London - First Full Day

Waking up in a hostel is very similar to waking up at camp. A lot of noise, weird showers, and generally being out of your comfort zone. But it wasn't too bad. My 30 year old self has just gotten used to nice hotels for work travel.

We headed out into London about 9am and went straight to downtown London. First order of business was seeing Big Ben and Parliament.

Then we headed to Westminster Abbey, but unfortunately they were doing repairs and we were not able to take many pictures of the outside. We did visit the church of St. Margaret next door. It was beautiful on the inside! It was similar to the churches of Bulgaria but different as well. The ornate architecture, stained glass and gold inside decor were all the same. The big difference was in the paintings. Bulgarian churches have beautiful hand paintings on the inside, while there were almost none on the inside of St. Margaret's church. Each church is beautiful in it's own way.

The church of St. Margaret

Stained glass on the inside of the church of St. Margaret.

The gals of our group - Sara, Courtney, me and Kerri.

Next, we purchased a ticket for the London Eye and quickly got in what looked like the longest line we encountered. But it moved so quickly and we only stood for maybe 30 minutes. Once up in the Eye we were able to see all of London. I thought there would be more "old world" buildings than what we saw, but we saw more modern skyscrapers from that height. The Eye was great for some panoramic pictures...

London Eye looking from the entrance line.

Panoramic view of London from the London Eye.

Next we headed towards Buckingham Palace and went through the Whitehall Palace. Guards dressed in "tradition" garb were standing guard in several location. Of course tourists were taking their pictures with them, but they stayed stoic. I wonder what goes through their heads while standing there. On the way to Buckingham Palace, we stumbled upon a small deli, grabbed lunch and ate on the steps of a statue on Pall Mall. After lunch we walked to Buckingham Palace a few blocks away. We noticed that there were no garbage cans around yet there was no trash seen. I guess someone is keeping it up very well. One of the first things you noticed when coming up on Buckingham Palace is the Queen Victoria Statue in the middle. A gold angel sits on the top and shines brightly in the sun. There are large ornate gates as entrances to the parks that surround Buckingham which to me was kind of odd. We did see Buckingham and it was ok to view. It was not as big as I had expected, but I'm sure the inside is much better to see. 

Queen Victoria Statue

Entrance to park on the outskirts of Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace

After Buckingham we ventured back to the hostel to rest a little while before dinner. For dinner we went to the Swiss Cottage Pub situated very close to the hostel. We sat and began deciding our orders. I actually looked up "pub etiquette" to see if we ordered at the bar or not. We do. I had the fish and chips and a scotch whiskey. The fish and chips were good and the whiskey was strong. All and all it was good!