London

Stefan and I have spent 2 days in London and we are really enjoying the trip. Our first day we started at 6:45 am when the plane landed in Heathrow Airport. A friendly native pointed out the center of London as the plane was coasting towards the runway. Stefan and I planned to get some sleep but the plane ride was much shorter than we thought and with the excitement of the trip we got about 1 or 2 hours each. With some heavy jet lag we set out to discover London. Our first mission was to find our Hostel. We found that the subway system in London is expansive and took us very close to our destination. Our only problem was the loops and turns the roads have in them confusing our sense of Direction. At last we found our hostel and our accommodations were much better than we previously thought.
Day One
Once settled in, we set forth to hit up some big attractions in London. Our first stop was the British Museum and it was massive. Every room made you feel small and it just had so many things from many different cultures. The highlight of the the museum was seeing the Rosetta Stone. And unlike most attractions it was in plain view and we could touch it. It was awesome. Then we hit the National Gallery which we first thought was boring but once we got a hold of map and found out what was in the gallery, it got a lot more interesting. The highlight for me was the Turner's Rain Sand and Speed which I learned about in my architectural history class. I also got to some of Monet's Water Lilly paintings which was also treat. Next, we went down to West Minister Abbey and saw the tombs of a bunch of famous Englishman from the Bronte Sisters to Shakespeare. We also saw Big Ben which is found at the North End of Parliament.
Day Two
The next day we also saw many things. First we went to the British Library and saw the Gutenberg Bible(2/3 in my Gutenberg Bible Picture Collection) and the Magna Carta. Then we saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace from a strange vantage point. Following that, we saw The Eye of London which is an awesome looking Farris wheel. We got hungry so we ate some fish and chips. Then we saw London Bridge. Stefan got tired of site seeing at this point and we decided to split ways. He went to see St Paul's Cathedral and then back to the hostel to enjoy a Guinness(Guinness here seems to be a lot better)while I went on to see Tower of London. On my trek to Tower London I found this really tall tower. When I got up to it I found out that it was The Monument, the tallest freestanding stone tower in the world. I paid 2£ to walk 311 steps to see the magnificent view from the top. After The Monument, I continued my adventure to Tower London. When I arrived it was bigger than I expected. I was planning on going into the Tower of London but the cost was 12.50 £ which was too steep for me. So I continued to Tower Bridge. The Tower Bridge looked awesome.(which I will post pictures after I can get physical access to a computer). The craftsmanship that went into building it is really remarkable. I then went down a road called Thames Street(I believe) which look like a road from the 1800s; complete with cobblestone street and stone buildings. I found a corridor that gave me direct access to the Thames River and I picked up a rock from the edge to keep as a memento of London.
After that trek, I wanted to hit my last stop which was St Paul's Cathedral. When I got there I just so happened to make it in time for a service and got to see the inside of the Cathedral. The Cathedral was more breathtaking than I had seen in my architectural history class. When you walk in, the grandeur of everything just blows you away. The service went over some chapters in the bible along with Gregorian style chorus in between chapters. After that I made it back to the Hostel. Now were planning on heading to Paris stay posted for our next blog post.