tower of london and tower bridge

Not much to comment on here, but I'll post some pics. The tour of the Tower of London was given by one of the Beefeaters and was pretty entertaining. Lots of gory details about all the drama, torture, and killings that had occurred there. We also saw the crown jewels (sorry, no pictures allowed). I thought it was funny that I saw a donation box at the end of exhibit. I didn't mind donating 3 pounds at the British Museum which was free to enter. The Tower of London, however, cost 15 pounds to enter. And then they want a donation after they just showed me the largest diamond in the world.

arsenal vs. sparta prague

This has to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life. We had planned to leave fairly early to make it out to Emirates to get our tickets and look around the stadium before the match. Time got away from us a bit while eating dinner near Buckingham Palace and we had to hurry to try and get out there. We had to pick up our tickets at the Box Office, and while in line we could hear Arsenal score their first goal (Rosicky). No matter, by the time we get our tickets and find our way to our seats, we've only missed about 15 minutes of the first half... still plenty of football left to watch.

The experience was amazing. I forget the exact attendance, but it was somewhere around 58 or 59 thousand. All throughout the match you could hear some sort of chant from some part of the stadium. Sometimes you would hear a chant make its way around the stadium like the wave. One section would start it up, and then the section next to them would start to join in.

We got to watch Arsenal score two more goals (Fabergas and Eduardo) and defeat Sparta 3-nil. It was awesome.

buckingham palace (sort of) and surrounding area

It was still relatively early when we left the British Museum. We hopped on the Underground and headed out to Picadilly Circus. We walked down to St. James Park and then through it to Buckingham Palace. We didn't go inside or anything; just snapped a few pics from the outside.

the british museum

Today we decided to check out the British Museum. It was highly recommended and the price can't be beat... free! I must say that it didn't disappoint. The collection of artifacts from around the world, some nearly 5000 years old, was quite impressive to say the least. Here are some pics (will add some more later):

The Rosetta Stone

Cleopatra's Mummy

Artifacts from the Parthenon

welcome to london

Well, we've safely arrived in London! So far we've figured out the Underground, had some traditional British food, popped into a nearby pub for a pint, and checked out Emirates Stadium. We ended up crashing pretty early in the evening (we'd been up for over 24 hours), but not bad for our first day. No pics to post yet, but I expect to have some tomorrow after our first full day in the city.

By the way, Kipp has turned on his blackberry GPS tracker (track us by following the directions here), but for some reason it doesn't seem to be connecting to the network to upload the data. Hopefully he'll figure it out. Try checking back around noon or in the early afternoon (California time). If all goes well, you'll see us out at Emirates to watch the Arsenal vs. Sparta Prague match.

Cheers!

welcome to my blog

Well, it's just 5 days until we leave for London. I set up this blog to share my experiences while on vacation and throw up a picture or two. I'm new to blogging, so hopefully I'll stick with it and be able to post frequently. Now, to spread the word...