Cheese toasted?

Let's start with yesterday.

Tourist spots: St Pauls, Millenium Bridge, Tate Modern, Globe Theatre, HMS Belfast, The Monument, Cleopatra's Needle, Nelson's Column / Trafalgar Square and Oxford / Regent St Shopping (basically the whole Monopoly Board).

That actually looks like more than we thought, all in all it was about 8 kilometres of walking over a twelve hour period, so its no surprise we ended up crashing at 8pm. Good news is we're now jet lag free, and felt a lot better today.

The highlights yesterday were easily St Pauls, though it's kind of disturbing to see so much military gaffe in a place of worship. Ness loved the Globe, and Steve did a good job of nodding appreciatively and not nodding off (no, in all honesty, it was pretty cool). Cleopatra's Needle sucked a bit, and the shopping was the definition of chaos, but we had a nice little detour into Hemley's Toy Shop, which was cool.

The tube is very easy to use, and the Oyster cards (or the Octopus cards as Steve called them) are excellent (thanks Gerard and Megan!). Steve is taking notes for the Myki people.

Today's tourist spots: The Imperial War Museum, The Tower of London, Subway (eat fresh!), and the British Museum.

Today it was Ness' turn to nod in the right spots at the Imperial War Museum as Steve frothed over tanks and planes amongst other Military junk. Ness was a bit impressed by the big guns out the front.

The Tower was pretty cool also, the Yeoman tour was fun and interesting, and Steve considered for a short moment (very short) making a go at the crown jewels. Seeing a 500 carat diamond really makes you feel small and poor (Ness was kind of captivated, on the flip side!). Steve also wondered if anyone had ever spiked the punch in the solid gold punch bowl.

Subway for lunch: No avocado or pineapple! Psycho Indian guy who seemed to only have 'Cheese Toasted?' in his vocab.

By now we were pretty knackered, so did the express tour of the British Museum. Ness was slightly disgusted at how the Brits have stolen stuff from everyone else and brought it here, while Steve rolled his eyes. The Rosetta Stone is suitably awesome, as are the Elgin Marbles. Otherwise, lots of mummies, bowls, coins, spoons... museum stuff.

Tonight we're goin' to Harrods - described to us as overpriced and overhyped - and then out to dinner somewhere in Knightsbridge, near Hyde Park. Tomorrow we're off to Bath.

Some more random observations:
- The Brits love their chain food stores - Cafe Nerd, Pizza Express, Pret a Manger... yet we've only seen the Golden Arches twice and nay a KFC in sight.
- Food and booze in the UK seems relatively cheap, as is the train (hey, what more could a couple of twenty somethings want), yet when out shopping, the clothes were INSANELY expensive, and Steve had to hold Ness back from buying a £100 coat that wasn't so nice.
- They stand to the right on escalators... whats with that?
- Pedestrian crossings seem optional.
- Chocolate tastes different here, as does Coke, as does Stella.

So looking ahead, going to Bath tomorrow, and not quite sure what we're doing on Xmas Day. Everything looks like it'll be closed, so it might be Vegemite on bread (no toaster) in the hotel. Woe is us.

Having a ball, miss y'all.

Steve and Ness.