Today we woke up at 7am... after not sleeping a wink due to the dance club beneath us. It was a very exciting day. We started off by taking the underground to Green Park. We hopped on a big bus tour of the city(we were the only ones on the bus that early) and we were off. At first London seemed like a dead city- with no one to be seen, but it turns out they all just like to sleep in until about 10 or 11am, because by then everything was pretty crowded. In the morning the weather was nice and sunny abiet a little cold and windy. We rode around London getting color commentary on the buildings we were seeing from the top of our bus until we got off where we thought Big Ben was ( it looked close). So we walked to Big Ben passing another bus stop in the process and looking really touristy. Kristen was obsessed with Big Ben, I think we litterally have over 100 pictures of the building/parliment. Big Ben was super impressive; it has a lot more gold/details in it then pictures can show you. Next since Big Ben is close to the London eye we rode that- Its a ~150 meters tall ferris wheel in central London. They put you in a clear glass bubble with about 10 other people and it takes 30 minutes to go all the way around. We got an amazing overall view of the city- you could look in any direction and see London until the horizon. Then we ate at McDonalds... expensive mistake. They had really strong coffee. Then we hopped back on the Big Bus tours only to discover we were going in the wrong direction! So we got off and went and saw Westminister Abbey anyway. WOW! good planning on our part, this was probably the highlight of the day. There was so much gold and high ceilings, statues, beautiful architecture, tombs, memorials for queens, kings, and darwin. We weren't allowed to take pictures and Kristen was mad about that . So after that we walked by Big Ben again (more pictures) and figured out the bus system and went to St. Paul's Catedral (which is what we were aiming for to begin with). It had a massive ceiling with a large dome in the center and gigantic pillers. Kristen thinks it looks like the capital building, not a church. There was a high up balcony that we had to climb 422 steps to get to(whew!) but it gave excellent views of the paintings on the ceiling and stained glass(it was called like the whispering wall... or something). Not to be deterred by the no picture taking policy again Kristen snuck in a few photographs. We had the option to climb even higher in the cathedral for a city view but opted not to after being in the Eye. We saw where a bomb hit the cathedral in WW2 and nearly hit the altar, there was a patched-hole on the ceiling! They also had a bunch of cool statues and paintings along the ground floor. I lit a candle for my grandparents in St. Pauls, and Kristen lit one for her grandparents in Westminister Abbey. Next we went to the London Tower after crossing the Tower Bridge(not to be confused with the ugly London Bridge). The tower bridge was really amazing with green arching features. The Tower of London is a castle that holds memorabilia now. We saw the traitors gait, the white tower (which we toured and saw various weapons- deciding it was good not to be there "back then" and armor for horses and people), and lastly toured the Crown Jewels (we saw the biggest diamond ever! and crowns made of more diamonds then either of us thought existed- Kristen really liked this part compared to the weapons earlier). When we were leaving it started to rain (a cold rain) and Nick (who chose not to wear his raincoat) was very cold. So we ate again! Everyone said the fish and chips are great in London and YES they are (even Kristen liked it). Then we ate ICE CREAM- "its not fake, its flake" OOO yaaa... it tastes like cream in a cone. Yumm- it was Good! Then we headed down the Thames River in a cruise that was free with our bus tour. It gave great views of the bridges and London Eye/Big Ben... AND IBM where Nick's Dad just worked for 2 wks (they said on our tour it was voted the ugliest building on the Thames... we agreed but couldn't stop laughing). Finally we made our way back to Russel Square to the Generator. We requested a room switch after last night and are now 2 floors higher- so hopefully we will get a little sleep because tomorrow is our second and last day in London. We are planning on seeing Buckingham Palace and Changing of Guards at 11:30am, after checking out of the Generator and into the Hotel Imperial. We may see the Kensington area and Harrod's tomorrow too. We also will meet our Contiki group tomorrow .

Its almost 6:50pm and we both agree that sleep sounds great... lively- we know!

Cheers! (or that's what they say... and by the way "cue"= "line"... made Kristen look real stupid when people asked if there was a cue and I said I dunno... WE R TRY'N).

Nick and Kristen