Hutchies Beer Adventures plus Guest 08

we arrived in london wednesday after a rather sleepless night on the overnight plane from canada. we meet bunx in leicester square to grab his keys and go and get a couple of hours sleep til he got home from work. then it was off to the pub to meet some of his mates and watch the champions league semi-final clash Arsenal v Liverpool. they sure do love their soccer here. the atmosphere in the pubs is amazing and the pub is totally rearranged so all the couches and seats are facing the nearest big screen.

Thursday we went into the city and got tickets for the original bus tour of london. its a double decker bus with an open roof so you can see all the sights with audio commentary or a live guide. they include a couple of walking tours and a ride on the ferry. One of the tours was a Jack the ripper tour. our guide took us on the path of jack the ripper and showed us all the locations and the history of the killings. pretty interesting. then we took a ferry ride down the thames.

Fi with the tower bridge in the background (most people mistake it for london bridge)

Friday we attempted to see the changing of the guard at buckingham palace, but found they only change the palace guard every second day in winter so we were taken on a tour for the changing of the horse guard. which was actually alot better because there were not so many tourists and you could get a lot closer to see and hear the changing much better. we then took a ride on the London Eye. its a giant ferris wheel that gives an aerial view of london.
The london eye

Trafalgar square has this most photographed monument in the world

we then caught up with bunx and some of his mates for friday after work drinks

bunx on the left, Paulie on the right

On satuday, Fi's friends Bec and Tony arrived and we all went out for a drink, but unfortunately Fi's bag was stolen. luckily we had backed up our photos that morning.

Sunday was nuts. Tony recommended we go to this place called the church, it is an old converted church. Apparently it doesnt have a liquor licence and runs by selling drinks like a bottleshop, as you can drink in public in london. The church is popular with travellers and the place was totally packed with Aussies, kiwis, south africans and irish. they placed music accordingly and had live acts including a magician midget freakshow, who stapled playing cards to himself. we then caught up with hammo and fergus.

tuesday we met my brother and went to the tower of london, very interesting, full of history. our guide was a yeoman warden. He was awesome, funny, entertaining and informative. These guys take so much pride in being the keepers of the tower. there have only been about 150 yeomen warden's since 1800. it is a job for life. That night we went to the theatre. what's london if you dont go and see a show. We saw the Lion King. The costumes were amazing. Fi loved it.

wednesday we saw the official changing of the guard at buckingham palace. the best bit was at st james palace where the soldiers line up for inspection, just before marching to buckingham palace for the ceremony. this was heaps better cos you actually got to see and hear the inspection and they marched right past us. once they marched down the road to buckingham they went behind the fence and we could not see very much at all.

We have pushed our flight back a couple of days and we are going to have a couple of lazy days relaxing and catching our breath after a hectic week to prepare ourselves for Turkey.