Wowww, London. It's so nice to be back here :) After a dreadful night's sleep, I woke up feeling a bit sick and under the weather. But guess what. I'm in LONDON. Which meant I just had to pull on my big-girl knickers and get over it. We headed to the Wellington Arch to meet the Sandemans free tour and had a lovely Irish guide called Thomas walk us around for 3 hours. It was a great tour, and we had sun and it was, at times, too warm for a jacket! We walked from the Wellington Arch, where we saw a bunch of monuments including one for the Australian soldiers, to Buckingham Palace and watched the changing of the guard. I couldn't help but think how frustrating it must be for London drivers and the policemen trying to keep everything in order with all the tourists crowded everywhere trying to get a better look. Then we walked to Clarence House and got a closer look at the guards changing over shifts.
We headed down towards Trafalgar Square where we learnt about Nelson and his rather unfortunate end during battle. As a war hero, he couldn't be buried at sea, so to keep the body fresh for the two-week journey back to England, they put his body in a barrel of rum and sealed it up. Unfortunately, the crew got thirsty and about half the barrel was drunk by the time they docked. Hmmmmm. We saw the PM's house at Downing Street, and just nearby, the enormous bunker, that was built with grass on top and vines all over it, to camouflage it from German planes flying overhead.
Next stop was Big Ben for a great photo op, and we finished at Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament where we were treated to a thrilling re-enactment of Guy Fawkes' brutal torture starring....Sean and I. Sean was Guy Fawkes and I was the executioner. He got hung, drawn and quartered and it was terribly theatrical. After the tour ended we had to hightail it over to Leicester Square to pick up our London passes and then Paddington Station to collect Andy, who had finally flown in from Aus! It was wonderful to see her again! We headed back to the hotel so Andy could drop her stuff off and then we went to the awesome pub we went to for dinner last night to have a late lunch and suss out our London passes and plan our week. Then Sean and I went to visit his mate Adam at the bar he works at and we had tasty cocktails. Then we headed back to Wembley for an early night. We're watching the Brit awards at the moment. Mmmm, cultural. Tomorrow, among other things, the Globe theatre!
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