All You Need is Love

... Sorry about the 3 posts in a row. I'm keeping my posts/ thoughts separate. More for me, less for you!

I had my day alone in London today. I am having a BLAST with Pam, Jason and Justin, but it was kind of nice to go and do things at my own speed-- which started with me sleeping in until 8am. Woke up, rolled out of bed, dragged a comb across my head...

I LOVE the Undeground. It made my day SO much easier! I hopped on and went to Westminster area to walk around-- I didn't want to *do* much, because we're hitting everything tomorrow and Thursday as a group. I walked to the London Eye, to Big Ben (heard it ring a few times, too!), around Westminster Abbey, down to #10 Downing street (which was, of course, blocked off-- and had extra security since British elections are this week) and just wandered! I LOVE IT.

I visited the *free* National Portrait Museum and National Art Gallery-- thanks to Rick Steves, I got a good taste of some British art and history. I then had my *townie* moment. Maureen suggested that I buy food for lunch from the grocery store (if I can find one) and make myself a lunch- most sell fresh bread, sandwiches, salad, etc. MUCH cheaper than a regular restaurant. So I did. I took my £3 lunch (drink, sandwich, "digestives" and apple) to Trafalgar Square in front of the museums and had lunch there. No ipod, no book, just me and my food. I watched everyone walk arond-- LOTS of French tourists, lots of Londonites-- and just enjoyed my lunch in peace.

I then side tripped to Buckingham Palace (though we'll probably be seeing this tomorrow too) and picked out my sitting room-- since I'll be sharing a bedroom with Prince William soon :)

I was then adventurous and took the Underground to St. John's Wood-- where Abbey Road was!! Again, probably doing this tomorrow too, but I know that I would have been crushed if we would have had to cut this stop out of our tour. It was SO cool-- a shame that the gate in front of Abbey Road Studios is covered in grafitti, but it was cool to walk on the crosswalk and imagine the Abbey Road cover. It was also pretty funny to watch the Asian tourists try and take the Beatles' picture- one tried to stop traffic (HA!), one had a tripod set up, and the 3rd attempted to cross without getting ran over. Then they rotated. Awesome.