Landed in London

Well, I've made it to London. This photo was taken by Jane Hatch about 1 minute after we got to her and her husband Paul's flat located in Notting Hill. Considering this was after an 8 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), followed by a 12 hour flight to Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and a 1 hour flight from there to Heathrow, as well as another hour of dragging my 40kg of luggage around London, I think I look prety perky.

Anyway, after having a shower, some lunch and a quick call to family to let them know I arrived in one piece, Jane took me on a tour of downtown London. Well, some of it anyway. I was quite surprised at how many of the landmarks we saw in about five hours. We walked from their flat towards town, first going to Kensington Palace where Diana used to live after she and Charles parted ways. Very big, but not terribly impressive for a building that is called a palace. Then we walked through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park (which are enormous), visiting the Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall on the way.

Buckingham Palace was next, complete with Beefeaters. There was no changing of the guard ceremony that day, though. From there we headed down to Whitehall, which has more national monuments than you can poke a stick at - Big Ben (which I learned is actually the name of the bell, not the clock itself), the Houses of Lords and Commons, and Westminster Abbey, but to hame a few. Westminster Abbey was quite impressive. It has been the coronation and burial site of England's monarchs since the 1300's, and it contains the tombs or memorials of many other famous English men and women (mostly men though), including Shakespeare, Oliver Cromwell, and David Livingstone.

From there, we wondered up past Downing St (it's completely blocked off and guarded by police), past the Horse Guard's Parade to Trafalga Square. The National Gallery is right next to Trafalga Square, and we spent about 15 minutes trying to find an artist we'd heard of. We finally found an unfinished piece by Michaelangelo and a portrait of one of the Popes by Raphael. We couldn't find anything by Leonardo or Donatello though, unfortunately.

From there, we meandered up to Lichester Square where we sat down for about 20 minutes while we waited for Paul to finish work. His building overlooks Lichester Square. There are also several cinemas in that block, and they apparently have a lot of the premiers there. He's seen Patrick Stewart (of Star Trek fame) and last week he nearly got to shake hands with Arnold Schwartzenegger at the premiere of of Terminator 3. He was about two arm's lengths away when he stopped, apparently. Bummer.

Several close calls with pidgeon poop later, Paul finally emerged, and we headed up to Picadilly Circus, then wondered up through Soho and caught one of the famous red double-decker busses back to their flat.

All that in about five hours and at a cost of £9 (£3 for water and and icecream, £4 for Westminster Abbey, £1 for some sketches of London monuments, £1 for the bus trip)! How cheap is that?

Anyway, that's about it for this entry. I've got to go and figure out what I can see today...hmm...