London tourist for an afternoon

Yesterday afternoon I took a break from the ever so painful search for a job to play tourist in London. The lovely weather here has continued, and it was a warm and sunny day. I caught the tube to Waterloo station and started my tour of famous London sights with the London Eye. For anyone who doesn't know, this is a very large and very slow moving ferris wheel on the south bank of the Thames. I had no intention of actually going on it, due to the cost, but on top of that the queue was huge.

I walked along the south bank, past the London Aquarium, and over the Westminster Bridge to check out Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. They're adding a visitor centre to the Houses of Parliament at the moment. I next went and inspected the exterior of Westminster Abbey. Again, I wasn't actually prepared to spend money so I didn't go in. Maybe some other time. I then went walking down Whitehall, but I went down a side street and found myself beside St James's Park. As I walked along whatever this road was, I noticed there were a lot of police around. It would have been impossible not to notice, there were that many of them. I learned later that there was something with the horse guards going on that day which the Queen would be attending. Mystery solved.

From the map I had, I knew number 10 (Downing St) had to be around here somewhere. I did see a fortified entrance, which I thought might be it, but I wasn't sure. I considered asking one of the many cops about, but decided not to, just in case.

Next, I walked down The Mall (beside St James's Park) towards Buckingham Palace. It's certainly not the most impressive building in London, but the Queen hangs out there so you're got to take a look, don't you? The changing of the guards is in the morning, so I wasn't there to see that, but they did do some marching up and down while I was there.

Next I walked through The Green Park so I could get on to Piccadilly. Walking along this road, I looked in the windows of a few shops, but the only one I went into was a Japanese confectionary shop. Here I bought sweet red bean paste sandwiched between two packcakes. It cost 1.50 and it was quite nice.

About this time I got a call from my sister who I was to meet at 5:30pm. It was about 4:30pm, but she'd finished work early and wanted me to come and meet her sooner (back at Waterloo). I walked as far as Piccadilly Circus, where I could have could the tube to Waterloo, but I thought to myself "it won't take that long to walk back".

On I walked, managing to take in Trafalgar Square. I ended up back on Whitehall. Walking back down, I did find Downing Street, but couldn't specifically see number 10. The whole street is blocked off, with gates and security and cops.

I kept walking, back past Big Ben and back over the Westminster Bridge. It was around 5pm so it had taken me a bit longer than I'd thought, and I'd kept Genevieve waiting. Oops.

We were also meeting Damien (Gen's husband), but while we waited, Gen showed me her work. She works in a hospital in the area (St Evelina's). She was on call, so had to stay close by, which is why we met in there for dinner.

Damien arrived sooner than expected, so it was a bit early for dinner. We killed some time sitting on the grass in a park near the Eye and writing a postcard to my grandmother.

We went to dinner at Yo Sushi, a sushi train place, with a rather large conveyor belt. I'd never actually been to a suchi train before. All the plates are colour coded to indicate their price, so you take what you want and they tally up the cost at the end. I decided to give myself a limit of 10 pounds. The food was very good, and 10 pounds got enough to fill me up. I did think, as I was sitting there having my dinner, that a place like that would be welcomed in North Ryde!