London: Day 2

Yesterday was a long day. I probably got back to the hotel around 11pm which equals roughly 8 hours of walking, so I didn't notice the Marriott turn-down service until this morning. The curtains were drawn to block out the morning sun and overwhelming view of the London Eye I failed to notice yesterday.


All my trash had been taken away, towels replenished, and tea service with chocolates and cookies were brought in for the morning.


The ground outside was wet and the rain was still coming down lightly. Even at 6:00am, a few people were outside rushing around with brightly colored umbrellas.


Surprisingly, I was able to open the windows. It was relatively cold out, but not unbearable. If it was bright and sunny, I probably would have went out exploring right away, but the early rise (courtesy of a Marriott wake-up call) was really to get a few hours of work done.

Just when I was trying to get up the energy to go out into the gloom, I got a special call all the way from the states. Mind you, it was after 2:00am there. Needless to say, I felt bright and cheery for the rest of the day regardless of the weather.

I didn't have much of a plan for today. I just headed out of the hotel and tried going the opposite direction from yesterday. First stop was one of the free entry buildings that is part of the Westminster Abbey. I took a few photos inside before I saw the "no photography" sign. No flash of course.


The main sanctuary costs tourists 15 pounds to enter, but it's free for worshipers. I thought about an attempt to get in for free, but I figured it wasn't a good time to piss God off with Kilimanjaro in my immediate future.



From there, I walked to Westminster to see what the namesake of my hometown in Orange County was like. There were lots of amazing buildings everywhere. (Buildings that were not doubt older than my entire country.)


I took a loop around London and had a curry lunch at a little restaurant with a kitchen that appeared to be underground. All the food was brought up on a dumb waiter. The food server asked me where I'd been when he saw the map out on the table. He recommended I make my way to Buckingham Palace; "the Queen's house" as he described it. I found my way to the "red road" which lead right to the palace. The following three photographs were taken along the way:


The palace is definitely worth seeing. You can't get very close, but there are lots of great vantage points to snap pictures from.

The marble steps up to enormous statues in front of the palace are definitely a sight to behold.



There were two sets of guards. I only snapped pictures of the ones tourists love to see. The others had rifles and were clearly without humor, so I spared them the flash of my camera.

On the way back, I took a few photos of the beautiful landscaping along Birdcage Walk adjacent from St James's Park before it was time to head back to my hotel to pick up my bag and head to the airport.

The foliage on this particular tree was so beautiful.


I've never seen anything like it. London was very green everywhere I went.


Here's a picture of me on the train heading back to Heathrow. Notice the map above.


I'm on the plane now, pre-typing up this blog post so it's ready when I arrive in Nairobi. Dinner was just served.


I didn't reserve a special meal for this leg of the trip, but I'm on for a special meal on the flight back to London. Getting served early is totally worth it. Tonight on the plane I had a curry meal. Not too bad, but certainly not anything to write home about.

We're just now reaching the northern edge of Africa, still 3,200 miles to Nairobi.

A little over 5 hours to go! Now's my chance to finally see Slumdog Millionaire.