My first full day in London.

I woke up pretty early this morning detirmined to get as much in as possible - as I leave for Paris at 6am tomorrow, so I won't be up to much tonight!

 Old habits die hard, I found a Costa Coffee (Which wasn't exactly hard, coffee stoe every hundred yards!) and stopped for my usual breakfast of Cappuccino and Almond Croissant.. 2 Croissants. If you have yet to try them, I highly recommend them :)

Anyway, thats not telling you much about London is it. Lets move on readers.

Having arrived at the British History Museum after the Galleries had closed yesturday, I made visiting them the priority today. However, they don't open until 10am (Make note of that people. The main courtyard is open from 8am to 8pm if memory serves me correctly, but the galleries with the major displays open 10am to 7pm).

It was 8am as I tucked in to breakfast, so; with time to kill, I went for a walk along the North Bank of the Thames (Embankment to Westminister). The sun was already up, and it was quickly warming up - which brought out the tourists. I made the mistake of crossing to the South Bank via Wesminister Bridge, which is always lost under a swelling tide of tourists snapping Big Ben and Parliment. I tagged on the back of a German Tour, but the guide spoke to quickly for me to translate! I gave up trying and made for the promenade alongside the London Eye. This is another spot people like to come and pretend to be statues! However, the effect was spoilt as at the time I passed by, most were still getting ready.

I kept walking, and eventually ended up passing through the Fleet Street - stopping at St Pauls Cathedral. I took a few pics, but as I'm coming back here in about 7 and a half weeks I thought I'd take more then.

I noticed again today, that there really are loads of Italian and German visitors in London - I've actually begun using Italian more than English when addressing people, I think I've picked up a few new phrases which should make communicating in Italy easier.

Anyway, I digress. Again.

I eventually made it to the History Museum and spent some time in the European and Egyptian sections - which were fantastic. I would deffinately recommend visitors to London visit the Musuem, there is such a good collection to examine. I tagged on the back of another tour for a little while (whilst trying to remain inconspicuous - tourguides don't seem tp like hijackers!). The particular tour I hijacked turned out to be a bible tour...

I'm agnostic, I'm also study history - for fun..(I know geek). So I wasn't to impressed with the guides explanations of, well - everything. I resisted the urge to say something and moved on pretty quickly.

That was pretty much my day, I went back to my room for a quick rest then met up with my travel companions. There's about 40 in total, and only two of us are English! Lots of Aussie..lots of cricket jokes, I can see them coming. :)

My next entry should be from Paris, so you have something to look forward to there.

Until next time.

Carl.