Busy weekend

I had a really fun time with Looo this weekend, and we covered a lot of ground in a very short amount of time. While I did revisit some of sites I've been to, we also went to a few places I hadn't seen but really wanted to go to. I was a little proud of myself acting as a tour guide, and felt like Looo was able to sample just about everything that London is famous for.

Friday night, one of the sports guys had a party to celebrate 40 years of working for the company. It was in Walton, which is way the heck away from anywhere near central London. Our train took at least an hour to get there, and Looo and I got there at about 11, when everyone had already had quite a few and the party was beginning to wind down. We had fun though, as quite a few people started singing some old classics once the DJ had left. I found it interesting to see what songs are popular with the Brits. Besides Bohemian Rhapsody and American Pie, there were a couple that I didn't recognize. Because the place was so far away, we had to take a cab back, which cost us £22.

Calling Saturday a full day would be an understatement. We started at the Tower of London, which was a really cool place. The "Beefeater" tour guide was really good and made quite a few good jokes. The guides are actually high ranking military men who now live with their families inside the Tower. There was a lot of history at the Tower, much of it bloody, and there were quite a few places inside to see, including the crown jewels and Sir Walter Ralegh's prison quarters.

We then made our way down to St. Paul's Cathedral. I must say it is probably the most beautiful of all the churches I've visited, and that's saying quite a lot. The ceilings are just stunning, and there's also a crypt with loads of famous people either buried or memorialized there. I didn't realize until we got there that tourists are also able to climb to the top of the dome. So Looo and I climbed 530 steps altogether to reach the top, which had a really pretty view of the whole city, better than the view at Monument.

We rewarded ourselves with a pint of good ale and some traditional English food at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a favourite pub of Charles Dickens and Mark Twain. From there we made it to the British Museum and then down to Trafalgar Square, popped into the National Gallery for 10 minues before it closed, and then walked down to Westminster Abbey and Houses of Parliament.

Our day was not over, though, as that night we went to a pub in Soho before walking through Old Compton Street (considered the gay district) to a club in Holborn. They played a lot of good indie rock music and some classics as well, and by the end of the night everyone including us were out on the dance floor just hopping around like no one cared.

On Sunday morning we saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, the highlight being a Beatles medley played by the traditional band. Making our way through St James' Park to Waterloo, we then took the tube to Hyde Park to see the crazies at Speakers' Corner. We walked all the way down the park to the Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall, before going to the Victoria & Albert Museum and Natural History Museum. I hadn't seen much of the V&A (as we call it) before, and it was really cool to see how (mostly rich) people lived in Europe for the last few hundred years. They also have some massive plaster casts of statues and monuments from around Europe, as well as a good collection of Asian artefacts.

Somehow we made it to all these places in less than 48 hours, and I was really tired afterwards, but it was worth it. I also had some interesting conversations with Looo about how London compares to the rest of Europe, and I think I might post those thoughts later.