London's Calling

We finally made to a fully English speaking country, which was really awesome. We were lucky enough to get a hotel for all three nights in a suburb of the center of London. It was actually very nice and a fair enough price for England during the olympics. We were worried we'd have to go clear up to Manchester or out to Kent. We wandered around Saturday night, plenty of fun things were going on all around the city because of the Olympics. It was the weekend so everyone seemed to be on Oxford street shopping, eating, hanging out. It was a lot like SLC during the olympics, plenty of places for people to gather.

We got up Sunday morning to go hit some museums and sites and just by accident walked onto an avenue with a bunch of people crowded up and down the street. It was about 10:30 am. The women's marathon had been last Sunday morning, I had checked the race on internet. But we were in a pretty good spot to see the men's marathon so we stuck around. They passed us at Hyde Park corner about seven minutes after the start at 11:00. They were still mostly in a pack and moving pretty fast. I think my run in London that morning had looked very similar and nearly as fast (minus the large cheering crowds, the actual speed, the official bibs, and of course the extended length they did 26.2, I did about 2 - both have "2" in it), other than that it was just the same. It was actually pretty exciting. They passed that point again later, but we had a date with Buckingham Palace and the British Museum so we missed that. We got to as many things as we had time and energy for, then we took a ride in London's Eye (big ferris wheel). It's a beautiful full view of every direction over London and goes much higher than the one we rode in Paris. We usually eat ate a big breakfast at the hotel and then found somewhere to eat a late lunch or early dinner. Other than that we were on the move all the time. Monday was about the same, and we finished up dinner, wandered down to Picadilly Circus for more shopping. There were a lot of shops with olympic gear going on sale by Monday. We were both nearly exhausted, our feet especially. But, by far, London was the most exciting destination on this trip. It was nice that it worked out to be there at the end of the games.