Well, the flight was an ordeal, but it already seems like a very distant memory - and while we swore at the time we'd never attempt that again I've already forgotten what was so bad about it.
We arrived at our hotel by 9am Tues morning and couldn't check in till 2pm, so still wearing the clothes we'd been in for the last day or so flying and feeling a bit blurry eyed (and very sleepy!) we set off to explore our area.
We weren't expecting to like London so much but we've totally fallen in love with this city. On our first little walk we ended up stumbling upon Buckingham Palace! Pretty crazy that you can just wonder along and find something like that (although the fact we were walking along Buckingham Palace Rd should have been a big clue!).
We also negotiated the tube (took a bit of figuring, but we're pros now) and made our way to Oxford St to find warmer clothes. We've mostly had crisp, clear, blue skied days, but at 7 degrees or so, it's a tad chilly! The shops are in summer mode though, so there are no coats to be had, but we found a jacket for Paul at Primark (thanks for the tip girls!) and are making do with what we have.
Once we checked into our room we fell asleep (about 3pm) and basically slept through to the next morning.
Wednesday was all about the sites and it was like taking a tour around a Monopoly board. We walked down the houses of parliament and marvelled over Big Ben. The security around Westminister is intense - the cops with machine guns are pretty freaky!
We strolled along the Thames admiring different sites including the view across to the London Eye, Downing St and other landmarks until 9.30am when Westminister Abbey opened. We were pretty blown away by this place - the sense of history is amazing (as is the ceiling in the Lady Chapel) although we're both wishing we knew a bit more about English history to really appreciate what we were seeing.
After that we jumped on the tube and headed to the Tower of London. Despite the queues and hoardes of school children (and rain!) we enjoyed a few hours here. We then decided to bus to St Paul's Cathedral, but got a wee bit lost and ended up walking there. We thought Westminister was amazing but this just blew it away! It was one of the most impressive buildings we've ever been in. Being brave, we made our way up the dome for amazing views over the city.
It's so cool being in a city that's so old and we're totally lapping up the sense of history (we even walked past Shakespeare's Globe Theatre).
Today is going to be another mega site seeing cram - catch you later!!!
Love Gemma & Paul xx
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