Day One - Part 2

The London Eye. After our excellent Westminster Abbey Tour, we took a walk down the Thames and of course, this is the biggest thing to see there. Ive actually been on that thing. Im being harsh, I know, but only because Im scared of heights. And I found it rather boring. A half hour it takes to make 1 full rotation - also including time for allowing people on, one pod at a time. The pods themselves are rather huge, I cant remember how many people you can fit, but I think its close to 20. Comfortably. ( exceptions made for people who hate heights) Its easy, breezy, slow and well. Dull. Dull for me, a person who really had nothing to do in that half hour except point out the Houses of Parliament and the Abbey. Well done.

It was a nice day in London, as you can see. Mid 60s, breezy. A bit cluttered with people, but London is never exactly empty. Happily, all these droves of people at least keep flowing, in contrast to Manchester where they tend to just stop every few moments and stare around as if they are lost. Or attack you with thier prams.

End of day one was nice enough. Dinner in Pizza Express on the famed Baker Street. Warm night. Went back to our tiny but really decent hotel. End of day one.

What did you do on your Holiday?

Day one. After waking at approximately 4 am ( bleargh ) I attempted to ready myself for the day ahead. I had my shower, I managed to keep from throwing up ( does anyone else feel like vomiting if they wake up after 3 hours sleep? hmm) and then we were off to get the taxi to the National Express Coach Station. I have to say, I wish I had been awake enough to use my camera, because Manchester is absolutely gorgeous at 4-5 am. Seriously.. I had never seen it look like that, and it was truly refreshing. Unfortunately I was just too incapacitated to be able to capture it for you.

The national express experience. Well, I didnt feel well. I was excessively tired, and so I basically slept thru about 2/3 of the trip, which was minorly unfortunate - I didnt get to see as much of the British countryside as we headed down to London. But let me be honest with you here. A 6 hour Bus Trip to anywhere - isnt grande. Happily, it was an air conditioned bus, real luxury I suppose. But no one wants to be cooped up in that little space for 6 hours with nothing but sheep and cows to catch thier attention. And the bathroom of hell. Ill get back to that later though.

Once we arrived, we made for Victoria train station to drop off bags in Left Luggage and avoided Krispy Kreme donuts stall ( I relented as much as I possibly could) and then we were off to rush to Westminster Abbey and meet David for lunch. The above photograph was taken outside the Sanctuary, a building just next to the Abbey, and I have placed it here as an example of Day 1 - part 1, since there are enough pictures of Westminster out there ( and to be honest, I didnt take a nice one anyway. Was too ill feeling)

Had a lovely little lunch with David, and then headed back for an impressive and memorable tour of Westminster Abbey - thanks to you, David, you really know how to weave the threads of history. For those of you who may never have the chance to meet him, know that David has a rare glow about him. Basically - you look at him doing his job as the Canon's Verger of the Abbey and you're gobsmacked because there right in front of you is someone who A) Loves thier job and B) Belongs in thier job. I think he was made for it, and you dont see that everyday. Its refreshing, inspiring. Again I say thanks :)

tune in for the next blog..for the rest of our journey.