London

Finally a country where people speak English as a first language!

This was the first time we would be in an English country in 10 months; it was great. Our flight left Friday night and we were to return Sunday night. Not that long for a city like London, but Brian is running out of vacation days so that was all the time we had.

Buckingham Palace

London is a wonderful city; really cool and so much to see for sure. Friday night was pretty much a write-off since we arrived so late unfortunately. We just settled into our hostel and looked at maps and etc. to plan the weekend. Saturday we got up early, had some hostel breakfast and headed out for the day. We saw the Buckingham Palace and the infamous guards who don't move, the parliament building and Big Ben. Big Ben is actually the bell inside the clock tower not the clock tower...just to clear that up. We wandered along the river bank checking out the Millennium bridge, Tower Bridge and London Bridge. We wandered into the Tate Modern Art Gallery; which was the first modern art gallery for us to see. It was kinda cool. I can't remember what we had for lunch, but it was OK.












After a glorious day of wandering around London, we headed back to our hostel to meet up with one of our friends, Alyssa Michalsky. By pure chance, she was in London on the same weekend with her University art class and we found out about this only 2 weeks beforehand! Unbelievable! Anyways, we met up with her and her friends to go out for supper (Italian) and hung out with them for the night at their hotel pub. It was so wicked to see one of our friends again! We still can't believe how that worked out.

On Sunday we ventured around the city again. Our friend Mike was going to some exhibition at the National Art Gallery so we wandered around the gallery, since it was free to get in. That was really cool. We don't like most art, but we both like impressionist stuff a lot. Art by Van Gogh, Monet, etc... It's pretty sweet. Brian's favorite painting was this one by Pissarro:

Millennium Bridge

After checking out the Gallery we went for an

English Breakfast which includes eggs, toast, bacon, sausage, baked beans, and tomato and is delicious. Washed it down with some tea and we were definitely feeling mighty English. From here we headed to Cambdon Town which has a huge market catering to hippies and alternative fashions. We got to see some crazy mohawks and just a lot of "unique" people. It was interesting. From here we headed to Speakers Corner at Hyde Park. Basically it is a place where people come, stand on a chair, and rant about anything and everything they want to. Most of the topics dealt with the U.S., Religion, and Racism. It was kinda cool for a bit, a really different experience for sure. From here we went back to the airport to fly home.

Clock Tower with Big Ben

Parliament Building


Our flight home was delayed by an hour or so and by the time we got to Zurich we had missed our last train back to Baden. Luckily there was a special train that night but didn't leave until 2:00 in the morning so it was a pretty late night.
Great time though. Loved London.

Tower Bridge