Alas, today Fate, true to her fickle nature, taunted us by making the sky spit at us, misting and drizzling and raining by turns as the group of us who did not go to the Harry Potter studio tour tromped around Westminster and Piccadilly this afternoon. (Before you gasp in disbelief and cry, "WHY DIDN'T YOU GO??" remember my nod to Harry Potter post--it wouldn't have been worth it for me to go and have the significance of it all lost on me.)
Our original destination was Westminster Abbey, but Wednesday is the one day during the week that they close at 1:30, and we got there at 2:00. Drat. So we did a little walking tour that began at Westminster Pier that Hillary read off her phone.
Crazy who you see around London--Shrek was out and about today trollin' around the statue of Boadicea.
Some highlights from our walking tour:
The statue of Winston Churchill, the man who saved Great Britain from Hitler, that stands across from the Houses of Parliament. Allegedly there is an electric current running through the statue, because Churchill requested that any statue made of him be made so that birds wouldn't be able to leave their droppings on his head. Ah, Winston. You can tell what kind of a character he was.
Right next to the left pillar there is a little yellow lantern that says TAXI on it--it used to light up when an MP needed a taxi hailed. Kind of a fun little detail.
The black building houses 10 Downing Street, the famous address of the Prime Minister and the site of many discussions of matters of international importance. It was discovered not too long ago that the bricks of the building were originally yellow, but they were stained black from years and years of soot and dirt buildup. Now the bricks are painted black to keep with tradition. I had to laugh about that one.
The Department of Defense and the statue of one illustrious viscount who did much in the military service to his country. I've always liked the word "viscount," I must admit.
About here it started to rain in earnest, so we ran down through Trafalgar Square and up to the National Gallery--we wandered around in there for an hour or so. I didn't get to the Impressionist section today, so I'll have to come back--that's the part I really wanted to see. They have van Goghs!
After we wore ourselves out in the National Gallery it was off to Piccadilly Circus, because some of us had never been there before. Piccadilly Circus is a big roundabout area kind of like Times Square in New York.
Yep, I was there. I was losing a little bit of steam by this point.
Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum--this is on my list of things to go to. We didn't go today--remember the one-museum-per-day rule?
After walking around that area for a little while the group split up, and Becca and I wandered back to our neck of the woods (South Kensington) in search of food, because we were both starving to death. We finally decided on Wagamama, a noodle chain that's pretty big here. The doors of the one in South Kensington are on the ground floor facing the street, but it turns out you have to climb two flights of stairs to get to the restaurant itself. I didn't know if we were gonna make it, considering our state of weariness and starvation, but we did indeed manage to make it up the stairs and muster the strength to order our food. And the view from the third story was quite nice, actually, and we could see the protest going on out on the street below.
Becca. Isn't she cute? We're London buddies--we've done a lot of exploring together.
There were protesters outside our window. I don't remember what exactly they were protesting, but I think it was something about Iranian war prisoners.
Food at last! Becca's food came first, and we were so hungry that I thought we were going to finish it before my food came.
I ordered the Wagamama Ramen, which had some interesting herbs and vegetables and fish and stuff in it that I had never had before. It wasn't bad, but I don't think I'll order it again.
Pay no attention to the dark circles under my eyes. They're there perpetually. And man, am I beat. My feet hurt like crazy and I have the "I'm tired" headache putting pressure on my temples and my forehead. Time for bed, eh? On the agenda for tomorrow: a tour of the National Theatre and...something else. That's going to take some time. What is it? I don't remember. When I get tired I tend to forget things. But I did indeed remember that my older sister arrived home from her LDS church mission to Vina del Mar, Chile, today! Welcome home, Tara! Can't wait to see you on Skype!
I think I'm just going to link my family to your blog, it's much more detailed (and frankly more interesting) than mine. ;)
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