Day Two and Three

Up and going early, we were met by a rain, rain and more rain - I know, what did we expect in London but honestly - rain every minute of the day, 45 degree days and a bit of a wind made for a damp, chill you to the bone day.

We forged on and walked over the London bridge, down through Dead Man's Hole (a spot off the London bridge where dead bodies would often wash up after being dumped in the Thames River - ewww!) and went on the London Tower Tour.

Tom enjoyed the torture chamber area (double ewww!) while Angela and I preferred the beautiful Crown Jewels! The movies they had of Queen Elizabeth's coronation were awesome too.

After a long, wet walk back to our hotel, we opted to dry out and chill out at the lounge and ready for the Earth Hour dinner special. As it was daylight savings time day - London decided to sponsor an Earth Hour where everyone in London turned off their lights or used minimal lighting for one hour. It was awesome to see all the lights suddenly dim in London. The restaurant in our hotel where we enjoyed a wonderful meal was lit primarily by candles which just added to the ambience and excitement of the Earth hour concept. It was even a bit disappointing when the lights came back on.

We considered going to the London Eye as we were to leave in the morning for York but we were exhausted (knackered as they say in England - actually we were still jetlagged) and didn't fancy going out into the torrential rains that were pummeling London. We instead retired to our room for a warm bed and a good book. Ahhh.

The next morning Tom shouted out all of a sudden -" holy crap - is it really 11:35 a.m. we have to get out of here." We scrambled, packed as fast as possible and were downstairs and checked out of the hotel by 12:15 - amazing - I still don't know how we did it. At first, I was worried that our reservations for the train to York were for 12:35 (as originally planned) but Angela checked our trip itinerary on trip it and made us all relax a bit when she found that it was 2:35 not 12:35. Phew! We caught a taxi to London's King Cross station, grabbed lunch at Burger King - and by the way, it does not taste the same as our Burger King in the US, though the fries are better than ours, the meat and condiments had a bit of an odd flavor. In addition, they had NO ketchup - never have, never will - what is that anyway?? Fries with no ketchup - for shame, for shame.

We found a spot to sit, watched the pigeons walk all around the inside of the train station and awaited our train. We were a little concerned as we needed to know the Platform number that the train would come in on and we soon found that they only post the platform 5 minutes before the train is ready to leave. It was also super crowded in the train station and on the train and we were much relieved that, thanks to the help of Keith, Angela's boyfriend Michael's uncle - who advised us to get reservations in advance of coming to England. In fact, Keith saved our vacation when our tour and plane tickets were canceled three and 1/2 weeks before we were to leave for England - thanks Keith - you helped plan a wonderful and so far - stress free trip for us!

We had a beautiful train ride to York (and they have free wi fi internet on the train so Angela caught up on her skyping - hmmmm - I wonder who she is skyping with all the time, could it be .... Michael. ) Yes, so far Angela lives from internet connection to internet connection. We found they have hotspots all over England and you can purchase internet service for England and Ireland and pick it up in numerous spots (we are now living to see if we can get a connection in Galway). Yes Michael, she thinks of you just about 24-7 -- cute!