LONDON, BABY!!!

We made it to London! We started off at 1230 in the afternoon, Friday, to go to the Harare airport to get ready for our 230pm plane. Well, so that plane didn't take off until about 315. Luckily (and not so luckily) we had a 7 hour layover in Jo-burg. We were in no worries about missing our flight. We actually had time to walk around and look in the stores there, have a sit down dinner, and find Spencer some cold medicine. Spencer got a runny nose and cold symptoms on Friday morning. He was miserable during that first flight until we could get the cold medicine.

So anywho...we wait there for 7 hours, and get on our plane at 11pm. I had Spencer asleep in two minutes when I pulled him into my arms at around 930pm. So we worried that he would wake up when we got on the plane. NOPE! He slept until about 2 hours before we got to London. And that flight is an 11 hour flight!!!!! We were very lucky!

Anywho...we got to London around 10am, and then we got into a taxi. Now, I told Tyler when we came here that I wanted to ride in one of those black classic looking taxis at least once. Well, it was like they KNEW I was coming. They had a whole line of them outside of the airport for us! :) So I got my ride, and we made it to the hotel. Then put our stuff in the room and we were off to go see London! For our first day we thought doing a London Bus Tour would be best to see the town and see all the BIG sights. It was freezing but perfect! Here's what we saw, and little fun facts we learned.

This area is the RICH area. I mean some of these houses cost 20 million POUNDS, which in American dollars would be 40 million. The area is Belgrave, and Sean Connery used to live there, and Margaret Thatcher lives there now! Here's her house!

Because she used to be Prime Minister she gets a police guard outside her place. You can't really see him here, but he's about 2/3rds the way back and if he is standing out there, then you know she's home. Pretty neat, eh?

This is the statue in Hyde Park Corner.

The infamous building with greenery growing on the sides.

Couldn't NOT get a picture of one of these babies!

Fun fact about The Ritz: Charlie Chaplin used to work at this one!

Hard Rock Cafe. The first one EVER was here in London, this is where we ate lunch. It was yummy.

The Dorchester. This is where some royals have had their bachelor parties. Where Elizabeth Taylor has been, Nelson Mandala always uses this place when he comes to stay too.

This archway used to be in front of Buckingham Palace. But around 1851 they made a new entryway, so they didn't need this one anymore, so they moved it to this square.

At this place is where Jimmie Hendrix and some others (can't remember them now) recorded their albums.

The most popular shopping street in Westminster.

One store I hope to stop in on this street. :)

I was amazed to see how many statues there were around the city. On buildings and just in odd places. Like these horses.

And this dragon in the middle of the road. It does have a meaning, it's the symbol for London, but it was just kinda out there.

This is Winston Churchill, a once Prime Minister here. He is quite a character I think, and with this story it shows even more. So he told everyone that when he died he didn't want to have a statue of himself anywhere, because he didn't want pigeons pooping on his head. But after he died, they did do a statue, BUT they put a little electric strip on the underside of the top of the statue so no pigeons sit on top of his head! Awesome, right?!?!

Houses of Parliament, amazing.

This black and white building is the oldest building in London. Built in the 1600s.

London Bridge. GORGEOUS!

Mayor's office. Thought the design was cool.

Big Ben, or to be technically correct, the Big Ben clock tower. Because Big Ben is the bell inside this tower, not the tower itself.

Okay so another thing I noticed about the tops of the buildings here, I see so many different kinds of weather veins!!! Here are just a few I saw. I didn't get the seahorse one or the one with a boat on top. But hopefully I'll find some other fun ones later. :)

Stay tuned for other stories and pictures. :) I did this now, because I knew I would forget information (which it seems I already have), and the connection is MUCH better here than in Zim. so it's faster here too. :) Hope you enjoy the pics, we are having fun!