Look kids, Big Ben, Parliament

I only wish we had more time to spend there. We flew in on Friday night and out on Sunday night and it was a whirlwind tour. We saw more in one weekend than a lot of people who have lived in London a long time. The weather turned out to be better than expected. Clear skies on Saturday so it was perfect for taking a ride on the London Eye. The London Eye is a huge observation wheel with pods that fit about 10-12 people. It rotates very slowly like a big ferris wheel and on a clear day you can see pretty far across the city. We had some great views and took some nice pictures of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. I was very excited to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace so we headed there about an hour before hand and waited. There were thousands of people there and we did our best to get a good spot. The time finally came and wayyyyy off in the distance we saw 3 normal looking guards march across the front of the palace, do a lot of high kicks and swing some guns around and then 3 other guards marched off. THE END I looked over at Dena and said, "that was lame." I guess I was expecting something more involved like the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. But I should have known that no one does it quite as well as the US Marines. Semper Fi ! We went to the London Bridge and the Tower of London which is more like a castle than a tower. This is where the crown jewels are stored and they are very impressive in person. We took the underground a lot because things are pretty spread out and there is just so much to see. We also rode a double decker bus on the top deck just for 1 stop so we could say that we did. haha We met up with some friends on Sat. night for a nice dinner and then went to a pub afterwards and it was a lot of fun. Sunday we went to the national art museum and the portrait gallery and both were amazing. We also took a trip through Winston Churchill's war bunker. This was really cool to see and learn about what took place there. I think we spent more time there than Dena wanted to, but I was fascinated. Churchill had a phone line that connected him directly with President Roosevelt. The interesting thing about the bunker is that if a bomb was dropped on it, the bunker was not protected enough to keep it from collapsing. Luckily enough for Churchill, Hitler was never able to find out its location. Needless to say by the time we left London our feet and backs hurt and we were wiped out. We need to go back sometime to see the things we missed because there is so much to see you just can't get it all in a weekend. We had a blast and could definitely see ourselves living there. Next stop Ireland!!