Just trying to find the bloody loo...

Ahhhhhh England.

Here I am in the land of the Queen, and William and Kate, and tea and crumpets.

I flew in to London City airport on Thursday. I took a black cab from the airport to my hotel. Those black cabs are spectacular, it's so roomy inside and the driver helped me with my bags both in and out.

My hotel room.....I knew it would be small, I've read the reviews, but this is small! The bed is against one wall. The other wall is 3 maybe 4 feet from the other side of the bed. The end of the bed is maybe 2 feet from the wall. The bathroom is so small to properly turn around, you need to step out of it, and the door won't open all the way because it hits the end of the bed...so yeah.

After checking in to my ridiculously small hotel room, I decided to take a bus tour around London. After navigating myself via the tube to Piccadilly Circus, I found my way (eventually) to the bus stop. My tour guide was Rosie, she was quite funny and had so many great stories. My favorites: In order to make the pilgrimage to Canterbury and back in a day on horseback, you had to ride your horse at a certain speed, which became known as a Canterbury trot, which was eventually shortened to Canter. The other is about Hyde Park. There was an eccentric old woman (because she was rich, if you're crazy and rich, then you're eccentric) who was working on parachute designs. 1 day she decided to test her designs she tethered a hot air balloon and took it up then dropped 6 monkies, each wearing a different parachute design, from the balloon. But she didn't hire someone to gather the monkies so they just ran off in to London town never to be seen again (don't know if I believe that story, but it's still fun)

After my bus tour I returned to my hotel near King's Cross station, and found a cute little pub, The Lucas Arms, and had fish-n-chips and a pint for dinner while England eliminated themselves from the World Cup.

In the morning I again navigated the tube system and a train system to get to Windsor. Windsor Castle is spectacular. The grounds are beautiful, and the inside makes my hotel room seem that much smaller. The best part is, this weekend is Royal Ascot horse racing, so the Queen was in residence at the castle. I didn't get to see her, but she was staying at the castle...

For lunch I went to this cute little pub called the Duchess of Cambridge (that's Kate's title in case you didn't know). Lunch was unremarkable, but after I finished eating I felt I should use the bathroom before boarding the train back to London. There was a guy looking for the bathroom at the same time I was. It was a bit hard to find, you had to go to the back of the restaurant then down 3 flights of stairs, the guy actually said "I'm just trying to find the bloody loo" which may be the most British thing I've ever heard.

Upon my return to London I went on a short boat trip which came free with my bus tour from the night before. After a quick dinner, I returned to my room to plan for my Saturday.

Saturday dawned beautiful and bright. I went to the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. It was amazing. The tour guides are the actors who are in the Globe plays. Cannis was our guide. He was hilarious, but so knowledgeable. It would be amazing to bring students here...

Next door to the Globe is the Tate Modern Art Museum. I thought I should give a modern art museum another go. I was only slightly disappointed this time. There were some amazing pieces, Picasso, Dali, Monet, but then there was the same crap as in Amsterdam. Glad I didn't pay to get in...

Directly in front of the Tate is the Millenium Bridge, which is a pedestrian bridge across the Thames. I was glad to see that the death eaters hadn't actually destroyed it (if you get that reference, you will, if not you won't). And another tube trip brought me to Trafalgar Square. In the square they were performing musical numbers from all the musicals playing in town right now. I watched a couple, but there were SO many people.

In Trafalgar square is the National Gallery, it was hot(ish) out so I decided to pop in. I'll make a post about how I do museums later, but I will say I enjoyed the National Gallery.

Since I hadn't walked enough yet, I thought, "Hey! I'll walk up the mall to Buckingham Palace" No idea how long it is, but it felt like it would never end, but it did, and when it ended, there was Buckingham Palace. It was so beautiful and ornate. I saw the balcony where Will and Kate kissed after their wedding.

By this time I was quite tired so I found the nearest tube station and returned to my hotel for dinner. But first I stopped at Marks & Spencer for some dinner. I haven't left my room since. I got up to use the bathroom and my feet protested greatly, which cancelled any plans I had formulated to go out for a pint.

Tomorrow I'm off to Greenwich to stand in the future and the past at the same time! Maybe a little less walking tomorrow...

Toodles!