London

Highlights:

London was Gordita's favorite stop of the whole trip. Everything was clean and shiny, and green and royal and Her Majesty's.

See? It's Her Majesty's Theatre.



1. Buckingham Palace. We didn't get to see the changing of the guard (they weren't doing it the two days we showed up to see it), but it's still shiny and beautiful. And we got a few photos of the cute little nutcracker men.






A bobby.



2. Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.




Jeeves.




3. The London Eye. In the daytime it's enormous. And in the evening, when it's dark and windy and cold, and you're in one of those pods, and there's a sort of shady looking guy in your pod that keeps looking in his black backpack, and you can't get a good look at his face because he has a beanie pulled down low and only one fourth of his face is showing, and he's quiet and alone and keeps looking around at everyone suspisiously, it's even enormous-er. But wow, the views are amazing!


The Eye during the day.


Gordita and the All Seeing Eye.


The Compensator is a great photographer!


Big Ben & friends.


How much force can each steel beam take? TC could calculate it.


TC enjoying the view (of Gordita of course).



4. Tower Bridge. We've never seen such an ornate bridge. It comes in second to the Golden Gate in the category of Gordita's favorite bridges.















5. Changing of the Horse Guard. TC and Gordita accidentally caught this and it was great. The shiny uniforms, the official-looking swords, the horses with great haircuts, and the shouting military-style was all part of the fun.



All lined up.



6. The telephone booths. Such charm!




"Ooh here's a pretty phone booth! TC, go in and I'll take a photo of you. It'll be great."


Going in.


Two and a half seconds later, he emerges. It wasn't as great as we all thought it would be.



7. The signs.




"Don't walk," says the little red man, waiting happily to cross.


The jovial little green man says, "Cross, with a jaunt in your step."


Those lovely little lumps.


A man with a spring in his step will be crossing the road in 50 yards.


Any sentence with the word "dismount" is going to be funny. Period.


Chubby, happy little children going to school. Watch for them.


Don't encourage the vermin.


Sounds like where I'd like to be.


So classy we don't even have to spell it right.


Mmm... Beast. My favorite.


Don't feed the tiny pigeons.


Where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came.



8. The green. The parks. The open space in the middle of the city.












Other fun facts:
We had fish & chips in a pub, and it was great. The concierge recommended the place to us, saying in his brogue, "They serve fish and chips, shepherd's pie, lamb's brain in a horse's hoof. You know, all the typical British cuisine." He gave us a hard time for falling for the lamb's brain bit. We just didn't want to judge!