"Let's go east"

Tuesday, July 12, 2005:

We started off with our first buffet breakfast, English-style. It was pretty good. We had fruit, fried egg, sausages, cereal, bread, and of course the traditional English tea. We were suppose to be picked up by our tour bus at 9:00 but after about 15 minutes of waiting we found out that the bus had a flat, or as Rob called it, a "puncture." So unfortunately we had to wait about an hour before it finally arrived. As annoying as that was, it really wasn't anyone's fault.

We had a very dramatic tour guide that tried to put life into the tour, which she did really well. We visited Picadilly Circus (imagine Time Square), St. Paul's cathedral, Trafalger Square, Big Ben/House of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, and the guards with the tall fuzzy hats. My favorite dramatic phrase was, "Let's go east." We were in St. Paul's as she was telling us the rich history behind it. She kept telling how in the back of the cathedral, which was the east side of the church, was something very special for Americans. So at the end of her storytelling she solemnly says, "Let's go east." Ooooooo!!!

After the tour Ray and I went to have lunch at Pret a Manger. It was a chain eatery where they have ready-made sandwiches and such. We ate at the counter that was facing the street and marveled at the street culture outside. It's amazingly different how people drive in London. People calmly weave in and out of traffic and you rarely see any signs of road rage. I swear, if people drove like that in San Jose there would be a lot of horns honking and finger flipping! We watched in shock as this woman on a bicycle weaved her way through both sides of the traffic to park her bike, jaywalk over to the eatery to buy something, and then jaywalked back to her bike. All doing this without looking like she was fearing for her life. Amazing!

After lunch we were really feeling the heat so we got some yummy ice cream at Green Park and then took a nap on the grass for about 45 minutes. It felt so good to lie on the cold grass in the shade and just sleep. I don't know if that made our jet lag worse but we didn't care! We were sooo tired!

After our nap we walked around the park and eventually found Buckingham Palace. We took a few pictures then walked to Trafalger Park and Picadilly Circus. I did some shopping at the Gap. Long peasant skirts were soooo "in" there so I decided to buy one myself. We also checked out the Trocadero, which is sort of like a Funland place with video games, a bowling alley, and a bar.

We braved the double decker bus and rode it back to our hotel. It was very packed! There was a point where people were pushing to get out and I was almost pushed onto a guy's lap! We practiced being Londoners and tried to jaywalk like locals, or as Ray calls it, "suicide crossing!" We had dinner at Cafe Rouge where we dined al fresco (outside). Ray had salmon cakes with fries and I had penne a la creme et poulet (chicken in a creamy pasta). We shared a yummy dessert afterwards.