Kent Hotel London

On the 6th I joined up with one of the great free tours. I got to see Buckhingham palace, Big Ben, Dover st (where the prime minister works), Trafalgar Square, Pall Mall, Westminster Abbey etc. Later that night Steph and I went and saw a choir service at Westminster, but it wasn't that great. The church is beautiful though.

The next day I went and saw the changing of the guard which wasn't as spectacular as I hoped it would be ...

... he cracks me up. I am truly sad that I won’t get to see him anymore.

Several of the people on the trip met up later at a pub. Sharon went down with Dane to meet up with them; I waited at the hotel (we stayed at the Imperial again) until he got there. At around 6:30 there was a knock at the door… and there he was!

It was so good seeing him again ...

... deck of the double decker bus = awesome) and then went to the area of Soho to do a self-guided tour. We took the tube Leicester (pronounced Lester) Square (this square is where the Harry Potter movie premieres are held). We did a walk to Covent Garden and around Soho. It was very interesting - Soho is the red light district of London. We didn't stay in Soho long and, on our way back to Picadilly, we stopped to have dinner at an Indonesian restaurant. We ...

... death, controversy, treachery committed by my old school friend, Damien Warren-Smith.
The play finshed with a louds applause and appreciation from the audience, this novice writer included!! Good show indeed!!!
To the Roebuck for celebrative drinks and catch up drinks, since I haven't seen Damien since we were in high school, 12 years ago!!! ****, time flies!!! We ended up getting quite toasty there, Megan follows her nose to a party down the road, leaving Ben, Damo ...

... Markets, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the London Eye. The Camden markets were a lot more quite than last time, but I did go on a weekend the first time. We had a drink in the 'stables' bar, which is actually called Proud. I basically just followed the girls around while they looked at clothes, jewelry and shoes all day, fun;) Nah it was alright and a great day out. The Palace and Big Ben are nothing exciting. I was hopeing to taunt the royal guard, but ...

... All we were able to do in the remaining time before close was to view the Crown Jewels.  Devon had prudently suggested we save this till last, and he was right.  There were no line ups, we are able to take our time seeing these treasures, and we were even able to ask questions to the Warden.  Then we walked home.  (You might be picking up a trend here...) Walked 14.6 km today.  See Rigel's entry. (Went and saw Raffi -- a friend of our landlord who lives in the same ...

And we´re off...find the bus to the hostel or nearby at the airport (an hour and a half ride), the local bus to the hostel (thank you to the kind woman on the small bus in this beautiful countryside village who pointed us in the right direction), drag our bags down a couple quaint roads and get settled in -NAPTIME! Up and out for dinner down the street and the ...

... meal either of us have ever partaken but we are not in London very often and we throughly enjoyed it plus, Belle got a signed menu! We caught a bus back to Oxford street for a visit to Marks and Spencer and a couple of other shops along the strip. Belle got a nice jacket and a couple of other things. We then headed back to Piccadilly Circus and stopped in at Lilywhites, a sporting wear store, where I picked up some things on sale for some great prices. We finally headed ...

... joined us and it was off to play tourist and so we did the Tower of London, Tower Bridge (which I was lucky enough to watch being raised as a sailing ship went through!) and London Bridge. Then a mad dash back to Steve's for a quick shower and change before heading out to dinner with Matt, Joe, Mon, me & Steve. Joe left us after dinner and we headed into the west end to a posh bar for a friend of Steve ...

So, here I am, my room full of various suitcases, clothes flung haphazardly into a pile, medical supplies littered across the floor and the reality has just hit... I'm leaving very soon! In fact Sunday seems to be approaching at an ever accelerated pace and there now seems to be too much to do in far too little time. My flight is 9 a.m. Sunday morning and even my journey to La Paz ...