We checked out the Dali exhibit (across the bridge from Big Ben). I have always liked his art and creativity. After the exhibit I now know that he was pushing his creativity outside the most conventional creative realms. He showed me that to create absolutely uniquely creative works of art, you need to fully embrace your crazy nature. I have much more respect for him now. We managed to sneak a couple pics too.

Afterwards we went up to Licester Square to get show tickets to Chicago. We picked up our tickets at one of those half price places. We paid £24.50 when they were normally about £45.

The theatre were Chicago was playing is in a round-about intersection with 7 roads coming into it. We had never seen such a thing. Chicago was fun to see. Then it took us about 2.5 or three hours to get home, as the tubes were still down and the buses were to full to accept more people. We were passed up by buses several times.

So yesterday was a day we didn’t know what we wanted to do. The tube strike was in full force so jumping on and off areas was not possible. We went to High Street Kensington to get some things to keep Chaunce from getting sick. We ate and shopped at Whole Foods. After we went to Westminster to see the Dali exhibit. It was a collection of his sculptures. I love some of his work and I could care less about others. It was a very cool place. We decided to walk around and see if we could get tickets to a musical. We didn’t have much cash on hand so we got cheap tickets to see Chicago. We had some time to kill before the show so we ended up at Covent Gardens. We ate some subway on this sun dial structure in a round about. The play was very entertaining. The kicker was it took about 2 hours and 45 min. To get back to the hotel the tube was down and the busses got packed full. It was a very difficult experiance. Chaunce was a trooper, I was a bit of a poopie head. We finally made it home about 1:00 am or so. Whew, we have to deal with the tube down today too.

The Underground Tube Strike was in full effect today, well, mostly. We had understood that all lines would be down and that there might be a scattered few that would be up. Fortunately we were heading to an area that had a bus line to it, so we caught a double decker public bus. Note: you don’t exit the front but in the rear of the bus. I tried to exit the front but the driver prett much ignored me.

Had lunch at Whole Foods as we also picked up a couple other things from there. I also tried ginger beer, thinking it would be like root beer. Damn was I wrong. In tiny print at the bottom Heidi noticed that it has .5% alcohol, probably from the firmentation process. It tasted wretched! Avoid that stuff like the plague.

Then we happened to catch one of the rumored few tubes running out to Westminster. Getting off I had a chance to snap a pic of the turnstyles (Joe will appreciate).

This trip took the place of Paris. Bummer but oh well. We got to see where the Queen lives on the weekends. The history of Windsor Castle was amazing. I love King Henry VIII history and he lived in that very castle. Wow! I loved it. Then we moved on to Stonehenge. It was also amazing. At least I can say I have been. PS I am married LOL! It doesn’t feel different yet.

Ok, I thought I would love Bath. All the English movies I love the people go to Bath. It was fun to see it but the bugs loved me and it sucked to have them all over me. We saw some 2,000 year old Roman Baths and I was ready to leave. We got some amazing pictures.

Ok, we now have to figure out how to get arround the city today. They have a Tube Strike today and maybe tomorrow as well.

Yesterday was nice, as we had someone drive us around to a few touristy places on a tour that we decided to do, seeing as how we were unable to get arrangements to Paris made. We went to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and a town called Bath.

Starting at Windsor Castle, we roamed around and I snapped a few sneaky shots on our camera (most places don’t allow photography).

Then we went to Stonehenge. This was my favorite part of the trip. It was smaller than I had imagined. Don’t get me wrong, it is still large and awesome in many ways, I had just thought it would have been larger. I did take many pictures of it though (full 360 degree view of it).

At one point there I noticed a bird flying in the wind. It was flapping in the wind yet not going anywhere. It looked like it was just hovering in the air. An it continued to do it for several minutes straight. It was one of the most bizarre things I had seen at one or the most mysterious places on earth. It gave me goose bumps at one point.

Then we were off to Bath. It is famous for it’s Roman mineral baths that seep up from the earth.

We had some food afterwards at the chain place I can’t remember the name of. We found out a very important piece of information though, lemonade here is not the lemonade we have in the States. Lemonade in London is Sprite. I found out by trying to order an Arnold Palmer (half tea and lemonade) and Heidi ordered a lemonade. The lady asked her if she wanted draft or bottle and Heidi said bottle. They brought her a Sprite and me a half tea and Sprite. We told the lady an she said that lemonade and Sprite were the same thing. Then she explained what lemonade was here and we told her what lemonade was back in the States. We had a chuckle about it afterwards.

Once back into London, our tour guide told us that the London Underground ha in fact gone on strike!! We weren’t sure if we could get home. Fortunately, we caught one of the last tube to our area.

Hungry again, we decided to check out Hell Pizza. It was really good and seemed like a really hip local joint. Definitely worth checking out. Tuesday they have all you can eat pizza for £6. They have a lot of gourmet pizzas that they hand out an the place was packed. We decided to carry out and eat at the hotel.

This was a few days ago but I just have not had a chance to blog. We woke up Monday and I wanted a “forever” memory of being in London. So I got my nose peirced near Kings Road the dude was so cool. When we say we are form So Cal people here drool. It’s a dream for them and London is a dream for us. It’s pretty funny. After that we went to Camden Town. It seems London Punk is alive and well there. They had these markets set up with all the punk style. We had some lunch and left to find tickets to Paris. Well, we didn’t book in advance so we really couldn’t afford it. We decided to buy a tour to Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath. After we set that up we hung out in Westminster. We ate yummy noodles and waited for the sun to go down so we could see Big Ben light up. It took forever because the sun sets about 9:30 here. It was a ton of walking but a wonderful day.

Today we took a trip up to King’s Road to find a piercing place called Metal Morphisis. Heidi got her nose pierced there. It think it looks awesome on her. The guy that did the piercing threw in extra jewelry too. All of that for 20quid.

Afterwards we went up to Camden Town (I have had to ask Heidi to remind me the name of it probably 4-5 times now, LOL). We did some shopping and then stopped an had fish and chips.

While walking last night we saw this cool litle pizza place near our hotel called Hell Pizza. It looked pretty cool, and we might check it out at some point while we are here. They even have a good phone number!

Today we are off to get our Chunnel tickets to Paris. We are planning to leave tomorrow morning and come back the following afternoon.

Sunday was a lovely day. We started out slow and didn’t eat. This made us grumpy so we went to the Orangery at Kensington Palace. I was ready for a huge meal. LOL it was a tea house. Just small cream cheese sandwitches, and bite size things with tea. It was a beautiful place and very happy that we went but needed food. We then walked through the Kensington park and headed towards Hyde park. We still needed food so we found the Lido ( a small grill/deli) and ate a chicken sandwitch. It started to rain and we walked next to a pond in the London rain in Hyde Park. It was wonderful. We ended up on a street called Knightsbridge. This was the posh shops and people. It was cool but $$$$. We needed rest so we headed back to the hotel and had some rest. It was a lovely day and we are about to start another! See you later mate.

With the sun shining and only partial clouds, we decided to head up to Kensingon and Hyde Parks. We walked from our hotel all the way there. Our feet are killing us.

Both parks were absolutely beautiful. It made Balboa Park look like a desert in comparison. The trees and bushes and all sorts of rose gardens. And, we only saw the south end of the park.

We figured out that we really need more filling meals though. The whole day we felt fammished. That is until we got to the Lido Cafe and had a chicken sandwich and salad. Much better after that.