“Flowers are as common in the country as people are in London.”

As I've mentioned, we went into London last weekend. It's about an hour by train, and under 20 pounds for round trip, so it's a very do-able day trip from here. We all had different things we wanted to see and different plans for the afternoon, so we split up. I wandered around the city for the afternoon, before meeting up with Hilary and Liz in the evening to see Avenue Q, which was the cheapest show we could find. Here's some pictures from my afternoon wanderings.

The National Gallery. I didn't go inside, just looked at the building.

Big Ben

House of Parliament, view from Victoria Park. I took this picture several times because it kept looking blurry, but there's just so much detail on the outside of the building that the small screen on my camera couldn't handle it.
The Thames River and the London Eye, also from Victoria Park. I did not ride the Eye this time, as it would have cost more than our theater tickets, which is ridiculous! It was fun to look at and a useful landmark for navigating this part of the city, however.
I found a playground on the South Bank! It was pretty full of small children, since it was such a beautiful day, so I didn't stop to play.
Further along the South Bank, there was this sort of underground skate park with a bunch of people standing outside watching them do tricks. It was hard to photograph the guys in the air, so I stuck with those waiting for their turns.
The whole area was covered with graffiti art- it was neat looking.
Further down, there was a sort of festival, including an area with several birds of prey. They rather startled me when I first looked over and saw a bald eagle standing on stump in a roped off area.
I'm not sure if these guys were a part of the festival, but they were amazing sand artists. They built a living room on a tiny little bit of beach.
And the original reason I took the route I did- the Globe Theatre! unfortunately, it was closed when I got there. :( The gift shop was still open, however, so I was able to get a new bookmark to add to my collection.

I also wandered through an art gallery with a beautiful photography exhibit done by children around the world, checked out Covet Garden, sat in Leicester Square and rode the Tube.

Overall, a good day, and a trip that may be repeated later in the semester.