Back to London Baby, Yeah!

London is huge! Short, but huge! We went back again on Thursday. This time we took the train, much more comfy and faster than the bus. The First Great Western trains kick the Chicago CTA and Metras butts! They have seats like an airplane with trays and even tables in some spots and a lot of the A Coaches are a quiet zone, why didn't the Red Line think of that? Our tickets included day passes for the Underground as well. So we were able to travel about pretty easily. We stopped off at Paddington Station, then took the Underground to Oxford Circus where we did some souvenir shopping. Then we headed to Monument Station, saw Monument Bridge, then walked towards Westminster. On the way we passed a Victory Garden. One of the many started during wartime to encourage civilians to grow their own food, so the rest could go to the troops. This one came with its own bomb shelter...though by the looks of it Ben would be out of luck, we'd have to fold him up to get him in there! Along side the Victory Gardens are some of the parks of the Buckingham Palace. From there we passed the Houses of Parliament, again, then rounded back up along the River Thames to the Tower of London (creepy to go there after reading about all of Henry VIII's victims that lost there heads there, including wives Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard) and the London Tower Bridge. All that sight seeing worked up an appetite, so we went into the Tower Hill Vaults for some cheese and tomato toasties and chips (translation: grilled cheese and fries). After that, seeing as how I am a fan of Ab Fab, Ben took me to Harvey Nichols and Harrod's just for kicks. You know they charge 32 quid just to breath the air there (not really but I did see a jumper there, a.k.a sweater for £689)! Finally we stopped off at Nero's Cafe for coffee...I have to say after a week and a half at Combibos, I can never go anywhere else again. The cappuccino I got from there was pitiful, if I'd done that they'd made me do it over! As for today, since I have the day off, we've been keeping indoors mostly. It is cold and rainy and I have yet another cold. We did walk down to the Gardener's Arms, a cozy little pub with some really good vegetarian food and Hoegaarden on tap! Well, that's about it for this week. Oh, one very happy note: as of next week we will have phone, TV, and internet installed! Hurray! Till then.

More London pics at: http://picasaweb.google.com/amypvaughan/LondonTrip2