Day 9

As the trip goes on - I can definitely tell the enthusiasm is dwindling - mainly due to us both being sick. Hopefully we'll both feel 100% tomorrow but we'll see.

We begrudgingly woke up today in time to head towards Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard. It was a short brisk walk outside and amazingly enough we were able to see the sun for the first time from London – so it does exist! We arrived about 30 minutes before it was scheduled to start and clearly we weren’t the only ones with this plan. It was slam packed! We eventually found a piece of the gate where people in front of us were short enough for Lora to see through/over and settled in. As it got closer to time more and more people packed into the area to watch the show. Eventually it started with some guards marching in – they weren’t wearing the typical red coats – I guess their winter gear is more of a grayish coat. There were a lot of formal to-dos and marching around. Eventually the band came in from somewhere in Green Park and marched through the front gates as well. It’s hard to really describe unless you’ve seen it or read about it but it was impressive. The timing was spot on with everything they did. We were serenaded to multiple songs – Indiana Jones theme song / Star Wars theme song / Eye of the Tiger / You Give Love a Bad Name / etc. After about 45 minutes the exiting began in multiple waves with the whole procession taking roughly an hour. We left afterwards and headed to the London Eye.

It was short train ride to the London Eye – only 2 stops but we were feeling tired and the day had just begun. We waited to get on after picking up some tickets and the line moved pretty quickly. I calculated that in 1 hour they move roughly 1600 people through the Eye. It takes 30 minutes to go all the way around and presented a great view of London. We snapped a bunch of pictures and enjoyed the view. It was a fun ride around the tallest Ferris Wheel in the world – almost 450 feet tall. After we got off we headed north along the Thames to a Japanese restaurant called Wagamama – known for their noodles. We each ordered a different type of noodle dish and enjoyed them both. I had my first Tiger beer here and it was quite good (I used to briefly own a Tiger beer t-shirt that Jason Wyatt left at my house many years ago – Lora eventually made me get rid of it though). After eating we made our way to a nearby drug store to stock up on some more medicine – we were out after constantly chowing down as many pills as the label would allow – the London drug stores are much more conducive to Americans than the French ones – they even had some brands we recognized like Halls, Vicks and Sudafed.

We then made our way back to the hotel to rest before dinner. It ended up being another short night - we made it to bed by 9:30pm but stayed up watching TV for a bit. Before that though we made our way to a Japanese restaurant nearby and had some very good sushi. 3 of the rolls we ordered were great while 1 had entirely too much lettuce in it and was quite a letdown. On the way though we passed by yet another R8 (although it could have potentially been the same one parked in front of our hotel a few nights ago) and this time I had Lora take a picture of me opening the correct driver’s side door. Oh how I wish I could afford one. Tomorrow we are headed out to see a matinee showing of Wicked the musical. We also plan to see Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (even though it’s just a reconstruction) and the famous Tower Bridge earlier in the morning. The rough plan is to end the day after the Broadway show with a short rest and then a nice dinner. Tomorrow is our last full day and it looks like the great weather we’ve had the entire time will continue. Lora says she’s ready to be back home but it’s just because she’s sick - I could use a few more days to see more of London I think though. I think we could both definitely move over here or to Paris after some serious language lessons.

Overall, what an amazing vacation thus far! I can barely believe all of the things we’ve seen and done since Christmas.