London Day Two and Three

Day Two of London was even more awesome than the first. For starters, I was awake and feeling good.

We started out with a free English breakfast from the hotel - fried eggs, "bacon" (really like ham), a bangar (sausage) and beans. Plus toast and tea. MMMMM. I gotta say that I really like British food. I've heard it said that English food is not that great on the culinary scale, but I like it. It's good comfort food. For lunch I had Cottage Pie - basically pretty much like shepard's pie. For dinner we had Italian food - pasta with pancetta and mushrooms in a creamy sauce for me. Awesome.

After breakfast, we hopped on the tube and went to Wimbledon. We didn't take a tour or even go in the museum, because centre court was closed, so there wasn't really a point. Instead we got to go inside and see a couple of the fields, and we hit up the gift shop. I saw the cutest tennis outfits for my future kids, but I refrained.

Then we got on a train and took a 30 minute ride to Hampton Court. This was the castle that King Henry VIII loved most. It was huge. There were tons of beautiful gardens, and a lot of rooms were set up to look like they would have in his day. There were kitchens, the queen's rooms, King Henry VIII's rooms, the Georgian rooms (King George I and II), and did I mention the gardens? We went through a maze made entirely of bushes. It was cool. To top things off, King Henry VIII himself was walking around the grounds getting ready for his wedding later in the day to Kateryn Parr. I never did see her, but I got a picture with King Henry VIII. It was really cool. There was also a lot of art - paintings of a lot of royalty, tapestries, and paintings on the ceilings.

After Hampton Court, we stopped for a late lunch at a restaurant nearby. Halfway through our meal we spotted our first spider. By the end of the meal we'd seen several more. It was kind of creepy. Poor Teresa thought she had spiders on her all the rest of the day.

We took the train home, and rested a bit before we went out later. We went to Leichester Square (kind of like Times Square), and walked around a bit. We then ate a late supper, and then went to a pub. We stayed there til closing (around midnight), and then went on to this Irish bar that had a live band on one floor, and dance music on another. It was pretty cool. We met some people, but just generally had a good time dancing and being goofy. By the end of the evening, we were all pretty inebriated, and got home around 4 a.m. Then I called Mike. Skype is awesome.

We got up late this morning - around 11ish. Teresa and I went to get bagels, and I also bought some postcards. Then we came back and ate and chilled a little. Then Brian still wasn't up, so we went to get Teresa a new bag so that her suitcase isn't so heavy for the flights to Spain. Then we came back and woke him up. There's not much else we really want to do or see here, so this afternoon, I think we'll just go to Hyde Park and sit and relax - maybe read, etc. I still haven't had fish and chips (shocking, I know), so I plan to eat that tonight.

Time is going by so quickly here - it kind of sucks. However, I'm ready to get to Spain and get unpacked and settled. I'd like to spend a little time relaxing. Plus I got emails with all the homework I have to get done. So, it's sad to be leaving London tomorrow morning, but also, it will be nice to go get settled.

Once I get to Spain, I'll post pictures from London on Facebook, and maybe a couple on here. Later!