This morning we got up early, grabbed a simple breakfast at McDonalds (we wanted Timmy's again but they were closed).  We checked out of the hotel and headed to the train station.  We planned on taking the 8:50am train to London Paddington station, which we did but the train was late leaving so it was more like the 9:15 train to London.  Yesterday's and this blog entry have been written on the train.

Krista just booked us a proper english roast beef dinner with yorkshire pudding, we gorge ourselves at 1:30.

We got to London Paddington Station at about 11:00 then took the tube (Circle Line) to the Victoria station, straight shot no changes and only about 4 stops, from Victoria station we walked to the hotel, roughly 10 minute walk, the way we went.  We have since found a short route back to the hotel.

After getting checked in and settled a bit, like unpacking and getting the bags we were going to carry we headed back to the underground to take the tube to Westminster, we started the Rick Steeves walking tour from the Westminster bridge, where you get great views of the Thames river, parlaiment and big ben.  Note: Big Ben is not the clock, its the bell within the clock.  Since its Sunday we could not enter in to parliament, but we did walk from Westminster square all the way up to Trafalgar Square, taking in a lot of British history mostly from WWI and WWII, with a bit of the history of the monarchy included (Charles I).

They take their history seriously here.  Along the walk to Trafalgar along Whitehall they had full dress guards on horses in front of the horse guard parade, mostly for the tourists to see how things were.  Today these same sites are still under guard but by the metropolitian police for example 10 Downing street is set behind guarded walls as are other sites along the way.  We made our way to Trafalgar square and took in the fountains and Nelsons column.  

After taking in Trafalgar square we took a break at a coffe shop, I've discovered flat white coffee, and like it a lot.  Krista had a hot chocolate because the wind is quite cold today.  After this break we made our way down to Buckingham Palace by walking down the Mall.  We took a lot of pictures of the palace, the Victoria monument and the Canada Gate.  I sort of knew, or was aware that there was such a thing of the Canada gate but did not know it was right outside Buckingham Palace.  It looks like the other gates around the palace, gold on black iron, but it has the coat of arms of Canada as well as the provinces that were in place back when it was built in 1901, the coat of arms for Alberta,, Saskatchewan and British Columbia were added later.

From Buckingham Palace we walked back to the hotel, stopping to grab some food and drinks for the room at a grocery store.  

Tonight we went to the local pub, only a block away from the hotel and we had a second roast beef dinner, with a massive yorkshire pudding roasted potatoes and veggies (parsnips and carrots).

Tomorrow we're going to St. Pauls Cathederal, London Tower and taking in a number of sites along the way.