London, Day 3

On Leeza's suggestion, Bich booked tours on those big, red, double-decker buses you see in a few cities, schlepping tourists around to all the sites that you just can't possibly see in a few days (if you're Bich, anyway). I begged Rich for a lie-in on Boxing Day -- it's vacation; I need some sleep! -- so we didn't even grab a bus until around 1 in the afternoon. But it was lovely, and really, we weren't going to get to see all of London on our trip anyway. Guess we'll have to go back ...

And no, we don't remember what everything is. Sue us.

 Yep, we're like teenagers -- up to the top, back to the back.

Oh, hai, big red bus convergence!

Seemed like a fun shot: gold ForTwo, Aston Martin (James Bond's old car).

The Dorchester -- famous hotel

This is called Hand of God, by Lorenzo Quinn. Google it. Very striking piece.

The walls at Buckingham Palace, where people try to climb over all the time

Victoria Station, London's second-busiest rail station

Westminster Abbey

S'up, Winston?

Parliament

Rich loves architectural and facade details

Fleet Street, which used to be home to London's newspapers, and 
is still the shorthand name for British media

Occupy London, near St. Paul's Cathedral

Original City of London, now just a section of modern London

The Shard, which will be the tallest building in the Eurozone when
it's finished this spring

The building on the right is London City Hall, only opened 10 years ago

Tower Bridge

On the bus tour, crossing the Thames ...

Brooke: Take a picture!

Rich: Why?

Brooke: There's the Tower of London!

Rich: Where's the tower?

We hopped off the bus to grab some food, a pint and a picture. Or a hundred.

A modern reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, for Brooke the lit major

On our friend Jenny's suggestion, we hit the Founder's Arms just down from the Globe (her book, her food recommendation!)

Looking down the Thames

Wobbly Bridge! (That's the Millennium Bridge, pedestrians only)

It must be addressed: I have no idea why I look so pissed off in all of the pictures from our trip. Because really? I was pretty damn pleased with myself for being there. (Not sure why Rich looks so serious in this one. He's a focused self-photographer, I suppose.)

Approaching St. Paul's Cathedral

Shout-out to Penn Staters ... sort of ...

The Paternoster: Almost completely empty, due to being in the Financial District on Boxing Day. But it was really beautiful, with an excellent beer selection and, um, enthusiastic service.

Back on the bikes!

That marker in the middle of the street is where you enter the City of London. The Queen can't go in without special permission and a mayoral escort the whole time. Bet the mayor just loves that.

The Savoy, arguably London's most famous hotel

I can assure you, none of us are better than the person for whom this statue (for which I have no good picture except for the base of it, which really grabbed us both) was erected.

Back to Seven Dials, and a bar Rich really wanted to hit.

Then this crazy little joint, which we could have spent days in:

We're not sure how, but Rich got into an argument with a (drunk) guy as we were walking out. He thought he was cracking a joke; his friends had to hold the other dude back. Bizarre moment.

Our dinner stop was a place that, on paper, had no business being as excellent as it was: Masala Zone, a British chain of Indian restaurants.

Indian is often considered the UK's national cuisine -- if it had one. You know, like hot dogs or pizza in the U.S.

The ceiling was filled with these hanging puppets, which Rich found out represent all the guests of a wedding that the owner went to in India

Indian beer

Rose: It cuts heat. (Excellent with Thai, too.)

Chicken curry thali

Lamb curry thali

"The thali is best eaten by spooning a small portion of food from an individual dish into the area next to the rice, and then combining it with the rice, and then repeating this process in sequence. This enables the flavour of each dish to be appreciated individually. Do not either mix more than one dish simultaneously with the rice, or mixing the rice in the individual bowls. Chapattis are eaten with the food by using a piece of chapatti to scoop the food from one of the dishes."

*urp*

One of the stranger concoctions we discovered (though we admit it makes sense): pre-mixed, ready-to-drink cocktails. In cans.

We stopped by a convenience store to grab a bottle of wine (again, pubs close early) to take back to the hotel in case we couldn't find a place for a nightcap. Well, we found a place ... and we'll tell you that story tomorrow.

Edited to add: Eek! Sorry, didn't realize I'd posted more than 70 photos ... and this is after editing.