London Day 1 Cont. & Day 2

After having a lively conversation with the British 'we don't have your baggage' man... we took a groggy tube (subway) ride to our hostel that is just north of the central part of London. The hostel is very nice, it is actually a large renovated historic home. After checking in, we set off on our first day of sightseeing around the city. We watched the tail end of the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, took a few pictures, then we rested (aka napped) in the sunshine for an hour or so in Queen's Park directly across the street (don't worry- we had our money belts securely in place). After we felt a bit more refreshed we walked over to Westminster and checked out the Abbey and Parliament. Since we were still quite tired and felt we weren't really absorbing our surroundings we went back to the hostel, took another nap, and got ready for dinner. We met up with Laura's friends Calvin and Marie for dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe and then went on a Jack-the-Ripper tour around the Whitechapel area of East London. The tour guide was great and the stories were pretty creepy. After the tour we headed straight back to the hostel for some much needed sleep.

After a tasty English breakfast this morning we headed back to Westminster to re-do the sightseeing from yesterday. We were able to appreciate all the sights much more today after our 10 hours of sleep :) After revisiting the Abbey and Parliament we went through St. Margaret's Church and crossed the Thames River via the Westminster Bridge. Then we took an up close look at the London Eye but decided we didn't want to spend the ££ to climb aboard. We continued wandering around London for several more hours and saw the Royal Cavalry, Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, the British Museum, and other places we can't remember the names of. Overall it was a great day- the weather has been perfect the entire time- sunny and in the 70's. We have become masters of getting around via the tube and have visited more stations than we can count. It is really easy to get around here and we haven't been lost once!!

Tomorrow we are going to get up bright and early and head to Old London to see St. Paul's Cathedral, London Bridge, and the Tower of London. In the afternoon we leave for Paris on the Eurostar. That's all for now- next update from Paris!