London Day 1

Talk about culture shock! Yesterday morning we were in very rural and relatively uncivilized Africa. Today we're in super urban, highly civilized London. I'm not sure what I expected but good grief there are a lot of people here. Being slightly clostrophbic and highly clumsy I was on the edge of uncomfortable all day. Literally, there were so many people I couldn't move without bumping into someone. So enough griping. 

Today we explored London the Hunter way. We love to just go out and start wandering around. We awoke this morning and had our complimentary continental breakfast in a lovely library overlooking the Thames River. Love complimentary! Especially when it's good and this was good. Fresh made muffins, fruit and yogurt, pastries, eggs and toast. I've been craving bacon so was thrilled when I saw they had bacon. Then I opened the dish and found they boil bacon in England. It looked like a pot full of soggy ham. 

After breakfast, around 10:00am, we left and started wandering. We crossed the Thames River on the Westminster Bridge past Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. Of course we forgot our Rick Steves book on London at home so we had to find a book store. We walked over to Trafalgar Square to a book store. You would be surprised how hard it is to find a tourist book about London when you're in London. But we found one. Then we needed to find a coat for Ranie. It's a lot colder here than I thought it would be. Especially when it starts raining. Again, we were successful. While taking care of these mundane tasks we walked past beautiful ornate buildings and monuments in really cool public squares. 

During our travels we took a couple of wrong turns and ended up in the red light district of Soho. This used to be the seedy part of London. Now it is becoming more trendy and the hub of London's music and entertainment district. But there are still lots of strip joints, gay shops and "registered" sex shops. Ranie keep wanting to go in but I had to put my foot down. (Ha ha)

Anyway, we walked from 10am to 6pm and came back to the room exhausted. During our travels we visited Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square (they have a four story M&M store there), St. James Park, Buckingham Palace (where we spent way too many pounds in the gift shop) and the National Gallery (beautiful paintings by Renoir, Rembrandt, Monet, Manet and other masters of the canvas). 

So this evening it's a movie in the room and early to bed. Have to rest up for another busy day tomorrow.