Day 8

Day 8 We woke up the next day after a long lie in which was our first of the holiday. So we got out of bed about 09:00, it would seem Lyndsay, Jono and I were all in need of a little rest. So what was the plan. London of course but with London offering so many sights we needed to decided where to begin. Lyndsay really wanted to see the Tower of London as she was not given the chance to do this the last time she was in town. So off we went on our first real tube on our London adventure. Sandra was very kind and dropped us off at Bushy station which allowed us to catch the Overground to Euston station which allowed us to use the underground to reach our first destination to Tower Hill Station and up the stairs to street, possibly the most disorientating trip I have ever taken. But there we were now to get our tickets and check out the tower. While we were at the tourist ticket shop we were able to purchase our tickets to the Tower and Madam Tusauds. R1950 later for the three of us! As I nearly fell over, the lady at the till told me I should never look at the conversion rate. Jono agreed, easy for him to say he is rich on this holiday apparently. The Tower was something special to behold. We started off in the torture chamber; England in those days must have been a cruel and nasty place, with clergymen being tortured for apparent treason, with only one prisoner ever escaping. We continued toward the armory which was really quite stunning. We saw suits of armor from each English period ranging from the Tudor’s to the Winsor’s. Seeing the weapons that were used and getting to play with them put in that era. The length of the Jousting rods and seeing the size of each kings horse and their medieval swords and guns were something special. There were armor suits for children, Henry VIII who had two suits of armor which was pretty amusing as he got older he seemed to get substantially larger. Then we were on to view the crown jewels, and they were definitely something to view, The Cullinan diamond is enormous, with half of the diamond in a scepter and the other half in a the queens crown. Half the diamond is approximately 6 inches tall by 2 inches wide it really was enormous. A crown and scepter is made for every announced ruler so we were able to view a lot of sparkles and the different crowns through the ages. Later we walked around the Tower which offered a view of the Thames and the Chaud, (new office block made completely of glass and in the shape of a triangle) We then took a walk across Tower Bridge and then attempted to find Big Ben which, Lyndsay informed us was not in fact that big and that she had spent ages trying to find it in the past. So off we continued to walk and walk till eventually we opted to stop for some lunch. We found this really nice little coffee/sandwich shop in the middle of what seemed to be the London business district. Jono had a really nice looking Lasagna, Lyndsay had a cheese and ham Panini, and I had a turkey and beetroot sandwich, I did not realize a it had beetroot and as we all know I can’t stand the stuff. Somehow however, this sandwich was really good and I might actually contemplate making it for myself one day. We then decided just randomly walking around London was not going to get us to Westminster Abby so we found the closes tube station and caught a tube to Westminster station. Up one escalator and a flight of stairs looked up and we were right in front of Big Ben. It was dark by now as it was 16:30 , Thus Big Ben was lit up in a beautiful golden colour with green lighting at the top. It was a bit weird outside the station as there we a bunch of people dressed up in cow boy and clown suits and masks, some of them just had normal clothes on with random masks. I wasn’t quite sure what it was that they were doing but they freaked me out a bit as I could not see their faces. One of them blew a kiss at me as I walked past, this had me on full alert but we walked on and left them behind. We then wanted to take the walk to Buckingham Palace; our guide at this point was getting a bit confused as she was sending us in the wrong direction. I eventually cracked and asked someone for directions only after Lyndsay realized she was going in the wrong direction. We then noticed a garden which was filled with steel statues of famous people this was called Leavers square, we caught a piece of Africa as we noticed one of Nelson Mandela. Also Winston Churchill who looked surprisingly like Jono and there were other famous British Icons dating back a long time. We then continued our approximate 2km walk to Buckingham Palace. Finally after wondering the streets in London and seeing all their detailed buildings and statues scattered around, we found it. We took the walk down the Mall toward the palace and took some photos. The Queen was in as the union Jack was flying at full mast. She put her head out the window and waved to us as we stood there. No she didn’t just joking. Buckingham was possibly the least impressive building we had seen thus far compared to the Palace of Versailles in France but none the less was an enjoyable walk. We then walked admittedly by mistake around the whole palace walls and then to the closest tube station (which wasn’t so close) for the trip back to Watford. We walked under the road in pedestrian subways and dodging people as we found ourselves standing outside a Starbucks. This would be the 5th one we have gone into on our journey in search of an Eggnog Latte. Thankfully they had one. Once trying the Eggnog Latte and Jono and Lyndsay had a Hot chocolate, it was decided that Starbucks is grossly overrated. We caught the slow train back into Watford as this would allow us to arrive at Carpenders Park Station which meant that we only had to walk about 1km to Sandra and Joes. This was definitely the easiest option. So for 45minutes we sat on the train I read the paper and Lyndsay was engrossed by her book on the Ipad, Jono had a couple of ZZZ. We got in at about 20:00 after an abundantly full day. Sandra welcomed us to an exceptional dinner of oven Pizza, a wonderfully welcome meal after a day of walking the town flat. After chatting with Sandra and Joe till about 23:00, they seem to go to bed really late. We finally turned in for the night!