8 Mile Continuation

OK, so we apologize for it being like a month later (ok, like three days) but believe us, it's felt like 18 months.

So, where did we leave off?

OK, the Museum of London, I believe. So we left the Museum of London and headed our long trek, about 3 miles down first Fleet Street and then Victoria back to the station. After passing St. Paul's again, we headed down to the Old Bailey because Shiri wanted to see everything that had been blown up in V for Vendetta. As we walked by the Central Criminal Court, there was a group of people congregating outside. A few seconds after we passed, we heard cheering and turned around to see them hugging two people who had apparently just been released. So random! They literally pulled out champagne and plastic cups.

On our walk down Fleet Street, we passed the Royal Court of Justice (as seen on Bridget Jones' Diary, the second one), St. Mary-le-Bow, some theatres and a lovely Cromwell statue. Upon arrival in Trafalgar Square, we had a little picnic on the grass (until Shiri decided to throw the pigeons some bread, the idiot). We read some weird England and relaxed before walking down Whitehall. For the first time ever, there were no horse guards but we did get to witness the changing of the guard there! One commander and three little soldiers in full uniform. It was pretty cool to watch and we took a picture with our favorite guard there.

Side note: As it was Fourth of July, we were keeping our eyes open for anything "American". And as we were walking out of Whitehall, there was this guy who had a backpack with an American flag and a little sign that read "Happy Fourth of July. We Won!" It was hilarious but sadly we didn't get a chance to chat with him.

We continued down Whitehall, past Inigo Jones's Banqueting House, the War Cabinet, 10 Downing Street where Mr. Gordon Brown now lives until we reached the Houses of Parliament. There was obviously something going down there that night because we kept seeing older men and their wives dressed to the nines going into the building and there was more security there than on a normal day.

And that was, we thought, the end to our day. We would go back to the coach station, ride our little night bus up to Liverpool and that was it. But no. At the station, there were apparently two buses combined into one coach. So about 13 of us, including two little girls (neither who, sadly, look like they have great futures judging by their mothers- the little girls were both absolutely adorable though...) had to wait for half an hour for another bus which would take us to Birmingham. Then at Birmingham (and seriously, who in their right mind wants to go there?), we had to wait half an hour to catch another coach that would drop us off in Liverpool.

Insanity? No, just our lives.