Days 25th, 26th, & 27th

May 8th:

Bright and early, before it opened, me and Mum went to Westminster Abbey.  Glad we did, too... although we had to wait a few min to get in the door, it got quite crowded quite quickly.  The cathedral was gorgeous, and the pure amount of history there almost made me cry.  I was speechless at Elizabeth I's tomb.  We wandered in awe, especially at Poet's Corner.  The Abbey had moments of silence every hour, as well.  When we were done, we went to the London Eye.  (Congrats to mum!)  It gave us a nice view of London, and it hit home how completely different London is to any American city.  It's short.  It's green.  It stretches as far as the eye can see.  US cities are tall and grey and devolve into suburbia.

I drove mum hard after that.  We tried to go to the Borough Market, but it was closed, so we ate at Nando's instead.  Nando's was out of hummus, which made me sad.  Then we went to the Globe to see a Polish production of Macbeth.  Review upcoming... but we did leave at intermission, if that gives you any clue to what I think of it.  Then we simply went back to the B&B and chilled there.

May 9th:

First thing in the morning, we went to the Tower of London.  I didn't expect it to be so much like a castle, even though I was aware it was one.  All the pictures I had seen were simply of the keep... and for some reason, that's all I thought was there.  I was pleasantly surprised to find more towers and ramparts for me to scramble around on.  Because the audio tour cost three pounds, mum and I shared one, turning the volume way up and putting our heads together to hear it.  We must have looked pretty funny.  The crown jewels were very shiny, but some of them were absent, their places marked "in use", as it was the opening of Parliament.  I'm not sure if I missed seeing them, or was excited to know that something was happening with them.  Mixed feelings.

The Tower gave us six hours of entertainment, just looking around and listening to the tour.  We didn't even go on a Beefeater tour, mostly because the place got crowded so quickly, and we were happy on our own.  We perused every gift shop, had fish and chips at the cafe (om nom nom), and went into every castle crevice that was open to the public.  I loved it.

Possibly the highlight of our trip was at noon, when a three-gun (artillary) salute rotated for a salute of 41 shots for the opening of Parliament.  I went running toward the loud noise,  Mum stayed put and listened and imagined.  I got to the front of the crowd and grinned like an idiot at the lovely explosions.  Teeheehee.

When we were done with the Tower,  we went back to the B&B, got dinner, but on our way back we got a cupcake from the cutest shop I have ever seen.  Painted pink, it looked good enough to eat.  Adorable!  I have pictures.

May 10th:

We packed up and left our things with the manager of the bed and breakfast while we went to the Cutty Sark at Maritime Greenwich.  :-D  It was impressive.  I wish Dad or Ben had seen it, they both would have loved it.  Me and mum spent about an hour and a half there before we picked up our luggage and went to the train station.  We had about an hour and a half to wait, and during that time, we watched what we think was a movie being filmed.  I don't know if we got in the way... I hope they would have asked us to move if we were sitting in the wrong spot.  Whatever the case, we got on the train when it arrived, and then mum discovered that she had either lost her credit card or had it lifted between getting coffee at the station and getting on the train.  There was the appropriate amount of panic and dismay, and when we got to the B&B in Stratford-upon-Avon, mum got the number for the credit card company and reported it lost/stolen.  To finish up the day, we took a stroll to SuA's oldest inn, The Garrick, and had delicious fish and chips.  Award-winning.  Om nom nom.