London in a Day

Now that I've been out exploring this fine city, I do wish I had another day here (or that I hadn't used most of yesterday figuring out where to stay).  I have to say, assuming I make it to the airport alright tomorrow, London has been a success of a first city.  And I really couldn't have picked a more beautiful day to be out seeing it.

Not a cloud in the sky for most of the day.  So I started out my day by going to Buckingham Palace.  I was hoping to catch the changing of the guard, but unfortunately...

It was kind of cool to see the Palace again though.  I haven't been here since I was 12, so it had been long enough that it was interesting again.

So, since that idea wasn't going to work, I went with my backup plan.  I found a cafe, got some fruit salad and juice, and went to Hyde Park.

Turned out to be a great place to eat breakfast and do some reading before I took off around the city for the day.  After I was done, I did some wandering around the park (it's a gorgeous park) before hopping on the tube.  Destination: Chinatown.  My cousin Courtney has a friend named Linh who happens to live here in London.  Since she is fairly busy and I'm here for such a short stay, we didn't get to do much, but we did grab lunch.  We went to a pretty good Asian restaurant.  I think the best thing about going to Asian restaurants with Asians is letting them choose what to order.  Linh and her friend chose the dishes, which were things I would not have picked on my own, and the meal was delicious.  Plus, in a day full of walking around the city by myself, it was nice to have a couple people to chat with.

After lunch, we said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways.  I hopped back on the tube, this time headed for Tower Hill.  I didn't tour the Tower of London this time, but I did want to stop by to see it.  I was glad I did.  One of my favorite things about European cities is seeing such old buildings next to new, modern ones.  For example, the Tower and City Hall:

I think this is one of the biggest things lacking in American cities.  You just don't get to see things like this in the US.  Of course, since I was so nearby, I had to see the Tower Bridge as well.  And this picture is for everyone who always tells me I don't take enough pictures of myself when I'm traveling.  I asked a random guy to take my picture for me.  He took 4 of them, all from different angles, just to make sure I got what I wanted.  He was actually fairly funny about it.  Anyway, here's one of them:

From there, I spent some time wandering down the Thames and, on recommendation from one Mike Levy, visited the Tate Modern.  I'm actually really glad he suggested this one.  I enjoy art, and the Tate has a lot of interesting, good art.  I spent more time than I intended to there, but I'm completely okay with that.  Here are a couple I found interesting.

First, an idea for what to do with old school books:

Make art!  Also, what appears to be a pile of millions of sunflower seeds (but is actually a pile of porcelain, handmade sunflower seeds)  by Ai WeiWei.  (Hey!  Something I remember from the Economist!)

Like I said, a beautiful day to be out enjoying the city:

And there ends my exploration of London.  Tomorrow morning, I head off to Barcelona.  I have to say, I'm really excited about this city.  I'm sure you'll get an update from there pretty quickly.

Until then,
KT