Travel Diary

January 4, 2003

At 7am, I was wide-awake again. I had breakfast (toast/coffee/juice) and met the others to go out sightseeing. Our first stop was to visit St. Paul's Cathedral. It was a place that I had not seen much of during my study abroad session the year prior. The good news was that it was open. Unfortunately, the dome was closed that day. And it cost seven pounds to explore the place. As usual, they didn't allow photographs. So considering all this, we journeyed elsewhere. Our next stop: the Imperial War Museum. While, I did see the Museum last year, there's just no way to get enough of it. Before long, we were all scattered in different directions, exploring the exhibits and displays. I made sure to visit the WWI trench exhibit once again. After an hour, it was time for Gardner and Heather to leave for their overnight excursion. We departed the place and headed back to the Tube station. A few stops later, Steph, Amanda, and I parted ways with Heather, Gardner, and Alan.

Joined with the two girls, we headed over to Buckingham Palace. They were both rather hungry (I kept forgetting that normal people eat more than once a day), so we settled into a nice little café to have lunch. While I desired a beer, I did need to settle my quest for cocoa, so that's what I ordered, along with a melted cheese and tomato sandwich. It did the trick. Lunch was delicious. Finishing lunch, we took to the streets and walked over to Buckingham Palace. Alas, we had missed the "changing of the guard," but on the bright side, we also missed the huge crowds that accompany the little event. Our next stop was St. James Park, where we examined the various birds that call it their home. Our conversation steered into the direction of whether or not it was acceptable to label some birds as just plain ugly. Reaching the front end of the park, we passed by the mounted guards so Amanda and Stephanie could pose for pictures with the horses. Moving down the street, we came upon the National Gallery. It was open. It was free, so we went inside.

Since I had seen most of the pictures before, I didn't have a strong desire to stay very long. But the girls were interested in seeing the various antique paintings. Making it a game, I would try to examine a painting by a specific painter and figure out his style. I'd then glace over at other paintings in the room and try to determine if it was the same painter, based upon the style of the painting. It worked a few times, but the game grew dull after short time. After receiving our fill, we sauntered around the corner and into the National Portrait Gallery. My goal was to view the kings of England from the 13th-16th centuries, but most of the paintings started after the time period that I was aiming for. Nevertheless, we saw some great paintings. A most interesting moment was viewing the portrait of Sir Nelson. Some information was given on him. Juxtaposed to the right was his lady. I read the information of both of them.

After the gallery, we went over to the theatre ticket area. Alas, there were no shows playing that night. Seeing a show would have to wait until Monday evening. Hopefully, I would at least get to see one show before leaving London. Having no luck getting show tickets, we set out looking for food. The mission would be to find a food store. That way we would get more food for less money. Our walk turned out to be a lengthy one. But in due time, we ended up at a Sainbury's that I used to visit during my previous stay in London. Ah, it was fun shopping for food in London again. We acquired some goodies and set out for home.

Another Night on the Town

For the evening, we agreed to go out. Our stop would be the Cambridge Pub since we knew it so well. Five of us headed down there: Steph, Amanda, their two roommates, and myself. Someone brought cards along so we played gambling games upstairs at the pub. Since we weren't gambling, the games weren't exactly very effective. One could bluff holding nothing but a two and a three. Still, we had a great time, until they kicked us out at 10:30pm (pubs close early on Sunday nights). Being tired, we all returned to the hostel and crashed for the night.

The night would be an eventful one.

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