Europe: London: Day 2

'ello, chaps!

(I'm putting all my pictures at the end with captions, just FYI- Saves that precious 30 minutes of free internet :D)

Still in jolly London- we still have a whole 'nother day here until we leave the premises for Bath, Oxford, etc. 

Today we did even more sightseeing, including the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace- it was PACKED!!! 

I managed to elbow my way to the very very front, without my family :) And therefore got many amazing pictures. This one chap was leaning on me for a tripod for his camera! It was quite vexing. Yes.

So anyway, after that, we took another incredibly long stroll to get "tea" someplace called Paul's. I didn't even have tea… just a salad! :)

After that, we went to the National Gallery and plodded through those halls- I'm not much of an art person. 

And even after THAT, we went to the National Portrait Gallery beside. Ugh.

After those two STIMULATING experiences, we walked several hundred miles (or so it seemed) back to our hotel and freshened up. 

We hopped on the tube after a few minutes of confusion with the ticket machines and rode to Picadilly Circus, where we browsed Chinatown and found a dark and very snug Taiwanese restaurant. 

We were all (but Dad :D) pretty wary about it at first, because the menu included words like "intestine", "belly", and "foot". How… exciting.

But once the food arrived, it was very great. Pork kebabs and ground pork (tasted like ground beef…) rice bowls are very good.

As I also may add, the sign on the door said, "Please Knock The Door"….. you can imagine our wariness, I suppose.

We left and headed through Chinatown across the street tooooo………. our theatre for LES MISERABLES!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to say, I was pretty psyched going in. But coming out was a whole different experience. The whole performance ABSOLUTELY blew me away. It was better than the two Broadway shows I've seen (Wicked and Newsies). 

Jean val Jean was AMAZING, and so was Javert's understudy, and Enjorlas (or however you spell that) was fab as usual. Marius and Cosette were a little downing, but whatever- the rest made up for it- especially the 5 or 6 year old 4 ft Baby Cosette- ADORBS!!!

After that, we caught the tube again over to our hotel, and here I sit. 

Night.

~Ashley

Here's my pictures! Enjoy :)