London Day 1 - Jan 29th

Yesterday we went to London for our first day trip of many I am sure.  We signed up for the trip through the base travel agency which made it a lot cheaper.  Since we are not allowed to drive we had to take a taxi to the Lakenheath base to catch the bus to London.  We left at 8am for London and arrived about two hours later.  Our first stop for the day was the Tower of London.  The Tower of London is a fortress with 20 different towers located by the London Tower Bridge.  The royalty of England lived in the Tower of London for 500 years, and it is full of wonderful history and drama.  Also the breathtakingly huge crown jewels are stored and protected in this fortress.  There is the biggest diamond in the world kept there in one of the collection pieces.  We all took a tour with the Yeoman Warder men better known in England as the Beefeaters.  After that we looked around on our own and saw the torture chambers, royal armorers, and prisoner towers.  It was a really cold day so we were all ready to get inside somewhere to warm up.  Then we all met up at the Starbucks and got some hot chocolate before starting off again.  Since we were tired and we wanted to make sure to see all of the city we got tickets for the big hop on hop off tour buses.  We rode the bus around for a couple of hours and saw most of the main attractions of London.  The London Eye, Big Ben and parliament, Westminster Abby, Hyde Park, and others I am sure.  Although we did not get to drive by Buckingham Palace due to student riots.  The college students of England have been rioting due to the large increase in college tuitions so the police were out in full force everywhere.  Students were all over town protesting I thought it was a fun to witness.  I think some of the girls were getting a little nervous but it never got out of hand.  Plus we were watching history in the making since I am sure it was on the news that night.  When we finished the bus ride and headed back to our meeting place we stopped in for some food at a cute pub.  I got my first fish and chips in England haha..... although I could not understand the lady when she was asking if I wanted peas or mashed peas.  I asked her twice what she was saying only to end in saying I would take whatever she recommended, only to find out later that probably sounded ridiculous since they were both peas. So I quickly found out that they always serve peas with fish and chips don't ask me why.  After dinner we rode the bus back and all slept on the way home.