London Day 1

It was very good to get back and have some restful sleep. But it was not without incident. At my sisters place I am sleeping on a futon with an air mattress on top of it. At some point during the night it tipped. Luckily I woke up in time to catch myself from slamming my head against the floor, which would have been humorous but not great for beauty rest.

After waking up and watching a little of the BBC morning show, my sister arrived back from the gym. She had been rear ended in the parking lot while buying me coffee and yogurt. Luckily no one was harmed but my wallet, as the deposit was not returned or may not be returned for a few months.

When she came in she let in the neighbor cat, which found my bags very interesting. After getting packed it was time to head into London. We dropped the car off at the rental place and then hopped on the train headed to Waterloo Station. It took around half an hour to get in from where she lives. After she dropped off her bags it was into the city.

The first stop was the London Eye, but after seeing the line we decided to try it later and walk across Hungerford Footbridge. From there we headed up to where most of the shows are. At one of the theaters they were holding the opening night for the new Fast and the Furious movie. After walking around that area for a while it was on to lunch. We ate at a Mexican restaurant which was pretty good, but very filling, I didn't have a proper meal for the rest of the day.

I was also able to do something here which I failed to accomplish in Japan, I found a Muji store. But I want to keep the mystery alive until I can go into a proper store in Yokohama. We walked through China Town, which was the cleanest and most boring version I have ever seen.

After a quick walking tour of Trafalgar Square, it was on to Buckingham Palace. We missed the changing of the guards which happens every other day at 1130 in the wintertime. Also of note, the guards wear grey until April 1st when they switch back to the more commonly thought of Red uniforms.

After walking through Green Park we went to the Churchill Museum, which was very interesting. I did not realize that he was the son of a British and American couple. He also lead a very wild and crazy political career, which included backing the wrong person in an abdication case. He was head of the Royal Navy for a spell and got removed after certain things happened in WWI. He was put back into that post when the chap which replaced him made a similar large misjudgment of course. He then parlayed that into becoming Prime Minister. Another interesting tid bit, is how he was very close friends with President Roosevelt. The last thing was that he was removed from office shortly after WWII ended. The Museum also housed the first Enigma machine I have seen.

On the way back to pick up my sisters bags we walked past Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. We caught a cab to the hotel. After getting settled it was time for my first TUBE experience, nothing too major. But it does make me wish I was back in Japan, all other public transit seems poorly thought out when compared to that of the Japanese. Although they do have the distinct advantage of learning from others mistakes. But back to the Underground, it took around 30 minutes to get to the Tower Hill stop. We came out of the station and had a great view of the Tower of London.

We walked down to the waterfront and I got my first glimpse of London Tower Bridge. I took a few pictures and we headed back to the station to catch …. a Jack the Ripper walking tour. I new nothing about this killer apart from the Wolf in the Fold episode of the original Star Trek, which was brought up during the tour. The tour took around 2 hours to complete, but needless to say my apatite never showed up after hearing some of the things which that individual did to those five women. We took a different way back to the hotel, and then came in and crashed for the evening.

Pictures