London Sights

Part 1 of 2

So, I was completely exhausted after this day, and then I got up early the next day, and then I just didn't feel like it, so I've got two days to do posts for, and they're both at least a day late, and they're both big enough to be their own, so I'm going to make them seperate. :)

Oh my... giddy aunt. I saw so much stuff on Monday. Bear with me, because this will be a long one. And honestly, you can probably do better through the pictures I'm *cough* currently *cough* putting on facebook.

So, we, Emily, Mac, and I, headed out early, on the train at 7:10. Decided to go ahead and take the train to Charing Cross, a longer train ride, but it meant we wouldn't have to take the tube to start our sight seeing, so it evened out. And saved money. :) We stepped out of Charing Cross station, where I stopped to get a second breakfast. I got a fruit flapjack, which was amazing! I really need to find another one of those... We walked a block down the street and wound up at Trafalgar Square. It's got a giant statue of Horatio Nelson, Viscount Nelson, Duke of Bronte. Unfortunately, they were building something, Emily said for an event, so I'm not real happy with my pictures.

We then headed toward Buckingham Palace. I say toward because we took a rather circuitous route. First we were crossing the street back and forth to look at all the statues, then we took a mild detour into St. Jame's Park. The gardens were beautiful and we got to see ducks! And baby ducks! They were so cute! We finally made it to Buckingham Palace and wandered around taking pictures of the Palace, the guards, the Vicoria Monument and the gates.

Then we headed off to Wellington Arch. The arch is in the middle of a small park with a winged statue of victory on it. There's also a statue of Wellington (Arthur Wellsley, Duke of Wellington, Mac was so proud I knew his name) off to the side. As well as a monument to the artillery soldiers and to all the Australians who fought in the two world wars.

We then headed over to Hyde Park, and strolled about the grounds. I got to see Rotten Row and the Serpentine!I got a muffin, then we grabbed lunch, paninis, at a little stand by the Serpentine and continued walking. We went to see Princess Diana's memorial fountain and then we went and saw Prince Albert's monument. I have to say the builder were rather confused. There are roman style friezes and statues, an eastern style (lots of gold) main tower, then two random gothic towers. It's definately got the shock and awe down though.

After Hyde Park I split from Mac and Emily and headed for the Science Museum. I went through the whole thing (5 floors) in two hours. It's a science museum, so it's really a bit too recent for my interest. One cool part, though, was the model ships. They had a gallery full of any ship you could thing of, and I don't just mean the Titanic. They had steamliners, but they also had Chinese Junks, Amazonian canoes, Egyptian river boats, you name it, they got it. It was pretty cool. They also had a math gallery for any theoretical physicists out there, it was a bit beyond the rest of us mere mortals.

I still had a few hours, so I went to the Natural History Museum. There was actually a line to get in, but it moved pretty quickly. I, like every other little kid, immediately headed for the Dinosaurs. Because, let's face it, that's why you go to a natural history museum. The dinosaur exhibit was well done, taking you through the time periods, the various discoveries, theories and the like. However, they had these little animatronic raptors all over the place. And they would turn and look at you and hiss, and the there was low light levels, and it was just creepy. But the bones were cool. :) I made it out of the dinosaurs and made it through the rest of the Animal exhibits, including the requisite Blue Whale. They also have an exhibition going about animal sexuality that I think I'm going to go to when I go back.

At this point I headed for the tube station (after taking some photos from the upper floor of the main hall) and headed to St. Pancras where I was meeting Mac and Emily. I went in the Olympic store to get a souvenier then got a snack (hey, I'd done A LOT of walking) and headed up to the train platform. We met up there, got on the train and made it back to Canterbury at around 8:15. By the time I'd made and eaten dinner, it was 9:30 and all I wanted to do was go to bed. So I did. :)