LONDON!

So, after much diliberation and a lot of planning, Mom, DeAnna and I stepped onto a plane in Salt Lake City that took us to Chicago, got on another plane that took us to Philedelphia and finally, we boarded a plane that brought us to LONDON! AH! I still can't believe that we are here, even though we've been here for since Tuesday!

Yesterday, we went into London to meet up with some friends of mine. We went to so many things! We met them in front of Buckigham Palace, at the Victoria Memorial Statue.

(Buckingham! Note the crowds!)

(Victorian Memorial)

I told them 10:30am, although we didn't get there till around 11. Never, ever, ever ever have someon meet you by the Victoria Memorial between the hours of 10am and 12 noon!! The reason for this is because the Changing of the Guard occurs at 11am, and there are HUNDREDS of people EVERYWHERE! Luckily, our friends, Em and Cath are very tall, so we could see them easily. We waited and saw the changing of the guard, because we were already there, and because we couldn't really get out! The bobbies (police) were directing traffic, but mostly holding it as the band and the new set of guards came down the street.

Eventually we got out, and made our way up the Mall past St. James' Park. It was a pretty walk and I had to pinch myself a couple times because I still couldn't believe we were in London

(View of Big Ben through the lawn chairs)

(DeAnna and I in a telephone booth)

(In front of the Trafalgar Square Statue)

We walked to Trafalgar Square and went inside the National Gallery, an art gallery that holds art from some of the most famous painters alive! We saw paintings by Renoir, da Vinci, Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Monet! When we waked in to the room with the Monet paintings, I was floored to see his painting of the bridge over his lily pond! I love that painting! I seriously sat and stared at it for 5 minutes! This is the real deal! We also saw Van Gogh's painting of sunflowers!

(Right outside the doors of the gallery)

After the National Gallery we decided to grab some lunch...we went across the square to Tesco's and bought some sandwhiches. Then we hopped on a double decker bus that took us right past Big Ben (which is actually the name of the bell inside of the clock tower) and the Houses of Parliament. We hopped off by Westminster Abbey and then walked over to the tube (subway) station right under Big Ben. Along our walk we got to stand in the shadow of Big Ben! We got off the tube at Victoria Embankment and ate our lunch in the park.

After we finished lunch we hopped on the tube again to go to Covent Garden.

It is an open air market under the shelter or what appears to be an old train station. There are shops inside and out, and performers everywhere! There are human statues and acrobats, as well as musicians! I bought a scarf there!

We hopped back on the tube to go to the Natural History Museum, where Cath and Em (along with their friend Katie) showed us the giant whale and the giant baby! It was an experience I won't forget!

(The giant whale...and us!)

Too jet lagged today to go out. I'll have another update tomorrow!