National Ware's European Vacation, Part 1

October 29, 2007

Friday we arrived and it was fairly uneventful, except that we had the yummiest fish and chips at this pub called The Black Cap. It was really nice to have real food after all of that airplane food. Although Tami and I did have quite an adventure going to pick up our London Passes. We were riding the Tube (subway) back and we did not know the train doors were closing. Tami made it in (well most of her did).Her shoulders and my purse kind of got caught in the doors. After a little tugging, I got my purse out and Tami was free from the doors inside the car. Yes, on my first day in London I had to ride the subway by myself. We met up at the next stop and all was well.

Me and Tami at Piccadilly Circus to pick up the London Passes:



Saturday was very busy. We started off at the Tower of London, which was really neat. We saw the Crown Jewels, which were more spectacular than I imagined. We then walked across the Tower Bridge, which gave a great view of the Thames. We then went to Borough Market, which was crazy with people. We bought a lot of food and enjoyed a lovely picnic in the church courtyard nearby.

View of the entrance to The Tower of London:



We then went to a place called Vinopolis, where all of us tasted wine and absinthe (see Tami's previous Vinopolis post for an absinthe explanation). Greg, Tami, and I also tasted whiskey, which was pretty good, but very strong. We then went back in time at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. The theatre was built as the original Globe was before it burned. It was a very interesting tour. Then we had proper British tea at Shipp's Tearoom. We had little sandwiches, scones, clotted cream, jam, and of course tea.

We walked across London Bridge, which had beautiful views of the Tower Bridge. No pictures were taken of London Bridge as it is, in fact, a very boring bridge.



We then ventured over to Piccadilly Circus, which is like New York's Times Square with all of the lights and a lot of traffic. We made our way to a barbecue place called Bodean's, which had ok barbecue, but a great atmosphere. Greg and Tami even showed us a part of London that they didn't mean to on the walk over (we saw people with very little clothing to give you an idea).

Mom and Dad at the Fountain in Piccadilly Circus:



Greg and Tami had heard that the UGA Alumni Assoc of London was meeting there to watch the GA vs. FL game. It was so much fun. There were a few GA fans but more FL fans there to watch the game. There were also a lot of Miami fans and NY Giants fans that were there, since the game was the next day. Tami screamed herself silly, since she had not gotten to see a game yet this season, she had no voice the next day. Greg made a friend from Manchester who was very interested with anything to do with America. Greg got to show his America trivia skills. The Manchester men were rooting for FL but very nice to us, we even converted Greg's friend by the end of the night. They hung out with us all night. Tami even made a friend, named Harvey, who writes for the Sun Sentinel in Florida. In case you didn't know.....GA WON!!!!!!!!! We made it back to the flat around 2 am, luckily for us, the time changed here that night and we were able to get in 1 extra hour of sleep.

Us at Bodean's to watch the game with Greg's friend and the other GA alumni, Stacy:



Written by guest Blogger: Jenny Ware