London Day 2

Day 2 started, as most of our days did, from the Angel tube station. I think it must have been named after Susanna got there because that's her stop and she's such an angel!

We rode the tube over to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. There were just a few other folks there to watch it with us.

So we climbed up on this large gate-like thing to see above the crowds.

This picture is to show that A) It was sunny enough that I got to wear my sunglasses while in London! B) If you look closely, you can see that I am wearing different earrings than the day before. I promise that I changed my clothes everyday but since most of our shots were taken outside and it was cold for most of the trip, it might appear that I was wearing the same thing the whole time. Keep your eyes peeled for subtle differences like this.

Here come the Scots Guards. I knew they were Scots Guards because there is no plume on their bearskin hats. I learned that from Rock's THIS IS LONDON book.

Here are the Scots Guards inside the gates at Buckingham Palace. What? You can't see them? Well, neither could we and our bums were getting rather chilly sitting on stone so we left before the ceremony was over.

We walked up the street where Charles and William and Harry followed Princess Di's casket. I know it has another name, but that's how I recognized it.

We went to Trafalgar Square to see the people and the pigeons. But apparently, the authorities have decided that pigeons are vermin and so they worked hard to get them out of this area. Zuni and I have been known to call pigeons 'the rats of the sky' so we couldn't agree more.

After the Square, we walked to Piccadilly Circus where we caught...

The bus for THE ORIGINAL TOUR. I highly highly highly recommend it. Especially the red line which is what we took that day.

Oh, but before we hopped on the bus, we grabbed lunch at Caffe Nero. It's a chain but it's a good chain. I highly highly highly recommend their Carrot Coriander Soup, their Caramel Square, and their coffee.

The coffee kept us warm for approximately 1/8 of our trip but then things got pretty chilly. Thankfully I had my pashmina.

We took about 200 pictures on the tour but I won't bore you with all of them. Here we are going across the Thames on one of the bridges. Parliament/Big Ben is on the left, the London Eye is on the right.

We looped back around and Fix snapped this shot of the tower of Big Ben (it's actually the name of the bell, not the name of the clock) from below.

We also passed by St. Paul's Cathedral again. It looked even more beautiful on this sunny day.Here's another shot of Christopher Wren's memorial to the Great Fire of London for those of you who couldn't spot it in Day 1's picture.

Again, we crossed the Thames. This time on the Tower Bridge. Isn't it pretty?

Then we got off the bus and waited in the cold (with Tower Bridge behind us) for the boat tour down the Thames. This was included as part of THE ORIGINAL TOUR and made us feel like we were living in the game Scotland Yard.

We took a bunch of pictures of Fix with the Westminster tube station's sign but this is decidely the most awkward.

If you wanna sit on the Underground in London, you need to be pregnant.** Poor Zuni and Fix were often stuck standing while some kind person gave me their seat.

We ended our day of gallivanting at this pub because we heard that you could play Settlers of Catan there on Thursday nights. What they really meant was that you could play weird games like "Munchkin" with three creepy dudes upstairs in a non-cozy room.

We opted to drink water (me) and a pint (them) downstairs instead.

Then we headed back to the Masala Zone near Zuni's apt. for some really yummy Indian food. Again, this place is a chain but it was perhaps the best Indian food I've ever had. Get a thali like the one pictured above and you will not be disappointed.

The most thrilling triumph of Day 2 was finding the JELLY BABIES at Zuni's grocery store. There is a long Brockman inside joke/story behind these candies. Perhaps I'll tell it to you someday.
** To be clear, I am not saying that anyone should get pregnant willy-nilly just for this perk! Interesting fact about pregnancy in London: Over my entire trip I saw exactly 4 other pregnant people. Apparently there isn't a big baby boom over there or those with child aren't as excited as I was about getting a seat on the Underground and choose to stay at home and rest.