Sunday, April 22, 2001

2001/04/22

Another busy day today.

Ryan, Neil and I decided to check out the nightlife last night (Dave didn't come), and went to Picadilly Circus, which seemed to be a pretty busy place when we were there during the day. We stopped into a couple of pubs and had a pint of beer at each, then walked around "downtown" London. It's lit up pretty good, and quite busy, people hustling and bustling about. Westminister Abbey and the Parliament Buildings and Big Ben are lit up pretty well at night. We got to hear Big Ben chime 10 bells last night, which was kinda cool. We then headed back to our hostel area, and headed to a small dance bar (called the Down Under, I believe...the woman working the bar was from Australia too). We were the first ones there, but by midnight, it was packed. Small bar, probably half the size of the Cornerstone, but it was fun. Ryan and Neil got drunk (at $7.00-$8.00 a drink, I passed on this one!) {Todd is a wimp} Shooters were cheap though, about $3.50 CDN, same you'd pay in Moose Jaw.

I left earlier (about 12:30), I guess Ryan and Neil left about 1:00. When they got back to the hostel, Ryan went to get a Coke, then passed out at the couch, and woke up about 3:00 and then went to bed.

We got up about 9:00 and headed out. First stop, Buckingham Palace, but we couldn't get in. Don't know why, but the ticket place just wasn't anywhere to be found. Perhaps the London Marathon (which was today) interfered with it. We got pictures of the outside, though.

On our way to Buckingham Palace, stopped in at Wellington Gate, a big arch in a park. Nothing special about it.

We then headed to the Imperial War Museum. I wasn't expecting much, but WOW, this is impressive! They have display after display after display of war related stuff, including tanks, planes, guns, bombs, nuclear weapons, etc. They have this really cool WW1 Trench Exhibit that made you feel like you were in the trenches. Also had a display simulating being in a bunker in London during the German bombing raids which was WAY cool. After the bombs drop (and bunker actually shakes!), you exit the bunker and check out the damage. Very real stuff. Had a huge Holocaust display, very interesting.

Spent a lot of time at the Imperial War Museum.

We then headed to the London Aquarium. Very dissappointing. The London Guide says it's one of the biggest and best aquariums in Europe, but it SUCKS! Don't go see it, if you're in London. The one Ryan and I saw in Japan was much better.

We then headed to Madam Teaudeau's (?) Wax Museum (this is the famous one). Right beside it is a planetarium, so Ryan, Dave and I went to the planetarium, and Neil checked out the Wax Museum. Planetarium was OK, not great.

We ate a small restaurant across the street from the was museum, and then decided to try and catch a play. We walked and walked and walked, past all kinds of theatres, but they are all closed on Sunday evenings, which sucks. We really wanted to see a play, and they have LOTS of theatres to choose from. Ah well.

So, we headed home (to the hostel).

Tomorrow we catch a noon train from London to Paris. Hopefully we'll have easy access to the internet wherever we stay in Paris as well.

Notes:
Our feet are absolutely KILLING us. We've been walking and walking and walking for 3 days, our feet and legs can't handle it anymore. Ryan has blisters, he can barely walk. It's SOOO nice to sit down on the subway (when there are seats available), but no sooner do you sit down, your station comes up and you have to get up and walk again. YOWSERS! I'm sure we'll all appreciate the train ride tomorrow.

There are NO garbage cans in the subways! It quite aggravated us, because we have to carry our garbage around with us. Someone then imformed is, it's because people put bombs in the garbage cans, so they don't put garbage cans in the subway stations anymore. Interesting factoid.

All of our names have four letters. Neat!

Time's almost up! Check back soon.

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