The Traveling Martens

Last days in London

Monday morning (Memorial day in the U.S.) was a Bank Holiday in the UK, so the Burkes had the day off and came with us into the city. Before leaving though, Tim took Mel for a ride in his Lotus Elise through the narrow residential streets and the parks around their flat. The Elise is like a go-cart with a rocket engine and we were sitting about two inches off the ground. Lots of fun!

In the city, there were lots of people out and the weather was great again. We feel like we must be setting some kind of record for consecutive sunny days in London. We went to Covent Garden which is an open square with cobble-stone streets and an open-air market with all kinds of odd British antiques. There were jugglers and performers in the streets. We also walked through Leicester Square, Trafalger Square, and the West End which is where all the Broadway-type shows are. We ate lunch at a Wagamama's, which is a popular Japanese noodle bar in London. We then went to St James which is where the high-end shops that serve the royalty are. Above each door of a boot shop, cigar shop, or whatever, there were signs saying "In the Royal service of the Queen" (or a prince, duke, or whomever). After wearing ourselves out walking around the city, we took the tube back to the Burke's and hung out at their house that night.

On Tuesday, we went back into the city for more sightseeing. Our first stop was the same Thai restaurant across from Harrod's which we went to one of our first days here, we hadn't tried the pad thai yet! We walked past Buckingham Palace and along the edge of a park, and had a parade of Royal horses, guards, and cannons pass us so we followed to see what was going on. We got to a huge courtyard where the Royal band was playing the Olympic theme song. London is bidding for the 2012 Olympics and the band was out practicing. We walked on- Look kids, Big Ben... Parliament... and on to the Thames River. Then back to the Burke's to pick up our bags and head to the airport for our flight to Athens.

posted by Mel and Stacy Marten @ 6:07 AM