England - London, May 06

Tulips in Russell Square GardenI had a great flight from LA to Heathrow. I sat next to a kiwi couple who were returning to London after a brief trip to NZ for a wedding. They gave me a run down of the do's and dont's of London. I checked into the largest hostel I have ever been too, The Generator had 800 beds! The British Museum was just round the corner so I made that my goal for the day. It was a massive museum and after an hour of reading, jet lag set in and I was in deep need of a caffeine shot. A double expresso hit the spot. The Egyptian mummies were cool. I walked back to the hostel via Russell Square garden which was packed with people enjoying the tulips and evening sunshine.

Central London from the top of St Pauls CathedralAfter a good night sleep and armed with my oyster card (tube and bus pass), I was ready to take on London. My fist destination was St Pauls Cathedral. I thought it would be a good place to start as you can climb to the top of the spire (150m) and get some great views of downtown London.

The millennium Bridge and St Pauls Cathedral in the distance
I walked from St Pauls down to the famous millennium Bridge. When it was first constructed it had a major problem of vibrating under foot traffic, making some people motion sick. After a bit of sweating from the designing engineers and the addition of some dampeners, I can confirm it was rock solid.

Tower Bridge

I walked down the Thames towards Tower Bridge. The early haze had burned off and it was a scorcher. Great Ice cream weather! When crossing tower bridge I was stoked when the deck was raised to let a tall ship pass through. The bridge also came complete with "dead mans hole" where they used to fish bodies out of the Thames. Its funny to think that the bodies would have drifted all the way through downtown London before reaching the Tower Bridge, Nice!

Tower of London

One of the residents of the Tower
The guys with the funny hats guarding the crown jewels

Next to Tower Bridge is the Tower of London which was the founding castle of London. It was the site of many high profile executions including Guy Forks and Anne Berlin. I also wandered if that was where Mel Gibson got hung, drawn and quartered in the movie brave heart?? I went on a free guided tour which was great as the guide was full of gruesome facts and stories. I also checked out the crown jewels, which would be good if gold and diamonds were your thing.

Big Ben and the Houses of parliamentI jumped on the Tube and headed over to Westminster to check out the houses of parliament. It was real busy there and hard to get a photo without all the other tourists in the way. I found a nice quiet park in the middle of busy roundabout to get this shot.

Cabinet Buildings and the London Eye from St James Park

The thing which really surprised me about London was the number of awesome parks. They are all over the place, well kept and popular. St James Park was a 2 minute walk from parliament and great place for a stroll.

Canary Wharf CBD and the Maritime Museum from Greenwich ObservatoryGreenwich was a cool place to spend a day. I started off with a walk through the old cobble streets and checked out the famous markets. After that I went to the maritime museum before heading up to "the centre of the earth". Greenwich Observatory is the prime meridian of the earth, 0 degrees longitude. There was another fantastic park here, I lounged around in the sun reading my book. Nice!

Andy, Nadia and I at the Pub in Covent GardenFriday was the big Kiwiana Night. I met up with Rob, Andy, Nadia, Barry and Shearer who were kiwi mates of mine currently working in London. We started the night at the Walkabout Bar in Temple, which had everything from Stienlager on tap to Super 14 Rugby on the big screen.. After that we headed off to Covent Garden and took in some more of the London pub scene and a few long island ice tea's. We left there around midnight and headed off on a mission to find one of Robs mates at another pub, unfortunately Robs navigation of the tube is not quite there yet and we ended up on the wrong bank of the Thames. We called it a night and jumped on a bus for home, unfortunately it was the wrong bus. We realized this was not the correct route and we jumped off the bus in a strange place. We walked back in the direction we thought was right and amazingly made it back home within an hour. Good times!

Rob and I on the bus to nowhereThe next day I went to the pub with Rob, Erin, Shearer and Barry to watch the cup final between Barcelona and Arsenal. The pub was packed and it was fun to soak up some of the famous british soccer atmosphere. I had a great few days in London and I was stoked with the hot sunny weather, it was expensive but worth it.