London, Cermony of the Keys - March 31st

We headed out to London around noon today. We got a taxi from RA's place to Virginia Water. The train goes from here into Waterloo station in London. We got a travel card, when traveling in a group of three it is significantly cheaper, £8.80. This includes the travel into London and also around London.

When we got into London we headed to the Tube and went to the stop near The British Museum. It is always great to walk through the Museum. I have taken some photos of different areas. Not much to say, just that you could spend weeks looking through all of the artifacts that are housed within the building. We spent around 2 hours walking around.



After having a spirited discussion about what we should eat we decided to YO SUSHI! Basic Sushi go round setup, it was good to have something like that. No raw fish, but standard fare other than that.

We then headed over to Oxford Street. Which is a very busy shopping street, they have created a "mass" crossing where you can cross in all directions. This was modeled after Shibuya, but it is like a lighter less filling version. Still is entertaining to cross the street on the diagonal. I stopped by a UniQlo, they do have sizes that are bigger than in Japan. We then went to Primark, which is like Black Friday all the time. The deals are really cheap, and people climb over each other the free the savings. We are planning on heading to Reading in the morning to go to a more relaxed store.

Time had escaped us, and we were running a little bit late for the evenings activity. We met up with one of RA's friends and her fiancee near the Tower of London. After a quick bite of Chips we went over to observe the "Ceremony of the Keys". This is the longest running ceremony of the sort around 700 years. Every night they lock the tower gates in a particular way. It is very cool and one should try to do it if you get the chance. Photography and Videography are not allowed during the proceedings.
It happens at 10 PM everyday and lasts six minutes.

After that we headed back to Waterloo, when we arrived there were probably over 2000 people sitting in front of the gates looking at the board. Someone had been killed by a train on another line and had stopped all train traffic. Got some coffee then ran and caught the train back. It was packed, not to the standards of the Yamanote line in rush hour but enough to make you uncomfortable.

After getting back to Virginia Water it was a quick taxi ride back. Almost 2 AM so I should be getting to bed.