London

We land in London ahead of schedule around 11:00 a.m. local time. With an eight-hour layover on our hands, we decide to make it into town to see a few sights.

JP: I promise that we saw more than just the Underground sign.

JP: Ryan was stoked, he'd never been to London, look how excited he is.

We thought $50 (per person) for the day would be plenty.

Heathrow Express: 17 pounds return

JP: Ryan put on his glasses so he wouldn't miss a thing. So let's see how much of London we can see in a short afternoon. 1st stop ...

Big Ben, kids ...

Parliament.


the Thames and the London Eye


Westminster Abbey


howdy, Queen. your palace is purdy

Although we should have probably guessed a major sporting event was afoot by the number of Londoners sporting football jerseys around the city that day, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that the start of the FA Cup Final (Chelsea v. Manchester United at the New Wembley) coincided with our fortuitous detour into a big-screen-TV-bedecked pub called Shakespeare. We grabbed a table right as people started to pour in for the game. Three pints, a "city sampler," and an order of fish-n-chips later, we were 54 pounds deep into a British experience that was pretty well worth it in the end.

Not a bad bonus to our Africa trip.

Did I mention that three beers and two plates of food cost 54 pounds? Yikes.

More London photos can be found here.