Got a late start today!

Well I started off today a little late. I was still feeling a little jet-lagged and slept till 11AM this morning - but I probably needed it so I won't feel too bad about it. I decided to look up a Fridays and check it out. The menu is SO different than that of the states. Bunch of stuff I've never heard of and a bunch of stuff we used to have but got rid of. Tried something I never heard of for a meal and drink -- good stuff.




















Next I headed down to Trafalgar Square again to really spend some time exploring around and take in some touristy sites. It really is a cool park. A couple of huge fountains and these lion statues everywhere - 4 in total and they're HUGE. The girl on the back of that lion is my age so that gives you an idea of the size. Tons and tons of people there and just really in the middle of a lot a stuff. Including the National Gallery (below) which is free of charge and has soo soo many awesome works of art - Titian, Raphael, da Vinci, Monet, Michelangelo and so so many more. Well worth my time.

















Next I headed down Strand Street and towards Buckingham Palace - according to the signs - Home of the Sovereign since 18hundred something. The sovereign... LOL.... ohh these Brits.
Really cool building architecturally though - and massive. The front is only the beginning there are so so many additions on the back - the place is massive! The fountain out front dedicated to Queen Victoria is really beautiful. The street for about a miles is lined with British flags up to the palace gates.
























I also got a good shot of two at the Royal Guards including (what I think) is a funny video at the end. I missed the changing of the guard however, that was only once today at 11:30AM and I got there about 2pm. But I have plenty of time to back and see it before I leave.






















I also headed to St Martin in the Fields - a church just off Trafalgar Square. I believe it's Catholic - had a holy water basin thingy (excuse me plz - I'm not Catholic) - lots of candles, etc. BEAUTIFUL church. It's been restored recently apparently. They still hold regular services there. There was an orchestra of some kind practicing there today. I think it might be the people who on weeknights are putting on Vivaldi concerts. They also have a diner and gift shop and art gallery downstairs in the crypt. One of the cool things you can do is take a brass engraving of an artwork and use these wax crayons to do what's called a rubbing. Mine is pictured below.











































Then ... continuing down the path to be the accidental tourist I've turned out to be... I trotted around the corner looking for a soda and ran into Leicester Square (pronounced Lester). It was really cool too.... Lots of statues and green space. One of the coolest things was the Piano in the Park thing they have going on. There's just a piano there with a bench and laminated sheet music and anyone is welcomed and encouraged to come up and start playing for everyone. And a LOT of people did.. super cool. They had a statue of Charlie Chaplin there too. I later needed to kill some time before dinner and decided to watch a movie (what else is there to do at Leicester Square... lol - watch the 2nd video at the end). I took in dinner later and headed home. A pretty eventual day. Tomorrow will be an early day - going to check out the London Eye first thing tomorrow!!!

Oh yeah - P.S. - London is Michael Jackson CRAZY! OMG- its all anyone here can seem to talk about - in all the papers - they had a candlelight vigil for him tonight at Trafalgar Square - the cinemas are already playing his Thriller movie tonight all over town. And UK Amazon - Michael Jackson is all 10 of the top 10 albums today..... so many people were searching for info they actually crashed the UK Google site.. The website shut down to protect itself because so many hits were coming through that it thought it was being attacked by a virus and went into self-preservation mode of something. He was planning his 50 concert farewell event here in London to start in July and then he would retire for good after.... Goodbye Michael! It's safe for LA children once more.