eight

I woke up to a cloudy, cool and rainy day. At 1pm I left Harrogate and went to York by train. Once I was in York I wandered around the train station for a while and then caught a taxi to the bus station where I was to catch a National Express Bus to London Victoria again for a stay in London. It is 334 Kilometers to London.

I got to London after 10pm that night as the bus was running late. I met up with a longtime pen friend of mine that I had been writing to for about 5 years. It was exciting to finally meet her. We had to walk to Underground and my bags were really heavy by then. We then caught the underground to Arnos Grove and then we caught a bus to South Gate. By the time we got to their house it was midnight.

London was invaded by the Romans in AD 43 and settled down near where London Bridge is today. In AD 60 the town was burnt to the ground and got rebuilt. During the dark ages London was mostly in ruins, but was built up again. In the mid 850's the Vikings came and took over London. By 878 King Alfred the Great forced the Vikings to make peace. London then grew over the years.

The first place Ray and I went to when we got up was to Regent Street where Hamley's is and then we went to Oxford Street where we saw a whole lot of other shops. At the same time I saw Piccadilly Circus. The famous statue of Eros was erected in 1892 as a memorial to the Earl of Shaftesbury.

We then went to Earls Court to try find a friend of mine that lives there. I eventually found the place where she works at only to be told that she was in Cape Town. Talk about bad planning!!!

Ray and I then departed and I went to Leicester Square to China Town. Having been to Hong Kong in my teenage years it was very emotional. I had a great time buying all sorts of Chinese things to bring back to South Africa. I bought some Dim Sum which are Chinese snacks and took them back to Ray's house for my supper.

I got back to Ray's house late that evening and made my Dim Sum. Boy was it good!!! I bought too much though, so I had to eat the rest the next day.

I woke up to a very overcast and rainy day. Ray and I went to see the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace was built in 1702 by the Duke of Buckingham as his London home. In 1761 the Duke's son sold it to George III. In 1774 it was renamed the "Queen's House" as Queen Charlotte resided there. When it was passed to George IV in 1820, Nash made alterations to the Palace. A new Suite was added facing west into the garden and it doubled the size of the building. Queen Victoria was the first monarch to take up residence in Buckingham Palace in 1837.

I did not see much as there were thousands of people there. I heard the band play music though which I enjoyed. We then we off to McDonalds for lunch.

We continued on our way to Marble Arch which was designed by John Nash as the main entrance to Buckingham Palace in 1827. It was moved to it's current place in 1851. Then we went to Regents Park for a bit of a walk.

After this we met up with Ray's friend called Sabina. She took the two of us to London Zoo. I saw all the elephants, birds, cats, camels and hoofed animals. We saw the Web of Life which was amazing. You see different insects and rodents in their own habitat. We also saw the Moonlight World which was very dark, but at least you see all sorts of animals that you would not normally see if you went to the countries that they come from during the day. We ran out of time or we would have seen more than all that.

Ray and Sabina left me and I went to the River Thames. I saw the Big Ben and House of Parliament.

In 1844 Parliament decided that the new Parliament Buildings should have a clock tower. In 1854 the clock had been designed and built, however it cracked when they tried it out, so they melted the bell down and tried to make the bell a different way. It took 20 days for the metal to solidify and weighs 13 tons. The four dials of the clock are 23 feet square, the minute hand is 14 feet long and the figures are 2 feet high. The bell rang for the first time on the 31st of May 1859. It cracked once again, but was fixed and has not given another problem since.

The House of Parliament buildings were originally occupied by the Royal Palace of Westminster which burnt down in 1834. The buildings were designed by Charles Barry and built between 1840 and 1888.

I then took a walk across the Westminster Bridge and walked past the British Airways London Eye in London's Jubilee's Gardens. I did not go on it that evening though.

The London Eye is a wheel that goes round and round for you to see the view of London. It is the largest of it's kind in the world. It is 135m (450 feet) and weighs 1600 tons.

I carried on walking instead to Charring Cross Bridge and then got very lost. I eventually found my way to Charring Cross Tube and went back to Ray's house.

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