Don't fall in that fountain @ Buckingham Palace!

GOODBYE SHEFFIELD: 

        Friday morning we all got dressed and left for the train station. Everyone was so excited! The train ride was about 2 hours and 10 minutes, which seemed like an eternity.

HELLO LONDON:

       Once we arrived in London we bought a tube pass, which is the "subway" system for London. It was the most useful thing ever! Then we were off to find our hotel. The walk to the hotel was so intriguing. We walked past the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. We stayed at The Tower Hotel, it was very nice! Our bedroom was a little small, but our view was great. 

Just got off the train....

On the Tube.

Just got off the Tube, the Tower of London in the background.

The Tower

The Tower & The Tower Bridge

We're getting closer to our hotel.

The Tower Bridge

the view from our window (Flat Stanley & I)

Our room before they brought the third bed in...

   After we got settled in we got ready to go to the Eye. How did we get there? We got back on the tube and rode it to the stop called Westminster. When we walked up the stairs to street level... it was the most amazing, beautiful, heart stopping thing! There it was, literally right in front of us.. Big Ben! It is indescribable how amazed we were. OMG, I still can not get over how amazing it was. The main reason it was so amazing is because it was so unexpected. We were on our way to the London Eye and unexpectedly we saw Big Ben, which may I say is BIG!

BIG BEN!

The Eye

The Penguin outside of the Aquarium on the way to the Eye.

We saw David Beckham on the way to pick up our tickets for the Eye. (Well his wax figure..)

        After we picked up our tickets for the Eye, we waited outside for our registered time "4:00." While we were waiting we were entertained by a group of Japanese "dancers and drummers." We also saw some dressed up people which was kind of cool.

Silver Cowboy...

We got bracelets made by a guy from Africa.

It was neat to watch him do it.... but then we had to pay him, even though he said Hakuna Matata, no worries!

  We finally got in line for the Eye. The london eye is a ferris wheel type of attraction. Each globe can fit about twenty people easily. It moves very slowly so you can take pictures and see the city. Even if you are scared of heights you could do this. Its a lot of fun on the way up and at the top. Although on the way down you feel like you have seen enough and you are wishing it would speed up! But it is really nice to be able to see everything from above!

Big Ben from the Eye

Inside the Eye

London Eye Pier

Not sure which building this is..

Westminster Abbey

Buckingham Palace in the back....

Buckingham Palace

Big Ben & Houses of Parliament 

Buckingham Palace Again..

The city

   After the London Eye we did the 4d experience. It was really neat. It made me want to go to London during the winter! It looks even more beautiful then. After the 4d experience we went to a souvenir store. A lot of people will be getting souvenirs from London, so hopefully you like "London," haha.

Once we finished up at the souvenir shop we got back on the tram and we went to Harrods. Harrods is a TOP OF THE LINE department store. When I say top of the line, I mean its kind of like Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. So we just looked around and pretended like we could afford the merchandise. This store has everything you can think of from jewelry and clothes to childrens toys and puppies! This store is crazy and HUGE! You could get lost very easily in this store. While at Harrods I did buy one thing.... A teddy bear that has Harrods monogramed on the foot. Ha,  the teddy bear was on sale but still cost 10 GBP (great britian pounds) which is 17.05 dollars in American money. However, I thought that my adorable little niece would enjoy this teddy bear and maybe one day she will get the chance to go to London and be able to say that she has a teddy bear from Harrods from when she was a baby. 

The Toy Kingdom

The Harrods Bear... no this is not the bear I bought, ha!

   After Harrods we were all very hungry. We looked for about an hour and couldn't agree on anywhere  or the places were to expensive. So we decided to get back on the tram. We got off at Piccadilly Circus and searched for a place to eat. Piccadilly Circus is very similar to Times Square in New York. We walked around for about an hour here as well. Considering it was a Friday night everywhere was packed! Some places we walked by seemed a little unsafe and sketchy. So we quickly walked by. Finally Erin and I made an executive decision to go to the Rainforest Cafe. We knew this would be a safe place and we would all be able to sit down. Some of the girls were a little mad about it but we were tired of walking around aimlessly and we were hungry. Yes the Rainforest Cafe is a little pricy, but at this point we didn't care. We had been walking around for TWO hours. Who knew it was so hard to find a restaurant in London. Once we paid the bill for supper we were off to the Tube once again. By this point we were glad we got the day pass for transportation. We arrived back at our hotels and immediately went to bed. We were all drained and exhausted.

  The next morning we got up early so we would have time to see everything... well we though we would be able to see everything. (back to the day..) We had breakfast at Starbucks because our hotel breakfast $27! Holly Molly, breakfast is not worth that much money, especially when your on a budget.   

Well I guess thats what you can expect from a 5 star hotel. Oh well, so after our lovely breakfast we took some pictures in front of the tower and then got on the tube to go see the Changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.

It was a little windy & a tourist took our picture.

    Once we got off the Tube we walked towards Buckingham Palace. We walked past Big Ben and Westminster Abbey on the way, however we didn't stop to take it all in. We were in a hurry to see the changing of the guards. we finally get there! This place is AMAZING! we get closer and there is a sign that says no changing of the guards today. Oh well that was lovely, we definitely looked like tourists considering we were out of breath from practically jogging to the Palace.
   Well once we were we got a lot of pictures. One of the pictures in which I will have a caption that explains the title of this post! HA!!!

Here it is.... Buckingham Palace!

The Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace.

Here come some guards on horses...

A lovely older man took our group picture and poor man had no clue about how to use a digital camera! And then he gave us a thumbs up... too sweet!

..and we wanted the palace in the background, so we walked to the other side of the memorial and found a young girl to take another picture. ;)

Well, even though this picture is sideways.. it shows you how big this memorial statue really is.

The gates at Buckingham Palace.

Here is where the title of the post comes in....

I sit down to have my picture taken and well I thought the ledge was wider than what it really was. So I go to sit down and I sat back a little too far and literally, I mean literally almost fell in the fountain! My feet were dangling in the air. It was scary, but then we laughed hysterically about it after I got up.

"I can read a map! Let me be the tour guide."

***** Well I am going to have to make a part two post for London. There is so much to share and so many pictures to upload!! I still have to do some school work for tomorrow. 

But.... I PROMISE I will finish the London post tomorrow! No worries. 

I hope you are enjoying this! I know I sure am. 

Check back tomorrow night for part 2!

Cheerio & Love, 

KM