Oh yes I did!

(Monday, March 21, 2011)

Harrods.

Oh yes I did.

Truth be told, I walked through and made sure I didn't touch anything. I couldn't afford to touch anything... I did stop in the food floors (yes, floors, as in two of them) for lunch. I wouldn't bother doing it again, I was not terribly impressed. Maybe if they cut the prices in half, but it certainly wasn't worth the price...

I did get to see this though...

P.S. My birthday is coming up...

And in case you couldn't see the sign in the corner, here it is...

Next up, the Houses of Parliament. When I arrived I learned that the Parliament here is not like at home. You can't just go in and walk around. You can go in and watch the debate, or not. That's it. I chose not. So I carried on.

Parliament and Big Ben.

Across the bridge is the Aquarium and the London Eye. Cool. First the Aquarium, I have decided that Aquariums are all pretty much the same. Some are a bit cooler than others. So here is some of what I saw...

Sharks!

Yellow Boxfish. Look! It's SQUARE!!

Seahorse. Did you know the MALE gives birth?!

Turtles! There are lots of turtles.

Awww... Cute little poisonous frogs!

They have lots to see at the Aquarium, it was good and I would go again.

Next up, the London Eye! It lives right next to the Aquarium and you can buy a ticket for it with your Aquarium pass and save a few £. 

The Eye!

 

Those are not ants! The Eye is really, really, high!

It was fun, you get to go around once and it takes about 20 minutes. You go up in a 'pod' that holds up to 25 people, the pod I was in only had about 12 people in it so there was lots of room. The Eye doesn't stop to let you in or out of the Pod, you have to get in while it's moving, which was a bit surprising. It's not hard though, it goes pretty slow and you just step on. They only stop it for people with disabilities.

I have noticed that a lot of things are handled differently over here than at home. Over here, you are expected to use your head, and if you don't, well, tough luck for you. The first time I noticed this was on the Metro in Paris. At the end of the platforms there is a sign that says something like 'Don't Enter, Risk of Death'. No gate, no alarms, no guards. If you go past the sign, you could die. That's it. End of story. At home there would be signs and barriers and alarms and guards and everyone would be making sure that you weren't going where you shouldn't. I like the Europe method better. But they also don't seem to want to sue the pants off everyone either...

OK, after the Eye, I headed back to the Hostel for some dinner and to get ready for the Ceremony of the Keys tonight at 9:30. After unpacking all my goodies from the day I headed out on the Underground again. I arrived at the Tower at about 9 and we were let in at 9:30. The group was lead by a Yeoman Warder and he gave us a brief overview of the Ceremony and what we were going to see. There were no pictures or video allowed so you don't get to see any of this. The guy in our group that got caught taking pictures with his cell phone sure got a talking to! Actually, he got a good yelling at. The Ceremony was awesome! If you ever get a chance to go, do it!

After the Ceremony I headed back to the Hostel and went to bed. It was a day of a lot of walking and it was time to go to bed.