (each of the Commonwealth nations has a gate. I found Australia and South Africa as well but not New Zealand). We then walked through St. James Park via a huge statue of Queen Victoria and wound up seeing pelicans up close. We then walked past parliament and across the Thames to the south bank, a lively spot with lots of free stuff going on. We walked past Shakespeare's theatre and the Rose (his original theatre) before getting to tower bridge and the Tower. We then met Rosie's roommates and headed to Wetherspoons (a local pub chain) for dinner and home for a movie.

Sunday Rosie and I went out to Hampton Court, the palace of Henry VIII and later William and Mary and as a secondary residence for George II. The palace itself is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. It undergoes restoration but the Tudor buildings are all still there. It's odd to think that you (and about a million other tourists) are leaning on window ledges that Jane Seymour would have leaned on 500 years ago.  The palace is also an interesting mix of styles as the back rooms were built over 100 years after the original Tudor castle. The area itself, being a few kilometers outside of London central, also makes for a very relaxing atmosphere despite the mobs of tourists.

After the palace we opted for another pub meal and then home. They all had to get up early and to be honest I was beat.

Monday everyone else went off to work so I opted for the Tower of London. My previous great weather did not hold up and I was in a real down pour in the morning. However I got my ticket and was inside the Tower before 11. The tower itself is almost 1000 years old, having been built by William the Conqueror. It was built on an old Roman fort dating to the second century A.D, part of which can still be seen in the courtyard. It has been added to by Henry III, Henry VIII, Charles II and Victoria. The oldest rooms in the Tower date to around 1200, and it's simply amazing to walk through and to see. The tower contains the Crown Jewels and the Royal Armoury. While It was amazing I did prefer Hampton Court only because I don't find rows of guns especially interesting, which makes up both the armoury and much of the Fusilliers Museum compared to the architecture and history of Hampton Court. That being said to see where Sir Walter Raliegh stayed in the Tower and where Edward III slept and ate in the Middle Ages was amazing.

I then grabbed a pub lunch (beer and a meat pie at 3 in the afternoon is perfectly acceptable here, North America is way too uptight about drinking) and headed off to Westminster thinking I could do a tour of parliament but being that it was already 330 it was getting too late and, to be honest, I was a bit tired so I opted to head back to Rosie's place to watch Yankees/Orioles and upload photo's before they all got home.

So far a good start to my trip.