ARGH! So far behind!

So, I'm curently in Northumberland loving it sooooooo much. And I'm only up to talking about London!


So London, final day. (Oh, and btw, photos will accompany these posts eventually. I'll let you know when I've updated the posts with photos.)


Realising I had seen nothing of London, I separated from the girls to join a free walking tour so I could at least say, "Oh, Buckingham Palace? Yep, seen that." I highly recommend the tour - it's run by New Europe and basically the guides run on tips. Our group's guide was named Alphie (so British!) and was must be an actor or something because he was fantastic. The tour went for about 3 hours and we saw Buckingham Palace and attempted to see the changing of the guards (watched 10 mins of it... or at least 10 mins of the back of the huge crowd's head. Apparently the whole thing goes on for about an hour. Yawn), Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, the wall which is in front of 10 Downing St (did anyone else know that they'd blocked it off?). We saw a bunch of other things I can't remember right now... I'll check the photos later.


On the tour were a bunch of Aussies, one from Epping. Also, apparently my Republicanism could get me tried for treason. Loves it.

After 3 hours of walking around I had to hoof it to the Tower of London to meet up with the girls. Kristy and I went in and did a guided tour with a Yeoman/Beefeater who was excellent. I thought he has an actor too until he explained that to be a Yeoman you had to have been in the army for over 20 years, served in such and such, reached the level of blah, and lots of other requirements. They live in the Tower with their families and serve as the Queen's guards in certain ceremonies... as well as wear silly costumes and give hillarious tours. Whilst there we also saw the Crown Jewels. Unfortunately I couldn't steal any of them because you're on a moving walkway to see them - it's too fast to properly snatch them, too slow to make a quick getaway. Oh, and also it's in this safe with 30 cm thick doors. You know how it is. But more important than seeing the Crown Jewels, I got to see the CORONATION SPOON!!!! It's this spoon, you see. And they use it during the coronation for something. And it's a spoon...

Anyway, by this time it had begun really raining quite hard. Although I'd bought both an umbrella and a touristy plastic poncho for my trip, both were in my backpack at the hostel. Well done. So we all had to buy plastic ponchos from the Tower gift shop and go meet the next walking tour we were going to do: The Grim Reaper tour. Basically a tour of the "darker" side of London.

Have I mentioned yet how much walking I had done by this time? A lot. I was tired, but managing. Those gym sessions totally paid off with the stamina!

This tour was fun, learning about some of the public executions, Jack the Ripper's victims, as well as a few other gruesome tales. It was good, but not as entertaining as my morning tour.

Not much else that day, managed to have one drink with the girls before my exhaustion caught up with me and went to bed.

Gotta go now - need to watch Eastenders with my family. Seriously loving Northumberland, guys. You have to come here!

Next post, the GORGEOUS Hertfordshire and my lovely Aunt and Uncle.... is it weird to call them that? I have no idea...