Eastenders in Training

Photoblog

It’s been two months since our visit to London so I’ll try to remember everything we took photos of.

Bryan and I both arrived via train to Paddington Station, though at separate times since I was there for work a couple days earlier. Neither of us got a chance to take the tube, not because we were scared, but because we took a tour bus around instead.

Our hotel was awful so we spent very little time there. It wasn’t that cheap either (well, maybe for London) so it was incredibly disappointing. The location was good though. We immediately took off in search of that world-renowned English cuisine. Easily found it at a nearby restaurant. I had Fish & Chips...Delicious and greasy. Bryan had the meat pie and fell in love.

The next morning started early with a walk to Hyde Park. On our way we found this little street and thought it’d make a good photo.

We didn’t quite capture the enormity of Hyde Park, but here’s a little taste.

We started walking toward the tour bus stop and came across these standard phone booths. Bryan encouraged me to get in for the photo op. I was trapped in a urine stench for about 30 seconds.

Typical double-decker buses.

We walked down Oxford Street, but the only shop open that early was a DVD store. Which was perfect. We picked up Steve Coogan’s “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” the pre-cursor series to “I’m Alan Partridge.” Bryan gets giggle fits just thinking about Alan Partridge.

We caught up with the tour bus and took tons of photos. Here are the highlights:

Westminster Abbey

Here’s an obvious one, the London Eye. You have to make a reservation on a nice day like this one.

Here’s Big Ben and the House of Parliament. Our tour guide pointed out that the name Big Ben actually refers not to the clock-tower itself, but to the thirteen ton bell hung within.

Skyline of London’s financial center. That crazy looking rounded-top building is the Swiss Re’s London Headquarters.

This was my favorite attraction, Tower Bridge. If we ever get back to London, this is the tour spot I’d hit first. There’s a museum nearby housing the crown jewels.

After our 2-hour bus tour we headed over to Covent Garden for lunch. Nice, fun little market area. Lots of street performers. Bryan got called out from one of them for not chipping in any money. He just laughed and walked away.

We then wanted to see if Oxford Street was going off and sure enough it was. Big crowds made us thirsty.

So we stopped in this little pub on a side street. Here, Bryan contemplates whether or not he really spotted Madonna in the men’s room.

We did a lot more walking around and at some point ended up in an area of town that was very ethnic...we felt like foreigners again.

We found some sort of sports bar/restaurant for dinner and I can’t remember what I had, but I know that Bryan had another meat pie. I do believe that Bryan takes England’s side on the French vs. English cuisine debate.