Busy Day

Hello ALL!
We woke up on time (kind of) to get ready and head toward the Marriott London to meet our tout bus this morning. I had planned the walk to the hotel on mai i Pod though Google maps and it was seriously wrong. we raced up and down the road asking everyone we saw if they knew where the hotel was. Not very helpful when you are half awake and only half the people speak English and half of those people are from around the area. FINALLY we made it (just in time) we had about 10 mins so we decided to order coffee from the lobby restaurant. 1 minute before boarding we were informed that we could not bring beverages on to the bus. I had to shamefully ask the bartender to throw out the coffees he had just made and offered to pay anyway. he let us go without paying... i felt like an asshole



The bus drivers in this town are impressive to say the least. Imagine if you will an area where the average street is only one lane wide, divided into two lanes and there are people parked on the side streets. there are only 90 degree turns available into equally narrow streets, you are driving a bus.



The bus took us to a main terminal where we had about 10 minutes to have a snack and drink something before we had to get on the actual tour bus and see the sights.

not enough time for a coffee...



We took the tour bus to around the area where we are staying and learned a lot about the central area of London. including a brand new Condo building that is a couple of blocks from the area where we are staying. for those who live in a major Canadian City you know that High-end condo's go for like 1 or 2 million bucks. I know this chick owns a condo on Sussex that is a penthouse and is worth like 5 million

Well that crazy wash up has nothing on London. We passed by a new building that is VERY close to Buckingham Palace that has the average cost of £22,000,000 and the penthouse, which is owned by a Saudi Arabian Oil Tycoon is worth £148,000,000

... WTF
anyway we continued our tour and saw a lot of really cool places and learned a lot about the area. we even managed to see the monument from yesterday that we never made it back to...



We enjoyed more touring and looking at the richer area of London and we were soon taken to the entrance to Buckingham Palace...



Jasmine was happy because I found her some coffee...





after we finished the bus tour we had lunch at a place downtown and headed toward the Ripley's believe it or not museum but decided not to go because it was like £30 each to get in so we walked back down to Big Ben...



After the whole downtown fiasco we headed home to unwind a little bit and headed toward the Natural History Museum it was VERY BUSY but once we got in we realized why. This building was built in 1881 when architects gave a shit. It was AMAZING







We went into a number of exhibits however it was way too busy and crowded. the main events were the deep sea exhibit and the dinosaur exhibit. the mineral exhibit was pretty impressive too but there are no pics from that because we were getting VERY tired by then.

Jasmine and I went into the Dino Exhibit expeciting something special because there was a HUGE line up, even when we got in it was just another slow moving line up to see this.. It was kinda cool but not really worth the wait...



All in all it was a REALLY long day and REALLY fun. Tomorrow we are going to the wax museum and going to see a movie probably and have our first dinner OUT. Can't wait. until then KEEP IT UNREAL!

Lots of walking and A little History

Day two of the trip.

I had set my alarm to wake us up at 8:30 so we could get an early start on the day. Like my non-vacation life the snooze button was pressed until I felt like waking up. Who cares we are on vacation, we are allowed to sleep in. We gnoshed on some bread and some cheese before we got ready and headed out into the city for a little exploring. about half way down Old Bromton Rd it started raining and we went back to the flat for an umbrella. The weather could not decide what it wanted to do until about 2pm so it was a good move to grab the umbrella. We walked toward Kensington Park Which as far as I can tell is a slightly smaller version of Central park but british.

After a long amount of walking and some on and off rain. taking pictures and videos all along we finally came to Abby Road :D

I was uber excited and there were a lot of people there. It occurred to me: I wonder if there has been a day since that picture was taken where there were not people at Abby Road going gaga just because the Beatles walked across one day in September 1969. I sort of felt sorry for the buses and cars that frequent that stretch of road because traffic was obstructed at least 10 times while we were there and we were only there for like 15 or 20 mins.

We tried to get closer so that I could get a picture of myself on the steps of Abby Road Studio but I got yelled at by a studio worker guy. so we left and had coffee instead.



After the coffee and a quick stop at a Beatles Garage sale-of-sorts we made our way to the Underground and headed to the most interesting part of our day. The Masonic Hall.

We made it in time for the last tour of the day and we were lucky. To say the building is beautiful is an understatement. A giant temple in the middle of the city it was something to behold. Jasmine was all a flutter while we were taken into the Temple of the Lodge. Giant cast-bronze doors weighing 2 tons each and a ceiling mosaic that would drive someone insane if they tried to comprehend the work involved accented only with the whit and charm of our elderly tour guide. We got to look at all the artifacts and library that are available to the public to look at and Jasmine grabbed a souvenir at the gift shop. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures in the hall so we only have this google images image to show you the inside. I also took a picture of Jasmine outside of the hall but I used my film camera so you will have to WAIT... god. you think EVERYTHING is instant?!?

Just Jokin. Here's a picture from Google of the inside of the hall. and it does NO justice to the real beauty.

We made our way home and did a little grocery shopping.
On a side note if you are ever here don't mess with the public transit in London unless you want to relive a scene from The Borne Identity.  check this out...

THEY WILL SEND A GODDAM HELECOPTER AFTER YOU!!!!

We had pasta for dinner and I FAILED hard because I accidentally grabbed sauce with little chunks of sausage in it. but Jasmine was a trooper and just picked around it.

We are going on the hop on hop off tour tomorrow so until then have a good time in Canada.... I miss good Canadian beer.

FINALLY HERE! :D

We arrived at Heathrow airport on time and after a LONG lineup at customs and a short interrogation from a less then cherry customs officer we made our way into the belly of the beast known as Heathrow airport. after getting a little turned around we finally found our way into the Underground station and hopped on the Picadilly line toward our final destination. With a friendly conversation with a local lady on the subway which turned quickly creepy after she offered to put us up in a hotel for free and give us her phone. we got off and found our way to the flat. We decided to take a short nap (HAHA) which turned into a 4 hour sleep. once we woke up we went and explored the local shops for about an hour and bought some small groceries and a Pizza for dinner.

Tomorrow we plan to explore the area more throughly with our cameras and make our way through Kensington Gardens and over to Abby Road so I can get my Beatles NERD on.

Everyone has been SUPER friendly so far and the pizza place we found is quite tasty.

On a financial note I've found that although the exchange rate sucks the price of things is comparable. Example I got a bottle of coke for 1.50 pounds which works out to just about $2 Canadian. NOT BAD :D

Here is a little video for everyone to see our new place :D

Waiting at the airport

that is what we are doing

So Close To the Day!

First of all we would like to say a BIG thanks to all of our friends and family that made it to the wedding and for all the contributions that made this trip possible. I've heard a lot of people don't ever get to actually take a honeymoon so this is definitely appreciated.

This blogspot is getting setup so that everyone and anyone can come here and see how everything is going with all the pictures and movies and stuff that we are going to take while we are there.

To start things off I'm going to link to Jasmine's Youtube videos that she has done up until now documenting our long and tiresome wait.








There will be blog entries and photos uploaded as often as possible so that everyone can check us out while we are on our adventure.

We are going to be leaving in less then 11 days
Neither of us can wait... More to come in the near future.

Mike