London Day 2

Okay, so I am super frustrated at the moment.  I have some great video that I took while we were on our trip, and I cannot get it onto vimeo!! I'm starting to think that I need a cord that is in my classroom that is locked for another couple of weeks.  I spent the ENTIRE afternoon fighting with that stupid video camera that I think I'm lucky that the camera didn't get thrown out the window!! 

Having said that, I'm giving up on the video for the time being and going ahead with the pictures!   

Soooo.....here's Day 2 in London!!

We were going to begin our second day in London by seeing the changing of the guard.  But we ended up being SUPER lucky and got to see something WAAAYYY more exciting instead!!  Every year (apparently the second Saturday in June) the queen's birthday is celebrated with a big ole' parade and ceremony called "trooping the colors" which we got to see!  If you look really close....you can see the queen!!

We stopped for a quick photo op in Trafalgar Square on the way from the parade.

After the parade we headed across the Golden Jubilee Bridge to see the London Eye and have lunch.  We stopped to take LOTS of pictures on the way!

Once we got to the other side of the river, there were lots of fun street entertainers to watch!  Most of them were pretty entertaining and then we ran across this guy.  Meredith gave him some money and took a picture with him because she felt sorry for him.

We wanted to do the London Eye while we were there, but the line was FOREVER long!!  So we decided to post-pone the event and find somewhere to eat!  We found this itty bitty Mediterranean restaurant that was DELICIOUS!!!  I destroyed the pasta and feta.  Mom enjoyed her mini-corn cobs. 

After lunch we headed over to the Tower of London where we took a very information tour by a "beef eater."  Don't ask me why they're called beef eaters.  I think it's weird.

Whew!  What an exhausting day.  As we left Tower of London, I had to go to the bathroom.  This is not at all shocking for anyone who's spent more than five minutes with me.  Thankfully my mom went, too, because you HAD TO PAY TO PEE!!   

 WHAT?!?!  

Again, I was glad my mom went with me because she was the one with the moo-lah.  We totally took a picture of the you-have-to-pay-to-pee barricade, but the picture didn't turn out!  Bummer.  Anyway, if you're ever in London, take money with you to the bathroom....just in case!!

After the pay-to-pee shock, we headed back to our hotel in search of a local tavern or bar in which to watch the England v. US World Cup game.  Unfortunately the Brits kicked us out of every establishment we walked into (actually, there just weren't any open tables anywhere!!) so we ended up eating dinner and watching the game at the hotel.  I was EXHAUSTED, so I headed to bed early in preparation for another busy day in London!