Touristicas ensenas no miran las coches. Ellos caminan antes de coches. Es moy serio. Normalmente nosotros miramos las coches. Nosotros no touristicas ensenas, nosotros touristicas estudios (nosotros creemos).
We were on the move a lot this day. Have to mention that the night before the open window chilled me greatly. Half-asleep I simply put my freezing arms under my back instead of putting on more layers.
I didn't put on my lovely raincoat, but I did grab my umbrella. Later I found out that my jacket let wind through very easily, I didn't freeze but I definitely got cold.
We walked down to the office in the morning, got directions as to where we needed to go to get the all-day tour and then we headed out to the Holiday Inn to catch a bus tour. Of course, we missed the bus. We went in and asked the desk what we needed to do and they sent us directly to the bus station (right next to Victoria Station). There at the station we discovered that the all-day tour we wanted was completely booked. We grabbed tickets for an afternoon tour of St. Paul’s, The London Tower, and London and then we set out for Buckingham Palace. Funnily enough we're in London during the 8 weeks a year that the Queens State Rooms are open for visitors to walk through! What good luck huh? We got a tour and an audio-guide. The rooms were magnificent. In between listening to the audio and gawking at all the grandeur in the rooms I kept envisioning these parties that the Queen throws. All the people who were in there all of a sudden had gorgeous gowns on, pressed tuxes, a few men wore lovely kilts (its the Scottish tux), and everyone was mingling and talking quietly to each other as lovely music played in the background. King George IV loved collecting French items and most of his collection was used to decorate the State Rooms. I thought it was funny that the son of the King who had such huge issues with the French loved collecting valuables from them. I saw a painting of King George III, it's the same one that’s on display in our AP US History Book. There's a whole lot that I could type about the State Rooms, but right now I don't have the time/energy. I'll have to add more later.
When we went into the dining hall I was amazed that the tables were all set up like they would be for a banquet. Each place setting was carefully measured and planned out. Every thing had to be absolutely perfect. It reminded me of show choir. All lines must be straight, everything must look uniform, and everything must dazzle. I watched a short clip of one state dinner the Queen had held. The Queen read her speech from a piece of paper, and so did her guest of honor. It made me feel like it was an act that someone had written out. Think about it. At these glamorous parties the things people say to each other are directed by other people, it's like tons of barbies have gotten together. I was slightly disappointed to see that some of the people around the table look less than satisfied with the party. They looked tense, tired, or just plain unhappy. If I were invited to such an occasion I'm sure I wouldn't be able to stop smiling! Maybe it's just because they've gotten accustomed to being invited to such important gatherings that they find them dull and boring. It's those who view all the glamor with a bored eye that I can't help being astonished with. Such protected lives! Perhaps the Queen should have a banquet where heavy metal was played and people were required to drink whiskey and beer and sit at a campfire or a bar. Maybe then they'd have some fun. Hopefully they'd get shocked out of their silly zoned-out stares.
I have to say that in the past I've never come across a picture in the newspaper where the Queen was smiling. I love her smile! The exhibit had many pictures where she was smiling and talking to other rulers. Funnily enough with the picture she had of George Bush she wasn't smiling, he was and it looked almost pained, she looked like she was having a serious discussion. I hope she was chewing him out. I highly doubt it. She's too polite to her guests, and she goes through too much trouble to prepare for their arrival. Makes me grumpy that so much work goes through getting prepared for these things and people act bored at them! Honestly!
Moving on now before I spend all day typing about Buckingham Palace.
We left through the corner of the gardens (trees and grass) and then we headed back to the bus station to eat and then wait to get on a golden tour bus. Once we got on the bus we drove for a bit and then had to get off. The busdriver was just taking us to our guide. Our guide was incredible! I suggest that anyone who's looking for a guy to date, go for a tour guide. They're smart, funny, and they know the best places in town for dates. This one told us sooo much information, I could never get it all in.
Our first stop was St. Paul’s Cathedral. Apparently the architect was given the job of reconstructing all of the churches in London after the great London Fire. He wanted to give St. Paul’s a dome but the people wanted a steeple. He went to King James (? no clue which one) and King James told him he needed to do what the people wanted, but he'd do him a favor, he'd put in his contract that he could make any minor adjustments that he saw fit. The second largest dome in the world was a minor adjustment. Quite funny. This Cathedral was different from others we've been to before in that people weren't buried in the walls or the floor, they were buried underneath the castle. Loads of fun facts that I could share, I just don't have time.
We headed on to the Tower of London, on the way learning more and more about the town and various stories about the great people in it. At the tower we were told to not go near the sparrows, they will bite you, and we were also told that it was obviously not a tower anymore, it was a castle. A castle that's been used for various different things (a zoo is I think the most bizarre). Now it's a monument that houses various old torture devices, jail rooms, and the crown jewels. We got to see the area where King Henry 8th had four of his wives beheaded. Also got to gawk some more at the incredible gaudy jewels that the crown owns and uses for coronation. I liked Victoria's simple crown. It was basically all diamonds & didn't have velvet underneath.
After this we went on a boat tour of the Thames where we were dropped off down by the Parliament Building and Big Ben (named for the huge clock inside-tour guide joked that it was named after the large man who was in charge of building it-was glad he wasn't named Richard har har).
Most of the people were then taken to the London Eye. We didn't go, we sat in the bus and watched the pubcrawler edge its way back and forth on the street. The pubcrawler was a open air car where people can book a party and drink as they pedal their way around from pub to pub. The car is powered by the people who sit at the bar, and the car is directed by the bartender/driver. The women who were drinking were just doing it for the chance to get drunk. It looked like loads of fun. I don't know if it'd be the safest thing to do (drunken me sitting on a moving vehicle that's traveling through London traffic-sounds like it'd be fairly easy to fall off and get hit). On the way back to Victoria Station our guide told people in the back that the best pub to go to was the Bag of Nails, I got excited because I saw that place on our way around. I thought it looked like a great place to go. Apparently all you have to do is sit down at the bar and say, "So I heard you all think your beer is pretty good...." and you've got a beer before you've even paid. Loved hearing about the place, we never got to go though.
At Victoria Station we immediately went to get tickets for the underground (subway) back to Glouchester Station. We made it to our platform with one minute to wait for the train. All together it took us maybe 7 minutes to get from Victoria Station to Glouchester Station. I definitely like the speed of the train over the taxi-not that taxi's are slow, traffic just slows them down.
We walked back to the apartments stopping twice-once to eat and once to grab tea and various breads for breakfast. By this time my nose was dripping and my throat was killing me. I'd sneezed several times throughout the day. In short, the cold was coming in fast. Once back to the room Poppy got on the puter to see if the internet would work (it didn't even after we went down and talked to the man and got him to check it out), I took a hot shower-felt sooooooo good, took some nasal decongestants, and drank green tea, then I did half of my study-guide for US government and wrote my blog. This time I put on tons of layers, I was not going to freeze again. I also made sure to drink lots of water and some more tea. Lemme tell you, having a cold and George at the same time sucks big time.
I didn't sleep very well that night at all. Normally I stretch out to fall asleep and I'm out in 5 minutes. I stretched out, sat there for 20 minutes thinking and then slowly started getting hazy. All night I was just having complex thought processes that only had a small layer of fog on top. I was aware I was only partly asleep, I was also aware that I couldn't push myself further into sleep because then I'd just wake myself up, so I continued to think until I realized I'd already thought that thing before. I woke up, went to the bathroom, and then climbed back into bed to repeat the process (just different thoughts-never did go in a circle this time).
Ended up using a whole roll of toilet paper on my nose, and using the bathroom tons from all the water got rid of a lot of toilet paper as well. Now, my head hurts, my back hurts, my raw nose hurts, and my throat itches. I hope that if I bundle up, take medicine, drink lots of fluids (particularly green tea) then I might get better faster. It's now the next morning 09/07/08 and all of these symptoms make me just want to crawl into a nice warm bed. My layers are still on, I'm still plenty warm, but my feet are cold with my socks on. I want chicken noodle soup and large pillows and someone to cuddle with.
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