our official first tourist day

Today was filled with tons of history and then a modern touch. We slept in which ended up being a good thing because the Central Line on the Tube had really bad delays during rush hour. We headed straight for the major touristy thing - Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. You walk up out of the tube and there's Big Ben! We were suddenly surrounded by massive amounts of tourists which is very different from where we're staying in Notting Hill. So Pat didn't feel so weird with his camera.

We stood in the line (they call it a queue) at Westminster and we so wish we could've taken pictures inside. It was so historical and beautiful. Pat pointed out to me at one point that we were standing on a tomb of somebody from 1400. After walking through Westminster Abbey we exited and walked towards Buckingham Palace. We found it finally and stopped to watch the guards for awhile. Pat and I decided they have to be so bored sometimes. Ha! The Palace was surrounded by two parks. We headed to Green Park first and sat on a bench and just took it all in. Then we walked across the street to St. James Park, which is officially my favorite park so far. We walked through the park along the lake and I grabbed a sandwich to munch on and walk at the same time. Even though it was cloudy it still was amazing. We need parks like this in Indy! So many people were reading and enjoying their lunch...that would be wonderful!

We walked across the London Bridge to the South Bank and headed down the Thames Path towards the London Eye. We didn't go on the London Eye but just took some pictures and hope to go on it when it's clearer outside. We continued walking and it eventually started pouring down rain. Oh well! We made it to the Tate Modern just in time as the rain really started to pick up. The Tate was so cool! Pat was my own personal tour guide as he told me about each piece we were standing in front of. He was beaming and kept saying "I can't believe I'm seeing all this stuff I studied in school." We spent one whole hour on just the first floor we visited. But after that we realized we needed to pick up the pace a little bit. After the Tate we walked next store and looked at the Globe from the outside...again, can't wait to go in!

We walked over the Thames on the Millennium Bridge and St. Paul's was right in front of us. As we kept getting closer and closer we realized that there's a fake facade on it right now...they of course are doing construction! But we think you can still go in it, we'll found out later.

We jumped on the tube and headed back to Notting Hill where we had dinner and walked around a bit. We retired to the flat early again, beat from walking all day but at the same time we loved walking all day!

Oh...one funny story from the day. While washing my hands in the Tate Modern's bathroom a lady with a British accent asked me if I knew exactly how to get to St. Paul's from there. I told her I wasn't positive because I'd only been here one day. She smiled and said "Oh I'm sorry you look like you're from here." I told Pat and he was just as excited as me that someone thought I was from here! Ha!

Update on the pictures - we have an ancient laptop...we think perhaps the first one ever. So we can't connect the camera to the laptop. We're still trying to figure some things out so we'll see.