I will now give you a (hopefully) brief account of what has been happening.
Saturday we went to Merrion Square in Dublin for the World Street Performers World Championship.
It was a good day. Lots of laughs. We saw a juggler, world record breaking sword swallower, gymnastics team, a sarcastic Canadian escape artist, and a person who could balance things like a tea pot on a stick in his mouth. We went home to relax and pack.
Picture this. Dublin. Sunshine through the mist over the ocean. Can you see it? Me neither. I'm not there either. We left on a ferry on Sunday. It left from the docks in Dublin and took just over 2 hours to arrive in Hollyhead in Wales. From there we took a train right into London. we were surprised that no one checked out tickets on the train ride at all.
We found where our hotel/apartment and headed out for dinner then home to sleep.
Since we didn't get much or quality sleep we went on a hop on hop off bus tour of the city. The bus tour also involved a river cruise and walking tours. We did take advantage of that. We got off the bus and hopped on the river cruise and had a nice 30 min ride up the Thames. We got back on the bus and continued for the rest of the tour. It was getting a bit chilly at this point so we quickly went home to get our sweaters and put on jeans. Then we went back to the tour and joined a walking tour. It was a ghosts and gaslights pub tour. Our guide decided that since we were starting at 6 and the sun doesnt go down til 930 that we would skip the ghosts and go strait to the pub tour. It was pretty good. If we had realized that it was a pub crawl we probably never would have went. We ended up visiting 9 different pubs! Our tour guide was awesome and funny! He had at least one pint at each pub. We ended up with him until after 12 midnight! He said it was the longest pub crawl that he had been on. We didn't drink at everyone but it was fun!
Tuesday morning we joined up on a Changing of the Guard tour. We had the same guide. It turns out that he was at the pub til 1am. We were not in the big crowd trying to see the changing of the guard. We saw the inspection of the new guard and band and them heading out to the place. Then we rushed over to the other side of the park to where the old guard were off to Buckingham Palace. Thats when the tour ended. We didnt see the pomp and circumstance of the switching of the guards or whatever. But Dave and I stuck around when everyone one else from the tour left so we got to see the band and old guard return to their place. We headed up to the palace when everyone cleared out a bit. This is when we saw the men in the boxes being changed places with.
From the we went to the Canada Gate. It was built in 1906? or something. It was made with the coat of arms for each province up to that time. The provinces that were added later coat of arms were added on the pillars. After this we walked up the Mall (pronounced Mal) which is a park, to Trafalgar Square. We had lunch along Charring Cross Road. You might remember this from a song from Spirit of the West called "Home for a rest"
you'll have to excuse me, i'm not at my best
i've been gone for a month
i've been drunk since i left
there so-called vacations
will soon be my death
i'm so sick from teh drink
i need home for a rest
we arrived in december and london was cold
so we stayed in thebars
along charing cross road
we never saw nothin' but brass taps and oak
kept a shine on the bar
with the sleeves of our coats
I copied and pasted it and I dont feel like going back and putting the
capitals in. SO there!
After lunch we were off to Westminster Abby. It was Beautiful! We were
not allowed to to take pictures, but i did get a couple in before they told us.
It was a bit weird seeing all those tombs and monuments that are in there!
soo busy. Who wants to be buried in a church?
Theres people buried on top of people. Its a great place to go.
I recommend getting there earlier in the day as there is a lot to see
and if you go after 3(like us) they give you a shortened audio tour so
you only see the main parts.
After that we were tired and sat in a park for a while and walked
along the river home again.
We even ordered in pizza because we didnt feel like going out.
After pizza and some tv we went down to the swimming pool
that was nice a relaxing!
Ok- so that wasnt that brief of a post but oh well.
enjoy
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