Shopping and the sites (London: Day Two)

Harrod's was nice. Really nice. I bought some tea to bring back to my friends in the States, and Carol took us through the floors to show us all the stuff they sell there. It really ranges from grocery foods to luxury clothes to pets. I loved it, but I could tell Ini wanted to get on with the day.

After all the shopping was done, the three of us went our separate ways to look at London at our own pace. Well...that's not exactly true. Ini and I went together, but as we were taking the Underground, Ini made it on the train and I didn't make it as the door was closing. Not that I minded, and I wasn't really trying to in on time. I just thought it was funny that we got separated. I did make an effort to catch up, and we both headed to the National Museum, but I never saw him again.

I took a few pictures and looked in the museum, but man! paintings are not my thing. Maybe if I was with someone who really enjoyed painters and their work (aka Jon), I probably would have had a much better time. But after a half hour, I was out of there and made my way to Parliament.

Instead of taking the Underground, I just walked. I wanted to look at everything! It was a good distance away, and when I finally got there, there was a protest going on. Funny thing was that it was a protest on issues that were going on in Africa, so I talked with someone from there for a while explaining that I just came from Ethiopia. He was very excited and he ranted about the issues and I asked questions and talked about what I saw in Addis. It was a good talk, but I knew I wouldn't care ten minutes after we parted ways.

And I was right, I went on to taking pictures of Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. Oh, man...Westminster Abbey...I practically fell in love with the building. The architecture! The history! I loved all of it! Except maybe the fee to enter it and take a tour. I didn't pay after finding out you couldn't take pictures. Again, if I was with someone (from Torrey) I would have enjoyed the place much more, but that still didn't mean I hardly enjoyed it. I spent a good hour walking around it and taking pictures.

I also went back to Picadilly Square for lunch, and made a trip out to London Bridge. It was very anti-climactic, but I did walk to the middle of it and pictured myself being slashed by Jack the Ripper. Morbid, I know. But I guess that's the fascination I have with both history and lore. Hee hee hee...

There was, however, a pub near London Bridge that I wanted to go eat at. But I just went back to Harrod's to meet back up with Carol and Ini. By this time, it was around 7 PM. Carol showed, but Ini never did, so we went off and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. "Why there," you ask? Well, it's the very first Hard Rock ever built, so I thought that was pretty iconic. Plus there was this really cute Canadian girl who seated us, so that was nice. Carol teased me a lot, though, but whatever.

Dinner was pretty much the end of the day. We went back to the hotel and called it a night.