If it's Sunday, it must be London

Today has been a busy day. The canyon formed by the buildings here conducts sound very well. Some Londoners (or tourists) never sleep. When I decided I might as well get up to go to the bathroom, it was 4:45 a.m., and it was already light out. It gets dark very late, too. Breakfast wasn't until 7:30, so I had some time to kill. All of this walking is agreeing with me. My blood sugar was 88 this morning. For me, that's almost a little too low, but it's interesting, anyway. Quick note to self: Don't have two bowls of cereal in the morning, especially with whole milk; your stomach can't take it. Anyway.

I left early to see how long it will take me to get to my pick up point tomorrow for Stonehenge. It's only 10 minutes, but it means I'll miss breakfast. I'll have to see what opens down the street that I might go to. I then went back to Kensington and Hyde Parks. I ended up sitting on a bench watching people for a good while. People were jogging by the hundreds. I took a picture later of part of the park. Almost every area is full of people like this. I asked someone about that, and he said they came out in the winter, too, if the weather wasn't too bad. He said it does snow sometimes. The pictures should be a little bigger today if you click on them.




At the far end of the park is a starting point for the double-decker tour bus. It was a little walk, but I decided to do it. The pick up was right by the Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, but it was early, and only a couple of mild speakers were there. Once I got on the bus, I was able to see all the sites in London. It was also possible to get off and walk around and pick up the bus later (once you figure out which is their pick up point). I took well over a hundred photos but will only share a couple now. Let's just say that I saw a lot. Over the next six hours, I saw Westminster Abbey (can't go inside on Sunday--I'll go back to that one), Parliament and Big Ben, Buckingham Palace (the crowds were huge, so I didn't see the changing of the guard but saw the Queen's Guardsmen parade down the street and through the gate to the palace), London Bridge, The Towers of London (there's more than one there), The "London Eye" (I will not go on it--too scary), the Globe Theater, and also took a cruise on the Thames River. Not bad, eh? When I finally got back to Hyde Park, I watched some of the speakers. It was fascinating. The most interesting one was a man (they all stand on soap boxes of some sort) who was arguing for Christianity against Islam, especially the Koran. Moslems were in front of him, arguing just as vehemently. I asked someone whether they ever got violent; he said hardly ever as the police are always around. I eventually made it back to the hotel to find that the bar (as it is) does have Diet Coke, but it's closed on Sunday. I bet I have sweated off several pounds already.

Anyway, here are a couple more pictures of the 100+ I've already taken. A Chinese couple asked me to take their picture in front of the London Bridge. When another person did, I asked him to take mine, too, just to prove I really was here.



For some reason, this whole scene reminded me of Benny Hill.




I swear it's the one in London and not Arizona.




I did get to hear Big Ben chime several times. I have to say that I love London. It is the most interesting place I have ever been.