First Night and Second Day

So, last night when I said we were going to get some rest, we were wrong.  We decided that we needed to go on the first tube ride we had been on.  If you google the Tube map, you can follow along with what I say.  Last night we hoped on the "District" line from the "South Kensington" stop and rode that straight east until we got off at "Westminster".  We had heard that is where the famous "Big Ben" was.  We followed the signs out of the station and we saw this....

I'm not kidding either, when you walk out of the Tube Station you saw that exact picture.  So we were amazed by this and took lots of pictures, from many different angles.

     After this we continued walking around in "Westminster" which feels a lot like South Kensington because of the quiet and almost retired feeling.  However, I would like to go back to "Westminster" in the day to get a better feeling for it.  It was 10pm on a thursday night.... As we continued walking it was hard to miss this...

Known as the London Eye, it is the largest Ferris Wheel I have ever seen.  It is all lite up in the night and it is a very cool sight to see.  Here are some other angles....

We were going to find a fun Pub to find around these tourist attractions, but we decided to hop back on the tube to "South Kensington" and find one around here.  We met up with some local English kids that we eager to drink with Americans.  We found out they were 16 years old, drinking is a whole new ball game over here.  I, being much like my father, tried the local beer called DOOM BAR!  It was a dark and incredible. It can out of a pump, not a tap, and it was in smooth and serve cold.  After talking to them we came home and slept.  Sleeping here is NOT easy.  I am about 8 inches to long for the bed, the pillows are about as thin as the sheets, the temperature is hot and the humidity near 100%.  It is always muggy here, I have not stopped sweating yet.  Another thing about the weather it is rainy and always wet.  Saw the sun today for the first time,  lasted about 10 min.  

      Today we woke up and had orientation from 9-noon.  After that we went on all day adventure to find random things we needed.  Again, follow me on the map. We took the "Piccadilly" up to "Hyde Park Corner".  This is what I pictured London to be like.  It was crazy busy with traffic and people all over the side walks.  The sidewalks reminded me of the state fair. 

We walked all around and saw all sorts of things.  

Famous telephone booth.

We went to Hyde Park very briefly, we will return.

These were  really cool modern buildings near Hyde park.

This is a Bentley.  This brings about another point.  They say it is rich, but it is beyond rich here.  Audi, BMW, Mercedes, are all normal cars to be driving.  In fact, the garbage trucks here are Mercedes.  Traffic doesn't stop for you and it is likely that they speed up at you when in the crosswalk.  Very busy traffic.  Dad, you are going to die when you come see this traffic, you thought St. Cloud was bad, just wait.  

We saw Harrod's today.  Did not go in, but walked by it.  The next couple of pictures are of Harrod's.  It is beyond big, it is like 2 city blocks long, and 5 stories high.  The whole "westminster" part of town was like this.  Tall buildings that span a long time.  Much more busy and New York like.

We hopped on the Tube,  and took it the "Piccadilly" back to "South Kensington" and re routed on the "Circle" route and headed up to the "High Street Kensington" exit.  We walked around here and found the gym that we will be working out at.  We also found our phone here for very cheap.  We bought some more groceries.  We will be living on Spaghetti for a while until our flat figures our the whole dinner thing.

     Tonight we are going to "Trafalgar Square" after dinner to find a cheap pint.  Hopefully another DOOM BAR kind of beer. 

More updates to come.

Cheers

Jimmy