Cheers!

So after yet another hellishly long flight from Asia to Europe, we are in the hub of the Western world, London, UK. I have to admit, I was excited to get back to an English speaking country. Not that the people in Asia weren't great (and they all spoke English) but anything more than a simple "Can I have some more beer" would be met with serious confusion. I thought it would be different in the UK. Not so much.
We arrived at 5am  at the famed London Heathrow Airport. Little did we know, their equivalent of "Border Control" was on strike and we were met with a skeleton crew of 3 souls to work thru 100+ jet lagged people to get thru immigration. Lovely. After the 1 hour of sheer hell in the line, we easily find the train station and schlepped all of our stuff onto the "Underground" into the heart of town.

All of our lives are in these bags

 By the time we get to the Paddington Train Station, we decide we are hungry. I see a Burger King sign (whoo-hoo) and can't wait to get a big ol sausage, egg, and cheese crossaint. Ok, this is where I was completely fooled by my English skills. The guy at the counter started talking to us and I swear, I only understood every other word. The only way I was able to order was by "listening in context". That's where you think about where you are and what you are doing and try to pick out words that make sense. The conversation that I heard was like this:

Him: "Ello Dall, whatch like for brekky taday?"
Me: Uhhh, crossaint?
Him: "K, Lave, ya want taters are beans wit that?"
Me: Uhh, taters?
Him: "K Lave, I gotcha far one sausage brekky meal wit taters, that all fer ya Lave?"
Me: Uhh, yeah

Ok, I thought that going to the home of the English language would be easier than this. Little did I know that understanding some of my English bretheren would be similar to some of ya'll listening to my Southern twang...(I know, we are hard to understand)
Needless to say, we made it, breakfast in hand to our final destination in the heart of London.
After a quick power nap, we were lucky enough to have a guide, our friend Adrian that we met on a dive vacation while in Austraila back in December. Like a perfect English gentlemen, Adrian promised that if we were ever in London he would show us his town. Like typical American tourists, we took him up on the offer! How much better can it get?! Having a local show you his favorite places?

Bruce and Adrian, a little lost in London

I have to say a special THANK YOU to Adrian for an amazing day of sighseeing. Thanks!

Adrian and I at the pub

I'll let Bruce detail the highlights of the day with Adrian but I have to say, we had a very interesting time! (It involved walking, drinking with Charles Dickens, going into a dead man's house, eating bone marrow, more drinking and passing out at a bar in theater district....AWESOME day!)

The next day, we woke up nice and early for our "tourist tour" of London. Like typical tourists, we decided the best way to maximize our time in London was to do a tour. Now, I really HATE those big tour groups where you have 20-30 people wandering aimlessly around trying to take sucky pictures and not listening to the history or background of the location. We are total nerds. We want to know about the history, the people, how they lived...basically, we want the Discovery Channel special.  Once again, we lucked out. Because of the time of the year (cold ass off season) we had a very intimate tour group of about 10 people. Our tour guide, Mark was a character, very animated and very knowledgeable about his history! We drove around the city, seeing all of the major sites including a private tour of the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels!

Outside of the vault holding the Crown Jewels

The Tower of London was amazing, its awesome to actually touch and walk were people actually lived some 400-500 years ago! It is amazing to know that most of their buildings and history is OLDER than our country!!! The Crown Jewels were awesome and we were lucky to see them while the museum was still closed. I steamed up the case with the Cullinan I Diamond, also know as the "First Star of Africa". The diamond is set in the Sceptre of the Cross. In its unpolished, original state it was about 3,000 carats but polished and shaped it is actually over 500 CARATS!!! That one desereved a second look!!! Not to be outdone, the Cullinan II Diamond, the "Second Star of Africa" weighed in at a "smaller" 317 carats and is mounted in the Imperial Crown, in the next case. Bruce was less than impressed but I couldn't leave the vault...too much shiny stuff....

Headed into the Tower of London

Anyway, we had the opportunity to take river cruise on the river Thames, visit Buckingham Palace and see the amazing sights of the London Eye and Big Ben.

Me and Big Ben

We ended the day my favorite way, with food!!! We went to Harrod's one of the largest and oldest department stores in London. Some of you may not know, but on the ground floor are five rooms of sheer food porn!!!! It is like every kind of food you can imagine, under one roof!!! And to make things better, there are restauraunts down there too!!! I wandered around, Bruce in tow, taking pictures of one food case after another...Who does that? A FOODIE!!! This place was better than watching Food TV in high definition!!!

OOOH.....

Inside the grocery store at Harrod's in London

 We ended the day in style, having afternoon tea and scones at Harrod's!

London was an awesome city. I don't know of many places on Earth where you can have a drink in a 17th century pub, followed by a Broadway show down the street. It is an amazing mish-mash of people from all over, all races, all backgrounds jam packed into a city with a loud pulse and a spirit that thrives.
I regret not having an entire week to explore London, but I know this is somewhere that I will want to come back to! Thanks Reine, you were right!!!!!

Check out all of our pics from London by clicking here