Day 3

Jan. 27th

We woke up extremely early this morning so that we could spend time with Chelsea before she left at 9:30. We met her at the tube in Russell Square and searched for some souvenirs for her to bring home. At 10:00 we got to Trafalgar Square for a walking tour of historical London. Our tour guide was hilarious and extremely interesting. We learned about George III and his brother, the Grand Old Duke of York, saw the changing of the horse guard, Buckingham palace (the last working palace in the world), and St. James' Palace (where they announce the new king). After that they told us that we could get coupons for the sites at their office since we took the tour. There was an overly enthusiastic guide there who gave us millions of pamphlets and told us about every attraction he thought might interest us. He talked to us for about a 15 minutes before we could escape. We got on the tour bus and rode until we came to Kensington. Being kind of tired and hungry we decided to stop at a cafe an eat something and watch people go by. We toured the outside of Kensington Palace and the gardens surrounding. We had seen a bookshop on our way into Kensington and thought we would try to find it. This proved to be more difficult then we imagined. We spent a long while looking for  it and got thoroughly lost. We eventually gave up and tried to find the bus stop which took a good bit of time as well. We were going to meet Caryn and Jan at the tube so that they could get us to the pub for dinner. At this point we were so tired that all we wanted to do was take a nap, but we did not have enough time to get home and back. We decided to just ride the bus and rest there until  it was time to meet for dinner. We spent an hour and a half on the bus, which was pretty cold, and each of us fell asleep for a little at some point. Eventually we got on the tube (which was a lot warmer) and went to the pub where we were meeting my Dad's cousin Morgan and his wife Christina. Natalie sprained her ankle on the way there. We ordered our first drinks (hard cider) and had a great time eating, drinking and talking. A real pub experience. Jan get us a taxi on the way home since we were so tired. 

Maria