Porto to London to Knoxville

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Trip Start Jun 28, 2005 Previous
Entry Trip End Jul 18, 2005

  London, United Kingdom
Sunday, July 17, 2005

July 17, 2005

Although it was a great vacation, we were looking forward to getting back to the United States. We arrived in Knoxville yesterday from London. Before describing London though, I need to say how wrong we were about Porto. The guide book that we had recommended much to do on the north side of the River. The only thing it suggested about the south side were the port cellars. We decided to go and taste some port. Neither of us are real crazy about port, but we did learn that there is a white port that is not quite as sweet as the red. We had a pretty good time tasting the port but we also saw a much nicer side of Porto. The south side of the river was nicer and not quite as creepy at night. We stumbled into some street fair that they were having and overall had a pretty good time. We went to bed early as we had to catch our flight to London the next morning

Big Ben

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July 15--London, England

I think both of us have forgotten how much we like London although today is really a just a whirlwind walking tour. Our flight left Porto and arrived in London on time. We then had to take a bus to get downtown from the Stansted airport. The ride was supposed to be a little over an hour; however, our bus driver said something was wrong with the bus (she felt that it was going to tip over to the right) and we had to pull over and wait for a new bus to pick us up. The new bus finally came and we checked into our hotel.

The spirit of the British people amazed us. We obviously had to ride the tube (subway) and our station was next to one that the terrorists had bombed. The trains were packed and the British were getting on with their lives. There were police at almost every block and we did see many of them with machine guns rather than bobby sticks. Melanie even spoke to one who was very helpful and gave us directions. We also saw many posing for pictures with children and other tourists. It is so sad that it takes a tragedy such as this or Sept. 11 to make you appreciate what police and fire fighters do for society.

As far as touring, we did not get to go into anything we saw, but we did trace our way through London to at least see some of the major sights. We started at Victoria Station and made our way to Buckingham Palace. From there we went to Trafalgar Square and saw the monument to Lord Nelson (who was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar despite the British victory over the French). From there we strolled the political district able to view 10 (and 11) Downing Street, Churchill's War Cabinet Room, the houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. From there we decided to walk over to St. Paul's Cathedral. According to the map we had walked the distance and should have seen the dome in the horizon, but it was not there. Finally we realized that we had walked to St. Paul's Church (the Church for actors). Didn't quite read the map right. Anyway, it was nice enough. We never did make it to the Cathedral, but we covered enough ground to make it an exhausting day. Tomorrow, we head home.

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Buckingham Palace	Downing Street	Trafalgar Square	Westminster Abbey

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