The Swinging City

So to begin.  There was Starbucks involved, and this is Abery, our flat mascot.

Chai Latte = heaven in the London rain

London was fun.  I saw - the outside - of just about everything there is to see in the grand city.  My fellow travelers and I stayed in a hostel on the Northwest corner of Hyde Park, so we got to walk through the city's haven on our way to the Thames and the throbbing heart of the tourists London.  Buckingham Palace was basically in the way and there was a little horse march and and American Football Pep Rally in  front of the gates so it was our first stop of the day.  Some pictures maybe?

The gates, which I thought were lovelier than the white stone behind them.

They were not actual players, but they were gracious with picture-taking.

Big Ben was the next landmark we spotted on our jaunt, so we took a little break at Parliament and Westminster and snapped some shots. Here are a few of mine.

The glittering gold that gilds the clock just couldn't be captured.

Mr. Churchill was amongst the notable statues on the green.

And every time I see this I envision Sherlock leaping from the windows.

Here is my own snap of the Boudicca statue in London that I mentioned before.

From there we crossed the bridge and walked on the Southern bank of the Thames, up to the London Eye.  The lines were longer for that ferris wheel than for Space Mountain in the middle of June, so we didn't even look at going on.  It was quite beautiful, though.

From below the Eye, itself. 

On we went, through crowds and throngs and rain, making the trek to Shakespeare's artistic home, The Globe Theatre.

The only building in London allowed to have a thatched roof.

From there we wandered to the Tower Bridge, seeing some interesting views of the Northern skyline.

The "Gherkin" will always be the Pickle in my mind.

Couldn't capture the actual Tower as well, but the bridge was beautifully blue.

After crossing back over the Tower Bridge everyone was tired, and a little angry over our lack of direction.  A couple of the girls split off from us to go watch Les Miserables and the rest of us bought the cheap seats to see a newer musical, that was very fun and much more upbeat.  

Our show for the night: Dreamboats and Petticoats.

After that, we attempted to pub crawl back to our hostel, but everyone was far too exhausted to stay out later than necessary.  On the eastern side of Hyde Park, on our way home, I saw these two statues and got a little freaked out in the darkness of night, honestly.  But they were so interesting I had to see them in daylight the next morning and I took a couple pictures.

Still don't know id this is from eastern mythology, but it was exquisitely wrought.

I loved how contrasting this was with the background: it was huge.

Then Sunday was our relaxing day.  We split into two basic groups, with a few people splintering here and there.  One group went shopping on Oxford Street and the other went to the Sherlock Holmes museum at 221 Baker Street.

I have too many pictures of the museum to add to this post.
(Perhaps, I will do a separate post on the museum, if enough
people comment or message me.)

This poor little boy kept getting in my shots: the rooms were just so small.

The train ride wasn't so interesting, but I do have a couple more photos to share of some scenes that I thought were too pretty to pass up.

A little peek-a-boo with I don't know what.

A pelican and a willow tree.