London Calling - Day 1

You knew that post title was coming at some point, didn't you?

We got up bright and early on Friday to take a chartered bus to London.  It dropped us off at the Holborn tube station and we set off on a walking tour of "Legal London."  We visited the four Inns of Court, which are sort of like mandatory, co-ed sororities for barristers.

Lincoln's Inn

Inner Temple (and Temple Church)

[Apparently I didn't take any photos of Middle Temple and Gray's Inn.  My b.]

Then we ended up at the Royal Courts of Justice.

We are so in England.

And just like that, in about two hours, our tour was over and our weekend began!  As has become our standard, Babs, Sid, and I hit the ground running.  We knew we wanted to drop our heavy backpacks off at our hostel, which turned out to be in Bayswater.

It's that little blue blob near Nottinghill, on the left.

It might look really out of the way, but our hostel, Astor Quest on Queensborough, was really well located, just two blocks away from both the Bayswater and Queensway tube stations.  We checked in, dropped our bags, and took to the tube.  When we emerged at Westminster, this was the first thing we saw:

"Hey, guys?  Is that...BIG BEN!!!"

Probably one of my favorite moments of the weekend.  Sidney had asked earlier if we had had that moment of, "Oh, my gosh, I'm in England!" yet and I had said not really.  

This was that moment.

Hey, Parliament, what's up?

What a blustery day!

We were all a little worn out from getting up, sitting on a bus, and then walking around with our heavy backpacks, so we decided a doubledecker bus tour was in order.  It was so relaxing to be driven around and have stuff pointed out so I could snap a photo and move on.  The weather was gorgeous, as you can see from above but really windy!

Parliament

The London Eye

Can you tell how in love with ole Benny boy I was?

Westminster Abbey

Cool sculpture!

Putting on the Ritz!

After whirling about London, we got dropped off near the London Eye and decided to climb aboard to get a bird's eye view of the city.

It looks like a backdrop, doesn't it?!

The sun was going down and it was getting chilly, so we decided to head back to the hostel to change for dinner.  We ate at Bocca di Lupo in Piccadilly, and it was WONDERFUL.  Sidney has been getting fantastic restaurant recommendations from Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP newsletter and they've all been homeruns.  After that, we went out in Piccadilly, met up with one of our new pals, and ended up back home in the wee hours of the morning.

Top night, ladies and gents, top night!

Coming Up Next: I climb to the top of St. Paul's without falling to my death!  Stay tuned!