London, England

May 21st
We arrived at Heathrow late on Thursday evening, and took the Tube to our last Euro-hotel. We had a full and busy day planned for our one full day in London, so we knocked out pretty early...

May 22nd
Sorting out your own transportation and acting as your own tourguide for 3-plus weeks becomes exhausting, so we did the tourist-errific thing and joined one of those hop-on/hop-off tours. It included all the main sights (and I didn't have to go into anything I didn't want to!), a boat cruise down the Thames, and a 'spirits' walking tour (a.k.a. a pub crawl). The best part: we had a guide to tell us what things were and why they were important...







It was money well spent, I'll tell you. For a total of 20pounds, we did all of the above, and took a walking tour of the castle guards, which was a bit different than just watching the changing of the guards.

First, we went to Clarence House, where the military practices and where Prince Charles (and more interestingly, Prince William) actually lives. Almost every day, they inspect the regiment before marching to the castle. Things were a little squirrelly on Friday, since it was a holiday weekend and there was to be a massive performance of the humongous military band on Monday. Rather than watch the guards swap spots with the throngs of tourists in front of the castle, we cut through the park, scoped out the tourist-free area of St. James' Palace and the Wellington Barracks, and watched a giant parade of guys in funny hats:

they marched instep to instep, while playing - nuts, I tell you

At the departure of our 'spirits' tour, we were a smidge disappointed to learn that we were down to 20pounds (aside from the money alloted to take the tube to the airport the following morning). 20pounds + 2 people + 5 pubs = not enough cash. Dammit. Soooo, we decided to skip a drink at one or two pubs...no prob. At one pub, Rob asked the price for two pints of Guinness, and received the response of 7pounds20pence. We had 7pounds&19pence. After pouring our Guinness (the proper Irish way!), the bartender quipped, "That'll be 7pounds19pence, please." Yessss. At the second of our planned pub-skips, our hilarous guide Alan (an Englishborn Irishman...or an Irishborn Englishman...crap.) took note of our empty hands and decided to investigate. After explaining that we could change our cash allotment to allow for more pints, he further proceeded to give us money to ensure we'd be well-hydrated. Hilarious. And fantastic.



May 23rd
It's a shame that the trip had to end, but London seemed a nice place to wrap things up...hell, they speak English (um, sorta...)! Our flight out of Heathrow was set to depart at 11:35am, making for a pretty early morning for us. Heathrow = always an adventure. Upon checkin at a kiosk, we were having trouble with our seats, and came across a phenomenal Scottish woman named Jade, who took amazing care of us. She bumped us up to business class and granted us access to the business class lounge. Schweeeet. It was awesome.

After our 11-hour flight, we checked into a hotel, showered/changed and headed to a rehearsal dinner...nothing ends quietly for us, now does it?!

Overall opinion: Since the weather was fantastic, and our tour(s) were great, I loved it. London was (aside from the lackluster food), a perfect way to end our tour...I can't wait to go back!