What a day in London

My heart is pounding
like a drum
I can't believe my eyes
In London people seem to
come in every
shape and size
So many paths I wonder
how they find their way
So many signs I wonder
what they really say

London is everything
I've heard and more
London is nothing like
I've seen before
Music and feathered hats
and roofs that shine
with flags flyin higher
than a pine

How do they build
their huts so tall
Can this be all one tribe?
The things they sell
the things I smell
I never could describe
These cakes taste just like
berries picked this very day
The sound a river makes still
takes my breath away

London's as busy as a hive of bees
Grandmother Willow would just
love these trees
Crowded and loud but so
exciting too, with colors
I never even knew

All day in London I had that song running through my head. Even though Pocahontas visited London a few hundred years before me, the words from the movie rang true!

The day started in a hotel in Cartwright Gardens - three beds in one room and we needed the sleep after the long day in Paris. After a pretty fantastic breakfast it was a quick march to Euston Station to catch the train to the Embankment Station. A quick look above-ground (this isn't where we are supposed to be!) and we were back down underground, this time to Westminster Station.

Westminster was just beautiful - the houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and then... Westminster Abbey. The crowds were fairly horrendous though - thousands upon thousands of tourists, all with backpacks and cameras... hang on, ok, I was one of them. But while most of the crowds were staring up at Westminster Abbey (yes, it is pretty fantastic), I was intrigued with St Margaret's church, just next door. St Margarets was originally founded in the 12th century (I was just starting to get used to this - buildings that were hundreds and hundreds of years old) and it is just a beautiful church. I discovered a few days later that Elizabeth Woodville, King Edward the IV's queen (mother of the two murdered Princes in the Tower), had taken sanctuary not once, but twice at the end of St Margaret's churchyard.


From Westminster we decided to visit the Elephant and Castle. This is a pub based at just above the Elephant and Castle tube station. Now, somewhere I read (or was told) that the name the Elephant and Castle came about as one of the Kings had kept two mistresses - one tall and thin, and the other... not. Thus the elephant and castle.

It was lovely sitting in the bar, drinking cider and watching endless red buses traverse the roundabout. Certainly a nice break from all those tourists we kept tripping over!

After a quick meal, it was off to Victoria Station to catch a double decker tour of London. We were going well for time, when in the midst of changing from one line to another at the Embankment (dang that station!), the Circle and Jubilee lines were closed! Above ground to find a taxi... tons of taxis but no drivers! Back to the station... yes - they were open again. Quickly on to the train, above ground to Victoria Station, to discover that the Victoria Coach Station was not right there!

I raced ahead, reaching the Coach Station about three minutes after our tour was supposed to have left. Dithering about to pay or not to pay (I'd nearly got lost on the way; I had no idea if Paul and Barb were lost as well), I started our booking. Paul and Barb arrived in the nick of time, we ensconced ourselves on the top level of the open-air double-decker bus, and prepared to tour!

For those who know London, we started with Buckingham Palace,
made our way back to Westminster, up Whitehall, along the Strand, along Fleet Street to St Pauls. We stopped there for a look (what an amazing building - with pineapples on the top!) and around to the Tower of London.
Then we hopped on a river cruise, and made our way back up the Thames to the Embankment Pier (yes, the Embankment again!). A side hop back through Piccadilly Circus and we ended up crossing the Wesminster Bridge, moving smoothly on to our London Eye excursion.

Back to Paddington Station for the train back to Reading, and a ride in a taxi to finish the day. Phew! Two massive days in a row (Paris then London), and we were off to Krakow in the morning!