London: Day Two

London Day Two was a pretty excellent day all around. Yes, my foot still hurt, but beyond that, yesterday was pretty much put well behind me.

The night before, I had checked on the first tours of the morning, and so set my alarm to have me up, breakfasted, and in central London at that time. It went swimmingly. I was tired enough the night before that I had gone to sleep plenty early, and sleep quite deeply, so I was up and bouncing with my alarm. Wasn't thrilled with the breakfast offerings (I'm finding breakfast to be quite an anemic affair in Europe thus far), but remembered the hunger of yesterday and scarfed down a quick bowl of cereal. I checked out and was on my way! Knew the right bus to take this time, and where to get off, and was on my tour bus easy as pie. As it turns out, I could have saved myself some of the stress of the previous night by just reading my ticket- the ticket was valid for over a year- the 48 hour countdown wouldn't start until I exchanged it on the bus! So I was good through Sunday, should I care to go cavorting after my friends returned to their respective countries.

Now comes the picture heavy part. Are you ready?

The Marble Arch

I got on at the Marble Arch. Apparently this area is where all of the public executions (hangings) were carried out for hundreds of years. A few interesting phrases came about from this:

1. The hangings were a hugely popular form of entertainment for the masses. Thousands would turn out (hangings were only held every few months, and multiple prisoners would be executed at a time), and the over-consumption of alcohol was commonplace. Thus, the effects of such an indulgence were dubbed a "hang-over." Not only was it the effect of alcohol hanging over from the night before, but it was the lingering effect of the hanging.
2. The prison were the condemned were kept was almost a mile away from the hanging grounds, and the men would naturally not feel overly cooperative during the transportation. To counter this, it was standard policy to get the men insensible with drink so that they would be compliant as they were walked down the road to their deaths. Thus begins the phrase "One for the road," the road in question being the one that leads from what is now the Old Bailey to the modern home of the Marble Arch- or from the medieval prison to the gallows in London. 
3. Finally, the guards that drove the wagon that watched over the prisoners had to be stone sober- thus, they were literally "on the wagon."

The regular double-deckers, as seen from the top deck of my sight-seeing bus

All of the fancy car dealerships line Hyde Park- including Aston Martin!

We drove past Buckingham Palace (though not in front- buses are deemed commercial vehicles and thus not allowed to drive across the... East Front? It's actually the back of the house- the front faces the gardens. But they don't want to call it the back, so it is I believe called the East Front. Or whatever other direction it faces.), and then over to Parliament, with Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. 

Crossed the Thames for the first of many times that morning, and had our classic view of Old Facing New- Big Ben and Parliament directly opposite the London Eye. 

We wound our way past Downing Street (not on Downing Street- it appears to be cordoned off. Security, one presumes) and through Trafalgar Square for the first of many times. I cannot tell you how many pictures I took of Trafalgar Square, and how hard it is to actually get a good picture. I blame the extreme height of Nelson's Column. Also, it had started to pour at this point, so I moved under the little bit of cover at the front of the top deck, and was unable to get as many good pictures from that point. 

Nelson's Column, as I believe it is called. Many people think it is Napoleon standing a top the column, because of his stance, but it is actually Admiral Nelson himself- he lost an arm in battle, and kept his sleeve pinned over his chest. Moreover, Nelson and Napoleon were archenemies, so a statue of Napoleon would never have the place of honor in a place dedicated to Nelson. 

Fountains in Trafalgar Square

Rainy London!

From that point, we wound our way through the City of London. This is actually distinct from London the city- the City of London is a little 1-square mile chunk that is the original Roman settlement. The boundaries are marked by dragons! Central London is made up of the City of Westminster and the City of London, and London itself of 30-something boroughs. 32? It's the number of pods on the Eye of London, at any rate. 

This is what most of London would have looked like pre-Great Fire. All wood. Can you see why the fire spread quickly?

Dragon! Also, London Bridge!

We went past the Tower of London (which I explored on foot a little the next day) and crossed the iconic Tower Bridge- twice!

Fun note about the Tower- when it was originally built, it was in the middle of the Thames. But when the Thames was wider and shallower, it build up a horrible stench. One year during Victoria's reign, it got particularly bad, and she had a genius architect figure out how to build inwards. So now the Tower of London sits on the edge of the Thames. Which explains why I honestly thought that the prisoners were kept in the Tower Bridge up until last weekend. Because I knew it was in the middle of the water...

I got off briefly at Leicester Square (apparently pronounced Lester), which is where they have held all of the Harry Potter premiers, and dabbled with the idea of getting lunch, but it was freezing and no place appealed to me, so I hopped the bus for another half go-round and then took the Metro to meet these lovely ladies...

The ladies

The Katie

The Clarissa. And the New Hair. 

We found an Italian restaurant straight away for lunch. Very yummy food, pretty snotty waiters- at least one of which was actually Italian. I myself had my first every gnocchi- in a wonderful gorgonzola cream sauce. Oh yes. I think I'm a gnocchi convert, and now I'm absolutely dying to make the pumpkin gnocchi in gorgonzola cream sauce recipe I have saved on my computer.... But that's for another season, on another continent. Must concentrate on Europe right now...

We checked into our hostel, after wandering around in a complete circle to get to the right street. We literally chose the street about 10 feet to the left of our intended street, and walked counter-clockwise (read, further to the left) in a huge circle for about 20 minutes until we reached the proper street. We are silly that way. We had our own room at the hostel, one actually meant for 3! It had a twin bed and a queen bed. Katie had a very early flight, so we let her have the single bed, to minimize early morning disturbances.

We had a show that night- Our Private Lives, starring Colin Morgan. A-ma-zing. Totally twisted, but then, it is billed as a black comedy.

Must end now so I can post before my internet runs out!