Bonjour, Mes Amis!

Well I am now safe and sound in Paris and have had my first day on the town, but I will save that for a later blog.  I wanted to update you guys on how I finished up in London before I get into Paris (there is so much to see here!).  I know some of this material is repeated but wanted to include some pictures to go with it.

• I forgot to include that last Sunday, Tom and I went bike riding and he showed me the main sites in London and gave me an idea of the city layout. We decided to get off and take a look at Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace

• On Monday I went with Tom's roommate's ("flat mate" in Australian) girlfriend to see Harrods.  After Harrods, we decided to get tea for my first time, the English way.  After tea, we went on to the Victoria & Albert Museum which has a lot of famous of art and whatnot.  It also had this awesome open courtyard in the middle and had these chairs which were a blast!

Tea - English Style

Big Ben

Globe Theater

• Tuesday (July 3rd): I went with Cameron (one of Tom's roommates friends who was also in town) and Danica to go see more of the downtown area.  On this trip, I saw the House of Parliament and Westminster Abbey.  Afterwards, we crossed the River Thames to see the Royal Festival Hall, National Theater, Globe Theater, the Tate Modern art museum (where I saw my first Picasso), walked over the Millennium Bridge to St. Paul Cathedral and had lunch in Covent Garden.  After lunch, I went with Cam to go see the HMS Belfast, the Tower Bridge and took a tour of the Tower of London.  Although the cost was quite expansive, I enjoyed seeing the crown jewels and William the Conqueror's castle which pretty march started modern London as it is known today.  When I returned, I convinced Tom to come with me and walk the 20minutes to go see The Beatles's Abby Road crossing and picked up the best fish and chips I've ever had.
  
  

  

  Tower Bridge
  

  

  Abbey Road

• Wednesday (July 4th): I started out the 4th by heading over to the British National Gallery where I saw my first Monet, Seurat, Vincent Van Gogh, the Rosetta Stone, parts of the Parthenon and many other items.  After my cultural side was heading to a close, I walked on over to Benjamin Frankin's house however wasn't able to get a tour because they were booked (it was the 4th) so I decided to head on over to an American bar and get a Budwiser to celebrate before my trip to go visit the American Embassy.  I was a little disappointed that they Embassy didn't have anything planned on the 4th for people walking by but had to get back to catch the train to Paris.

Benjamin Franklin's House

Rosetta Stone

• Just wanted to end this blog entry with my favorite spot in London.  In the middle of Hyde Park, there is a spot called "Speaker's Corner" where people can come and talk about whatever political/social issue they choose.  To me, this was politics in rare forms and I LOVED IT! Although this speaker was talking about an injustice in the Middle East that I didn't know a lot about, I envisioned people talking about America and could envision our country's leaders trying to persuade the English in the Colonies to separate from Great Britain.

Speaker's Corner

Hope hope you guys enjoyed the pictures. Sorry it took me so long, had up download them from my camera before I could upload them here.  My friend Brad Stephens is flying in on Saturday and will try to upload a new blog when we leave Paris.  Gota get some sleep for a LONG walking tour with Tom tomorrow.

Jay