Day 4: Wednesday, August 9 (London)

We got up early (are you sensing a trend?) to tour the Tower of London. The Tower is a cool place.



It still houses the crown jewels...
And at one time was the most famous prison, torture and execution site of anyone who dared oppose the monarch.


Tours are led by the Beefeaters who live and work at the Tower (and know a lot of bloody trivia).

After the Tower, we walked through 'The City' and Fleet Street, the financial heart of modern London. There was something for everyone, from Shakespeare's old stomping grounds, to Christopher Wren's masterpieces, to glitzy shopping and international banking.



Some highlights included: The Royal Exchange...

Old Bailey (criminal court) and the Royal Courts of Justice (civil)...

The Somerset House...
Bow Lane...
And of course, St. Paul's Cathedral. The greatest of all the great Christopher Wren creations. It survived the Blitz of 1940 and is now as much of a war memorial as it is a church. The basement is a crypt with the final resting place of such big-wigs as Horatio Nelson and Charles Cornwallis.


We popped back to Trafalgar Square at the National Gallery. It was an amazing collection of Europe's art and I only wish we had more time to spend there. It has our favorite Botticelli, 'Venus and Mars.'

Right outside the gallery is this enormous statue that is strange and beautiful. It prompted BVZ to remark, 'You can only look at so many Madonnas or assholes on horses. Give me a pregnant chick with no arms any day.'

Even though it was getting late, I dragged BVZ to the South Kensington neighborhood. He perked up a lot when we found the highly recommended Khymer Pass and had an excellent Indian feast.


We tried to have a late night at the Victoria and Albert Museum,

But there was some kind of hip party going on and so only one wing was still open.

So, we toured that wing and enjoyed the reggae music in the background.


In the spirit of the party we tubed it to Notting Hill and found a hipster dive bar called the 'Prince Albert' (that was far too hipster and dive-y for pictures) to have a few drinks.

When we got back to our Tube station there were about 20 policemen with riot gear on the station platform (and I thought it probably best not to take a picture). I turned on CNN as soon as we were at the hotel, but it wouldn't be until the next morning that we heard about....

Day 5: Thursday, August 10 (London)

That's right, we were smack-dab in the middle of a foiled terrorist plot. It was definitely a surreal and scary experience and the British tabloids wasted no time in publishing headlines like: "Hey Terrorists: UP YOURS." I imagine the police from the night before were probably at the Tube station to arrest someone, because by the time the story broke there were several people already in custody.

But we had pre-paid tickets, so we made our way on the big, red bus....

And took off for Windsor Castle, the private residence and vacation spot to the Queen (who was currently on vacation somewhere else).


I wasn't expecting to be that into the castle, mostly because I think the royals are a bit ridiculous, but it was very interesting and historically educational.


We saw the silly ritual of the Changing of the Guards....


Walked the grounds and toured the chapel....


And after surrendering all of our 'hand luggage' toured the State Apartments, which were impressive and ostentatious (and included a dollhouse replica of the Queen's residence, down to the china and paintings on the walls).

We continued on to the town of Bath and the ancient roman baths. The town of Bath itself was much larger than I had expected and, while certainly on the touristy side, was very lovely and quaint.


The baths themselves were incredibly intriguing and we saw roman artifacts, mosaics, temples, and the actual mouth of the spring (the still waters continue to bubble from the underground gases).



Before heading back to the city, we stopped at Stonehenge, a place I have been mildly obsessed with since childhood (when my mom convinced me the stones were put there by aliens). Well, according to my audio-guide, it was most certainly NOT the work of aliens, but rather a way for an ancient civilization to measure the seasons and tell time. It was freezing cold and smaller than I had imagined, but very surreal to be in a place I had only seen in pictures (and in my nightmares--thanks mom).




Back in London we went to a pub just down the street from our hotel called the Marquis de Westminster and proceeded to eat bangers and mash and get nice and drunk on beer and Pimm's (a delightful cocktail with Pimm's liquor, lemonade, cucumbers, strawberries, oranges, lemon and mint--think mojito, but better). We planned to hit up the duty free for a Pimm's stash on the way home, but the 'no liquids' rule kind of ruined that idea. Good thing they sell duty free on the airplane and we were able to pick up a few bottles after all.