Latest Excursion!

Well on Tuesday of this week we had our last PLANNED excursion. IU has been shelling out money all month and these things aren't cheap. We started with a bus tour, one of the hop-on, hop-off busses where you get off where you want to explore, then get back on and continue sightseeing. We saw a lot of cool stuff and the commentary from the locals really helps you identify things you would otherwise have no idea what you're seeing.
We saw a LOT of famous people's houses including 10 Downing street - which you may or may not know is where the British Prime Minister lives. But we also saw the houses of Margaret Thatcher, Cher, Bono, Madonna, and tons of other people who have houses in posh upscale neighborhoods here in London - it was pretty cool.


My cousin Angie highly recommended the "Spanish Galleon" in Greenwich as a play to try out so after the bus tour, we had a ticket that let us take a boat toar around the River Thames and check some stuff out - and we got off in Greenwich. Me and my friends checked out the Galleon and had a pint before we continued exploring Greenwich. Greenwich is a cool place with lots of little shops, but not a ton to do there. The thing you HAVE to do in Greenwich is visit the Royal Observatory and see where the Prime Meridian is housed. That is what GMT is - Greenwich Mean Time.







And of course.... no trip to Greenwich is complete without a picture of your feet straddling the Prime Meridian. In other words - you are simultaneously in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres at the same time. Pretty cool actually.














The bus tour earlier in the day had taken us to
Buckingham Palace - this time in time to see the Changing of the Guard. I have to be honest though .... we all got kind of bored and left. "The changing of the Guard" is a 30 minute process!!! It involves 2 different parades of people coming down the street at different times and bands and lots of soldiers and police and gun tossing, and oh my god! I was over it after like 5 minutes.... lol I'm a bad tourist I guess. But we all left. we thought it was like Changing of the Guard at Arlington - cool but short and to the point. Nope! I am glad I got to see it though.


Then - the really cool - Tower of London. If you've seen any historical period movies - they just call it - "The Tower" as in "Lock them in the Tower!" It is the oldest palace/ castle in Europe originally build in 1060 by William the Conqueror - and has stood ever since (built on and grown of course) - but besides palace it was also the royal prison. And this is where they would decapitate people and then put their heads on spikes on the bridge - if you seen any mideavel London movies - i know you've seen this. It was kind of eery to walk where so many had been tried, tortured and be-headed. That's the one thing that never ceases in London - history, history, history every where you look. It never ceases to fascinate me.

Well that's all for now! Look for more soon!