June 28, 2007: 23:02

Yes, it's true. I fell and banged up my knee. I also found a bruise this morning on my arm and I don't know how it got there. But what Kristy failed to tell you is that she and I both nearly got hit by a car since we looked the wrong way crossing the street near Parliament. Glad to hear everyone is well there and the puppy is getting along okay. I found my travel sandals today so no falls (unless you count when I tripped walking into the bathroom in our hotel room because I forgot to step up).

I'm going to finish up from yesterday with some pictures and Kristy will post about today later on.


When we visited Parliament, there were a lot of press around because Gordon Brown had just become the new Prime Minister, and also some Torrie switched parties and joined Labour, which was a big deal. Tony Blair got a standing ovation when he finished his last address to Parliament, a rare event that not even Churchill saw at the end of his term in office.






Kristy got a closeup of these gargoyles hanging out at Parliament.















Look, kids! Big Ben! Parliament!

















Westminster Abbey was closed when we walked over to it, but lucky for us we came around the back entrance and snuck in, as there was some school concert going on. So we took our own mini tour for free and on the down low. We walked on the graves of lots of people. We might go back when it is open for real.












Kristy and I both loved this statement at the main entrance to the Abbey. If you can't make it out, it says, "May God grant to the living-grace; to the departed-rest; to the church & the world-peace and concord; and to us sinners eternal life."








There were protesters across from Parliament. Some were protesting taxes, some were protesting the war, some seemed just to be protesting the general state of things.









We then went on the London Eye, the largest observation wheel in the world. We had reserved our tickets online to avoid a long wait when we got there. However, we arrived early so we ducked into a bar for a drink while we waited.







However, it had started pouring when we emerged from the bar. The lady at the ticket counter said we could wait out the rain to go on, but as we had no idea how long this would be and also knew that the large crowd inside the ticket office was doing that very thing, we decided to go ahead in the rain. Notice the raindrops on the lower part of the picture.






At any rate, Kristy got postcard-quality photos once we were over 1/2 way up. Here is a great shot of Parliament with Big Ben at the front.










An aerial view of Buckingham Palace.












Here is the view from the tippity top. Not something Mom would enjoy, for sure. There was a group of 3 Scottish women and their children in the car with us. One of the woman would not move from the bench in the center of the car. There are little tiny flecks from left to right in the center of the shot. Those are people on the ground.





This is a pretty gold eagle Kristy saw on the side of the Thames.

When we were done with the Eye,
it was still raining and about 9 PM (2100), so we made our way back to the Underground. It was at this point that we nearly got run over. Luckily, the hospital was across the way, so we wouldn't have had to go far. We used our Oyster cards to travel back to Earl's Court, where we are staying. We felt like proper visitors, having gotten the hang of public transport in London.

Once back, we stopped into the hotel to change into dry clothing before heading to a neighborhood pub for a late dinner. Amazing thing: I hate guacamole in the States but love it here. They make it with more onions, I think, and better spices. We had chicken sandwiches with chips, which were okay, but the chips were pretty good. Then back to the hotel, where we watched this totally annoying real-time game show, Make Your Play, where people call in to solve word puzzles. This one puzzle was on air for over 30 minutes with no one guessing the answer, and even the hostess was getting bored. There were barely any calls coming in. We stayed up until 1 AM waiting for someone to guess, and finally shut it off and went to bed, even though they were still playing. I checked when I woke up around 3 AM, and they were finally on to another game.

I'm off to bed now. Kristy has said she will blog about today, though I think we will be posting fewer pictures and more text because it is taking a long time to load all the pictures.