October 20

Had a pretty good night's sleep considering I didn't wake up until noon.  Yikes!  We headed to the hop on, hop off bus and started to tour London.  The weather was pretty good but then it suddenly rained hard.  We decided to get off the bus to eat at a restaurant called Garfunkel's.  There are many locations of this place all around London.  The food was quite good.  I had fish'n'chips (they left the skin on the fish and then battered it).  It actually was really good and even the chips were good, best tartar sauce I've ever had.  Mom ordered the meat pie with mashed potatoes and it was good also.  The mashed potatoes were that chewy consistency, yum.

The rain stopped and we got on another bus (different route).  We actually managed to avoid Buckingham Palace today even though we took 2 different bus routes.  I guess we got off the route just before it goes by the palace, and got on another bus after they had just driven by the palace.  haha  We have all day tomorrow and until 2pm the day we leave for South Africa to tour on the buses.

When we got back to the hotel it was dark, I left mom and went for another walk.  I walked over the bridge again and came upon Westminster Abbey which had just finished their evening service.  Too bad I didn't get there earlier.  I snuck in as people were leaving and had my phone in my hand.  I asked one of the red coats if I can take pictures.  Of course, he said no.  I was then asked politely but sternly to put my phone away.  It was cool to see where Princess Diana got married though.  I took a picture of it from the outside.

I continued walking back to the hotel now and stopped to get a closer look at the London Eye (big ferris wheel).  There are people EVERYWHERE.  London is very busy with tourists right now.  I am quite impressed with London so far. It's not as dreary as I thought it would be and there are lots of trees and green spaces.  The Thames River looks very cold with swift currents.  Very much like the Fraser.  I'm hoping to go on a river cruise tomorrow.

I have to admit that I grabbed a Big Mac tonight to see how it compares.  It's exactly the same as home. We leave this lovely hotel tomorrow and check in at the Shaftesbury Piccadilly London Hotel for one night.  It's located in the theatre district near Chinatown.  Maybe we'll see a show.

Here are the best pics from today. Sorry, but I don't know what every building is.

This the atrium and view from our floor. The window from our room is on the right.

I thought these were nice window boxes.

One of the views from the bus 

Lunch

Notice the fish skin underneath at the tail end

This is the National Gallery

The Thames when the sun came out after the rainfall

This is another location of the restaurant chain we ate lunch at

Westminster Abbey

The Abbey entrance

This is the display at the entrance of the 'London Dungeon'.  I bet it's pretty scare in there.