We ate a quick bite of breakfast here at the hotel. Since it is included in our daily rate, we have taken advantage of it every morning. It's super yummy. This morning I had a hashbrown patty that was so good. Their orange juice is also a favorite of Brandon's.
The first thing we did this morning was go and find the car rental shop so we would know where to go and how far it is from our hotel. It took us a good 30 minutes to walk there which I think we've decided is too far for our legs to walk. It is also quite tricky to get around here with bulky luggage. The hoards of people bumping into you when you are just walking is awkward enough. I can't even begin to explain how annoying it is to be behind someone dragging luggage - especially when they have to do it up the subway steps (lots of stairs with suitcase is no fun).
Anyway, after we did that we popped on the tube and went to the British Library. It just happened to be right next to King's Cross Station of Harry Potter fame. It is a HUGE station, but we had to search for the 9 3/4 platform they have set up for tourists. The line to have your pictures taken was HUGE so we just snapped a picture of someone else in front of it.
We then walked over to the library.
It is a wonderful, quiet place and I'm sure it would be a delight to use, if we lived here in London. But, we went for the historical documents they have on display there. We saw some beautiful illuminated manuscripts, original music scores from old famous musician, a copy of the Tyndall Bible, written speech to parliament from Elizabeth I in the 1600's, and on and on. Brandon did most of the looking around while I went and used their extremely clean water closet. Seriously, the advice we have used most frequently is to use the loo whenever you leave a museum or tourist attraction. I have yet to see a "loo" in the middle of a busy intersection like the tour book said there were, but I have seen one in the tube where you had to pay half a pound to use it.
After the library we hopped on the tube and went to the British Museum. There were a few other things that we wanted to see, that we weren't able to see when we had visited a few days ago. We first went to the Japanese exhibit and saw the Samurai warrior armor. It was amazingly detailed and so intricate. I still don't understand how they could keep the shoes on their feet, but perhaps they had another type of clothing that helped it to stay on.
We also were able to see lots of Egyptian mummies. They had a fantastic display and there were lots of them. They were a popular exhibit and there were so many people that we really had to swim thru the crowds to see what we wanted. It is really fascinating to me that they can use x-ray machines now to see what is underneath all those wrappings. The small mummies were so sad, yet they were just as decorated as the large ones.
While we were there we stopped to have lunch and get our thirst quenched. I had two waters and Brandon had a coke and water. The one thing that the city of London doesn't have is drinking fountains. The only ones we have seen so far were two that were in the British Library.
Then, it was time to start the next phase of our day. Brandon researched a theater production that he wanted to go to, and bought us tickets before we even left home. So, we took the tube to the Piccadilly circus station and found the theater.
We arrived there about 30 minutes before the doors opened for our show. There were lots of people everywhere because the area is known as the West End, which is pretty much the place you go to if you want to see performances in London. I was literally taken away by the crowds that were everywhere. We had been in crowds before, but this really was the largest crowds I had been in. The theater we were going to was right outside the station, so we decided to walk down the road and waste some time.
We got lucky and just happened to find our way to the M&M store here in London. We, and all the other humans in London, all went in to the store at the same time. It was fun to see some of the creative t-shirts and other tourist stuff they had at the store. The prices for the merchandise was beyond expensive, but we enjoyed walking around. They also had these little guys in parts of the store so you could have a mini photo op by them. We snapped away because we knew the boys would enjoy seeing them.
By that time the doors to the theater were open and we were able to go and sit down. It was pretty wonderful to spend the next 3 hours sitting down relaxing. We were super lucky and we were able to get 2nd row tickets. We did have to spend some hard-earned money, but we knew it would be worth it since we'll most likely never do it again. It was such a funny show and I'm so glad Brandon picked this one. If felt so freeing to be able to laugh hilariously thru most of the show. I think a hearty laugh at least once a day keeps stress away. LOL. I wish we could have taken pictures inside because the interior structure was amazing. But, they were super strict about pictures and I saw multiple people get reprimanded.
After the show we hopped back on the tube and took it across the Thames to the Waterloo station. I wanted to find out how much the tickets were to ride the London Eye. When we got out of that station we were greeted with another area of massive crowds. Apparently, there is a great big carnival going on in this part of town this weekend - we had no idea. The ride for the London Eye was probably at least and hour and it cost 24 pounds (about 38 dollars in American money) per person. So, instead, I took a picture. The view from that side of the river was amazing. Despite the crowds, I am glad we went over there so we could get some pictures.
We were thinking about getting some food to eat over there by the Westminster tube station, but we couldn't find anything that sounded good. So, we came all the way back to our hotel, freshened up, and then went back out to a pizza place one block from our hotel. The food was pretty good, and we met a Londoner who is traveling to SLC in about 5 weeks to go on a road trip with her boyfriend. She was pretty shocked to hear we were from somewhere she was going. The rest of the night was spent packing up. In the morning (hopefully by 8am) we will be out of here on the next leg of the adventure. If everything works out right we will travel to Windsor Castle, then Avebury, then Port Isaac on western coast. Should be a pretty interesting day. I'm praying we make it safely. We requested a GPS system in the car because we are not sure how we are going to make it out of the city with the small streets, driving on the left side of the road, and driving on the left side of the car. Such strange things. Hopefully, by leaving early on a Sunday morning, we will prevent too many problems.
