Day 2: London

Things I learned today:

1. English people have a very unique sense of style, and not in a good way.

2. Most of the public parks in central London were used as burial pits during the plague, the bodies or what remains of them are still there.

3. Driving in London is like driving in New York- small roads and tons of cars.

4. if you want to drive your car into Londons “Congestion Zone” it will cost you 8 pounds a day! (Remember that is equivalent to $16!)

5. Jack the Ripper was not a nice guy.

6. There are no happy California cows in England.

7. Big Ben is actually the bell inside the Clock tower, not the tower itself.

8. London Tower is not really a tower, it is an old palace.

9. The Beefeaters hats are made out of real bear skin.

10. Some art I just don’t get!


More Words:

a clamp = a boot (on your car tire)
let = rent
gerkin = pickle
coach = bus

Today we arose nice and early in the morning (the wake up call came at 6:05 am) for a Continental Breakfast at the hotel. And in relation to all my past experiences with hotels and the EF tours, this breakfast wasn’t worth getting up for. Let me give you a quick run down of the food that was offered: Toast (white or wheat), small rolls, bananas, oranges, apples, yogurt, grapefruit pieces, and cold cereal. That was it. There was coffee, orange juice and milk to drink. But the Orange Juice was nasty- it doesn’t taste fresh squeezed at all like it claims to be, but it doesn’t even taste as good as the processed stuff we have at home. And don’t get me started on the milk. That is some weird stuff! I am not sure what is wrong with the cows here but that is not milk. (Maybe it’s not from a cow at all!)
After our lovely breakfast spread, we congregated in the main lobby to wait for our coaches to arrive. We were going to start the day off with a guided bus tour of the city. Since our group is so large, we need two buses to get us around. The first bus arrived and Group #1 was on their way. Our group was not so fortunate. The bus we were to travel on broke down on its way to the hotel. So we were delayed about 30 -45 minutes. But we were grateful that we had not already boarded the bus prior to its breakdown! Or we might have been stuck along side the road somewhere instead of in the hotel lobby. Lucky for us, the company sent out a new coach and we were still able to complete the tour.
During the tour we saw more of the famous sites around London including: The Tower of London, The Parliament Buildings (House of Lords and House of Commons), The Eye of London (again but from different angles) The London Bridge, St. Pauls Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey. The tour ended at Buckingham palace were we got to watch the changing of the guards. I was a little disappointed by that process because the Beefeaters were not on duty. They have other types of guards (which I can not remember the name of) that sometime take the job of guarding the palace. So I did not get to see the actual beefeaters in person! :(

When our guided bus tour was over we had a little time to do out own thing. Lucky for me I was able to talk my group into going to the Hard Rock Cafe. (My friend Haley got me hooked on collecting the guitar pins from the different Hard Rocks around the world.) After the hard rock we grabbed a bite to eat and then headed to the National Gallery- a free art museum located at Trafalgar Square.
Like any art museum there is a ton to see. So we focused on the big names like Leonardo Di Vinci, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Picasso, Degas, and Monet. I must admit I liked the student way of attending an art museum! You arrive, walk a few places, read some of the descriptions, and then move on to the next activity. Don;t get me wrong I really like art most of the time. But at times there is just so much to look at and much of it I just don’t find that appealing. I can only look at so many self portraits!

I did run into a painting that I really liked by someone I have never heard of before. The painters name is Akseli Gallen-Kallela and the painting was called Lake Keitele. It was really awesome, or at least I thought so. I almost bought an actual print of it - or at least a replica print of it. But it was 35 pounds ($70) for the small one. So I constrained myself and from talking to Justin that was probably a good thing. Since he was working on fixing our flat roof today and managed to “almost fall” through. Which means I now have a hole that will need to be repaired in the ceiling of my living room!
For dinner we went to Chowki, an Indian Cuisine restaurant. Most of the kids had never had curry before so it was a new experience for them. They did pretty well with it- with only a few needing to get some sandwiches on the way home to tide them over until Breakfast in the morning.

After dinner we went and saw Platform 9 3/4. For those not familiar with Harry Potter this is the platform they use to get to the Hogwarts express. And yes, they made a platform specifically for the book, not the other way around! We took a few photos of the kids as the attempted to make there way through the barrier, none of which were successful. So I guess none of them are destined to be Witches or Wizards!
From there we made our way across London to the Tower of London were we started a night tour called “Jack the Ripper”. Basically, we walked around to the different sites and learned all about the heinous crimes committed by a person the paper dubbed “Jack the Ripper”. It was interesting but a little gory for some of the kids- but they seemed to be fine with ut. Hopefully there are no frantic calls in the middle of the night from children who have awoken from a terrible nightmare!
The day was very full again as you can see. My feet are aching, my eyes are drooping, and I still have to take a shower in an attempt to clean off some of the days grime! I miss you all- especially my boys!