Guns, Stairs and God

I now have jello for legs.

Today Mom and I went to St. Paul's Cathedral, where you can walk up the to various galleries in the dome. It was beautiful as all cathedral's are. I put up pictures of the view from the second of three galleries, but I wasn't allowed to take any photos inside the church. I got to see the tombs of a slew of British heroes-- Nelson, Wellington--yes the guy who gave us beef Wellington-- and Cornwallis. Lots of military men. Also there were a large number of memorials to men lost in particular battles erected at the expense of the British people. It was very different for me to find a memorial list of all British military lost during WWII within a church. I chalk it up to the fact that Britain doesn't have the same separation of church and state that the US does, so the government can erect memorials in a religious setting. The other unexpected part of St. Paul's, for me, was a memorial to the US soldiers based in Britain during WWII. Again a weird mix an of war, state and religion as it was unveiled by H.M. Queen Elizabeth in 1958 with Richard Nixon as our representative-- I know don't we wish that wasn't literally carved in stone.

Then we went to the Tower of London, which is actually quite the complex. Lots of history, just my thing. We took a tour with the jailers (spelled gaolers) who live inside the complex, guard the jewels and give tours, I'm sure they do more but that was the general gist I got. There were lots of weapons and a beautiful chapel. It was quite the interesting time capsule.

As to my legs, I feel like I've walked an innumerable number of stairs today. Up from the ground floor of the cathedral to the galleries, then back down, up and down the various levels of the 20 total towers within the Tower of London, and tack on little spurts in and out of tube stops, and well I'm getting some great/terrible leg workouts. Well I'm off to bed, I have an early start tomorrow for our day trip out to Stonehenge, Salisbury and Bath.

Lies, all lies

So I almost didn't go to London yesterday/today. My mom and I firmly believed that our flight left around 11pm, also I believed I was staying here until the 8th of January. All Lies! Our plane left at 9:55pm much to our confusion- thank God we made it, even if we only had ten minutes to sit at the gate. Also apparently we are staying 8 nights, not until the 8th. Mommy and I need to work on our communication skills apparently. But no matter we just finished planning out the rest of our week and with the exception of cutting out a trip to the edge of town to go to some of the bigger markets everything seems to fit in the 8 days.

So what have I see so far? The outsides of buildings and the insides of my travel books. We took the tube into town and walked the mall up to Parliament and then made our way over to Trafalgar Square. It was too dark to get goo pictures by the time we got to Trafalgar, but the rest of the highlights are up on Facebook. Also I am pleased to find plenty of coffee shops to maintain my caffeine addiction. Talk to you guys again tomorrow.

T Minus 9 Hours

So I leave later today! bah! It's kinda crazy to think about how far away I'll be, but I guess that's travel. I have so many things to see in London. Of course there will be museums galore, which according to Liz may have some disturbing moments, also the occasional landmark and tourist photo. There's just so much, and while I'm going for a good chunk of time I'm worried I may miss stuff. I console myself with knowing that you can't see it all even if you try, and well it leaves a good excuse to go back! Miss you all already and I'll write back later tomorrow after my first half day of adventures!

Well I guess...

So it looks like Mommy and I have intertron while we're in London, so my blog has a new reason for existing! I'm gonna try and get pictures up fairly often, but at least I can write about my daily adventures here! Mmk, talk to you all in reality and more to come circa Dec 28th.