"Bring out the Holy Hand Grenade!"

Current London time: Thursday, July 13, 2006, 10:55AM.

So here we (Contiki tour group) are, on our way to Paris via Dover, and we're stuck in a traffic jam thanks to a car accident. Joy.

Anyway... Yesterday was our last full day in London. First, I went to the Tower of London. Housed in the Tower of London, among other things, are the Crown Jewels. Not surprisingly, they're rather well guarded. In amongst the Crown Jewels are also the Royal Orbs (or whatever they're called) that are presented and used during coronations. Is it just me or do they look strikingly similar to the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch?! I had to keep myself from laughing too loudly. It was too funny, so I bought a plush replica to take home.


After the Tower of London, I walked across the Tower Bridge, the big famous bridge that many people think is the London Bridge. No, that's one bridge over and is a pretty standard looking bridge.


Crossing the bridge, I continued on to the London Dungeons; a guided 'fun house' type place detailing the gory history of London. It includes historical events like the Plague, the London fire, and Jack the Ripper. It was pretty interesting... and more amusing thanks to all the teenaged girls getting scared so often and screaming. Hehe.

At night, we went to the West End to see a showing of Blood Brothers. It was well done and entertaining. I enjoyed it. Holly was in a production of Blood Brothers back in high school. I'll have to ask her which part she played, since I kept wondering throughout the show. (Update: The narrator character was split into a choral character, of which she was a part.)

So we're through the jam and on our way to Paris again. Paris is going to be a crazy experience because it's Bastille Day tomorrow.

Now for a couple random thoughts:
- London. I've gotten used to the whole driving-on-the-left thing, but it's still very odd to do the walking-on-the-left. In the Underground, you occasionally have signs that say Keep to the Left, which is fine and makes it easy... but just walking on the street passing someone, I want to go to the right, so they get confused...
- Driving along the motorways and coachways, every so often I see horses off the side. Unfortunately, they usually go past too quickly to get a good picture for Holly, though... But every once in awhile, I get a fluke shot, like the following:


And now, we're in Dover and crossing the UK-France Frontier (Border) Control. Time to go.

That is all.