June 13th

My daily ritual starts.......wake up at 5:45am fidget around and try to go back to sleep....then get up and have a shower in the small box its like a little room that is about 1.9m high and the shower head is about a the 1.6m mark - at least it works and it is hot! And wearing thongs are a must - wouldnt know what i would pickup with bear feet - but you see all the people wearing no thongs!!! Dodgy!!

Went on a "free" walking tour today. (What the free part entails is that the guide only works on a tips basis - so technically you could walk away from the tour for free but you feel guilty and tip them - i gave them all my change that was small so about 3 or 4 pound - there was about 20 people in our group - so you work the math out!)

Caught the Tube to Hyde Park Corner where it started. There is a war memorial there - dedicated to British / American / N.Z and and Australian memorial was being erected. Took lots of pics of that.

Went to Buckingham Palace - the Queen was home as it was her birthday celebrations and there was people and police everywhere!

Saw Pall Mall - the street on the Monopoly board. Its very posh... toured Trafalgar Square again but was better with a guide. Saw a military fly over for the queen.

Also the Gentlemans clubs were pointed out and apparently in one of them they have a 60 year waiting que!! you only get in when a current member dies! Nice to know!

Went and got some lunch at a place in Covent Garden called Verve with some of the other that were in the tour group after it ended.
Most of the others that came to lunch were American - they think you have to tip! I told them that Australians rarely ever tip and they were shocked! I just laughed....

Me and two American girls Lizzy and Beth (both staying in the same dorm room decided to go back to Westminster Abbey and do a tour but turned up 15mins to late...


Saw the funniest thing though. Walking back to the underground about 100 + people that were nude riding their bikes through the street! Dont know exactly what that was the purpose but it got peoples attention! Got some pictures as well! - Dont worry there was heaps of people taking their pics! Funny as!

Went back to the hostel and did some washing which was good to sit down and relax after walking for so long during the day...