Leaving Charlotte by T

Business class seats are so cool! They have pull-out trays, lights, a pull-out movie screen, and feet things. I slept most of the way.

Customs in London was not as scary as it was in Cota Rica. The baggage claim in London looked like Miami airport. The train was nicer than the train we rode on in Paris last year. Since the people speak English, I haven't felt I am in as foreign a country. There are lots of cultures present in London -- Italian, French, Russian, Spanish, Portugese, Hindi and German. After checking into the hotel and riding the first London cab of our lives, we set off towards St. James Park. There, we stumbled across three things: the trooping of colour (practice for the Queen's birthday parade), Gram and Papa (who were standing right in front of us watching the parade), and our tour guide (she was with another group in the morning and with us in the afternoon). After exploring St. James Park, watching the trooping of colour, and seeing Buckingham Palace, we got a bit to eat at a park stand and met our tour guide, Britt.

On our four hour whirlwind tour of London we saw: churches by Christopher Wren, mimes and other performers on the street, the Globe Theatre, shops at Picadilly Circus, Diagon Alley and the Leaky Cauldron, Big Ben, Parliament, the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, the gerkin, city hall, and many other old things like an excavation site for a roman colliseum. We also saw 3 weddings in progress, a street fair on Coin Street, and reconstructed areas along the water. We learned a lot of unusual facts: they raise the flag at the Globe Theatre when a play is in session; the royal crest is on stores where the royal family shops, Daniel Radcliffe from Harry Potter is in a play where he is on stage naked,Elizabeth I saw her mother beheaded in the London Tower and was taken there herself to be beheaded but she wasn't.

After riding a double decker red bus and walking about 5-6 miles, we were pooped but we found enough energy to ride the London Eye. It was so cool. It is 135 meters tall ( I think I have that right). Anyway, it was very exciting and it was a great view of the city.