We started out on the fringe of the city centre due to where our train ended. We almost walked right past St Paul's Cathedral as we were too busy looking everywhere else! Thankfully we happened to look down a side street at the right time, and were able to go have a quick look around. We went in downstairs where the restaurant and gift shop are, and admired the statues carved into the walls. We decided not to enter the upper areas, as we'd like to come back at a later time and do a guided tour.
From here we walked down to the Thames and across to check out the south side of the river. We were thoroughly unimpressed with the National Theatre (just a giant concrete block from the side we saw it), but enjoyed walking through the Jubilee Gardens. Mr finally believed me that the London Eye is significantly bigger than the one in Brisbane, and we decided we would definitely come back to go through the Sea Life Aquarium and check out London Death Trap (a live horror show).
Over Westminster Bridge we walked, dodging the let's-stop-right-here-and-take-a-photo tourists, to find our own quite place to take the necessary pictures and selfies with Big Ben. I was again struck by the size of it ('I guess it's called Big for a reason'), and we both decided the entire building looked like it had been made out of a semi-liquid material tipped upside-down to set, then put back upright. There are just so many drippy-looking spiky bits!
From here we decided to walk over to the Palace. We noticed that a few of the roads were closed off and there were a heap of police officers around. We were starting to become concerned until we noticed the camera crews set up along the roads - we had to ask one of the police officers (those hats look so uncomfortable!) to find out that today is Victory over Japan Day - the effective end day of the war. In celebration of the war ending, there is a parade that runs through the city. Apparently we'd chosen a very good or bad day to explore, depending. We did not wish to view the parade, so we kept to our ever-changing plans of places to see.
Enter St James Park and you enter a world of beautiful big old trees, endless ducks and geese, and adorable friendly squirrels. We stopped many times to coax over the squirrels with the false promise of food, just to get a closer look. This one even nuzzled my hand a bit before running off!
We continued through the park to Buckingham Palace, and quickly realised we wouldn't be getting close to it today. Hundreds of people packed onto the grounds and nearby roads in order to see the parade, so we decided to take a quick photo and continue on our way. We will definitely be back in the next week or two to do a tour (it is open to the public for a short time while the royal family are away for the summer), so expect more pictures later!
From here we walked up toward Soho, stopping in at Fortum & Mason for a quick look around. We only wandered the first two floors before deciding we needed to leave before we bought things (no point buying anything until we have moved in to the new place!). We stopped for lunch at a pub, where I had a burger and Mr had a steak and ale pie - it looked so very British!
We spent the next few hours walking back and forth across the city, seeing random things and nothing in particular. The theatres stuck us by how ordinary they seemed - walk along and all of a sudden there is the entry to a theatre next to you. Compared to Brisbane, where the theatre is a landmark in itself, the fact that they are so common and integrated into the city was quite bizarre.
After walking over 20,000 steps, we decided it was time to head back to the hotel and rest our poor feet. So here we are, again relaxing on our bed, with the sun still shining strong at 6.15pm. Tomorrow we plan to Skype our families and spend the day doing not a whole lot - Mr has a job interview on Monday, and next week will be very busy with organising things for the new place and hopefully crossing a thing or two off our bucket list.
So far, we love London!
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