European Adventure: Where was I? Oh yeah, London

Awesome Lego tree at St. Pancras train
station

Well I have had a bit of a break from Xmas/New year holiday blogging. I like to do things in chronological order, but due to the firewalking having a deadline, I had to interrupt my blogging. I also wanted to have a bit of a break, so that I can get lots of views in May - I like watching my views go up - thus the Happy 2000 Views post :P, since then I have had another 384 views, with over 800 views alone in April!!

Tower Bridge and the outer wall of the Tower of London

So, when I last blogged about my holiday I was telling you all about my French Food Tour.We left Paris on Tuesday 3 Jan, and caught the Eurostar back to London in the evening. Mum was leaving on the 5th, which meant she didn’t have much time left to do touristy things. On the 4th, Mum and I did some exploring on our own, while Adam caught up with a friend of his. Our first stop was the tower of London, after walking across tower bridge, followed by St Paul’s Cathedral.

There were heaps of these chicken wire animals around-
The king kept a royal menagerie of exotic creatures
to show his wealth and power

Ravens are important to the British monarchy -
legends states that if the birds ever leave it
will be the downfall of the monarchy.
So they keep some ravens in cages, just to
make sure...

One of the ravens getting close and personal

Does this hat suit me?

St. Paul's Cathedral

View from the top

At the 4D London Eye experience

Mum then went on the London eye, which I didn’t do, as I had done it a year earlier. I wanted to go ice-skating but had missed too much of the current session, so got a snack and waited instead. While I was waiting a guy with his ‘last copy of The Big Issue’ came up to me asking for money, as he was ‘only a couple of quid short of getting money to pay for a hostel bed for the night’. I told him I would rather buy him something – like food – then just give money away, and he didn’t take my offer. I think this was a wise move, as he may have been trying to scam me?! Who knows what he might have wanted to spend my money on?

The rest of the time I was waiting for mum I looked around the souvenir shop. I had forgotten to bring my Kindle with me, so didn’t have anything to read, and it was too cold, wet and windy sitting outside. When mum came off the Eye we went on the 4D experience. It is free with your ticket, but they didn’t actually check tickets, so I snuck in too. We then headed back to the hostel where we met back up with Adam and his friend.

After dinner that night we saw Phantom of the Opera – Adam’s all time favourite. EVER. Remember? I must admit that I think Adam’s enthusiasm for it set the bar a bit high, and to be honest I was a bit disappointed by it – I just didn’t see what all the fuss was about (sorry Adam!)

5th Jan

Mum's last day. In the morning we went to Westminister Abbey, which after visiting that, along with Rosslyn Chapel and the Louvre, made me feel like reading the Da Vinci Code again. We did a bit more walking through London - seeing some squirrels climbing a lady's leg to get peanuts, Her Majesty's Theatre (where we saw Phantom), and Trafalgar Square, before Adam and I had to catch a train to Cardiff, and it was time to say bye to mum!