16/8/12 (Happy Birthday, EJ! :)

We finally got to go to London last weekend and it was so fun! A weekend is not (nearly) enough time, but we did get to see a lot of cool sights. Our little hostel was called "The Walrus Waterloo" and it was about a five minute walk from the metro, and from the London Eye! It was perfect. We literally turned the corner, and we had a perfect view of Big Ben!

We wanted to see as much as possible, so we walked over to Big Ben, and then continued to Buckingham Palace, where we wanted to see the Changing of the Guard, but were too late. However, we had a perfect view of the men's speed walking competition :) That was probably the coolest part for me; getting to watch an Olympic event with beautiful Buckingham Palace as the backdrop.

Big Ben and me :)

 

This was a display that we saw on the way to Buckingham Palace. It's all (or most) of the world flags, and the sign in front says "Peace" :)

After watching the speed walkers for a while (the race takes forEVER!) we headed towards Westminster Abbey. On the way, we passed a park that had lawn chairs and concessions which I'm guessing was a viewing park. Apparently there are more all over London.
After Westminster Abbey, we wanted to try to get in to Olympic park. We heard that it was about ten pounds to get in to the park to view the events on a big screen, and then sometimes people could get cheap tickets for random events. We took a twenty minute metro ride there, and as we were leaving the metro station, there was a policeman telling everyone that there was no more room to even get in to the park! Well, at least we got to see one event up close :)
The weekend was over way too soon, and before we knew it, we were back in Angers. We decided that we have to go back and stay for at least a week :)