More London...

Okay, so this is taking me a really long time to blog...and argh! we're on Gotland now! So I'll get this through with today, since we'll be moving pretty slowly while we're in Sweden. Thanks for your comments, Grandma Shirley and Leslie! I love you! :)

On Monday morning after I had got ready and everything Dad came in and asked if anyone wanted to go to the market with him to look for breakfast, so I did. I was wearing this silver belt over my shirt, which I ditched later because it didn't work. We bought a bunch of doughnuts or something; then we came back and ate breakfast together.
When everyone was ready, we went to the underground and bought tickets for transportation that day and took a train on the Jubilee line to Trafalgar square or somewhere close by. When we arrived, we went up and there was this cool fountain we took a couple pictures by. Then we walked to the actual Trafalgar square and found this tour company that Dad had bought tickets for a bus tour with. We went inside, and they were just starting a walking tour to go see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, so we decided to go watch that. We had to walk really fast to keep up with the guards and the tour guide; it was a big rush. We saw about three different changing-of-the-guards (if you can make that plural); Two at Buckingham, and two others at this really old palace and the current residence of some of the royal family or something.
We took pictures with some of the guards and then we walked to Pall Mall, where the tour guide told us about Margaret Thatcher being the first women to enter a Gentleman's Club, like they have in London. He said she had to sign a contract that said she was an honorary "man."
There was this guy there who was messing with a three seater bicycle. He was wearing this blue and red plaid shirt rolled up so his forearms showed and these blue pants. He had dark brown hair and a really pretty, straight toothed, white smile; I think he was probably the most beautiful guy I'll ever see in my life. WOW.
After the tour we walked back to the beginning and tried to figure out what we would do next. We wandered around for a little, trying to figure out where we could catch a bus to begin the bus tour. We found one close to Trafalgar square and hopped on and rode it for a really long time, while the tour guide told us all these interesting things about London, like that Mozart lived there as a kid and wrote his first symphony there and that one of the bridges over the Thames is called the Women's bridge because the women built it during some war and that this bridge has a cleaning agent, so it cleans itself every time it rains. There were a lot of other facts, and I actually remember most of them, but I don't want to type them all out, so next time you talk to me, just ask me for one.
I think we got off around the tower of London, because then we walked over some bridge and took some family pictures together. On the other side there was this guy playing the accordion in this tunnel; Madelyn and I wanted to take a picture with him, but Mom and Dad wouldn't let us. As we walked along the street or walkway or whatever, there were all these street performers.
For instance, we saw four guys with a boombox who were dancing or something, but I think they were more like a drama troupe because they acted like they were going to do audience participation or something. We were supposed to go on the Eye, though, so Dad was in a hurry and he walked ahead. Mom stayed and let us watch for a little, but she was still all antsy to leave. There was a gap in the circle around these four guys, and just before we left, the main guy looked over and me and Madelyn and said, "You- come closer to me, please," to fill in the gap, but then Mom made us leave, which we both agree sucked because we were dying to interact with any kind of British person.
After that, I was sort of grumpy, but we went and got our tickets and got on the Eye. The Eye is this great big ferris wheel they have in London that's for some kind of observation deck. It is about the 3rd biggest observation wheel thing or whatever in the world and it goes very high very slowly. It takes about half an hour to go around the whole thing, and when you get back, if you go at about six in the evening, there will be no more funny street performers.
Don't get me wrong; the Eye was definitely cool- we could see everything from very high, like the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. It was pretty neat. Lots of pictures from that. Afterwards we walked across a different bridge to get to this river cruise we wanted to take and we rode that around from around the houses of Parliament to London tower, which was the end, where we had to get off. We walked into some souvenir shop and Mom found this Christmas ornament that she wanted (because we always buy one to remember our trips). Then we walked around some more and Dad wanted to go check out some boats, so I went but it wasn't very interesting and then we walked around on that other famous bridge that they show in all the pictures. All of our feet hurt really bad, so then we took the subway home.
When we arrived in Swiss Cottage, we went to our hotel and Dad got food or something; I can't really remember, but I DO remember that we turned on the T.V. and Collin turned the channel to something really boring and we were all laying on our beds, so I fell asleep pretty early. It was about eight at night.
Melissa and Spencer stayed up till eleven in Mom and Dad's room (we had a parents' room and a kids' room) so at eleven, they rang us twice to get us to open the door. Of course, we were all knocked out and our room was totally dark, but I picked up the phone and someone let them in.
And then I couldn't go to sleep. First, I got out of bed and drank some Emergen-C, which is this fizzy drink that's supposed to help with sickness and stuff. I forgot to say that I've had this nasty, obnoxious cold/cough thing since maybe Sunday or Saturday; I'm all stuffy and I have this hacking cough because there's all this phlegm in my throat or something. So I drank that or whatever and then I was reading Jane Eyre and eating muffins from dinner or breakfast before. I was just reading and drinking Emergen-C or whatever and eventually I woke Madelyn up, so I had to bother her, of course.
First we started talking. We talked about boys and how we wanted to come back to London and how slowly we would move if we were there on our own and what we wanted to do later. I guess that bothered Collin, because he kept telling us to shut up and stuff. (It's around midnight) But I still can't sleep, and Madelyn thinks I'm funny, so we turned it down to a whisper.
Then we started goofing off, kicking each other and pretending to hog the bed, spreading around and stuff. We pretended we were Pippi Longstocking (who lives on Gotland, by the way) and put our feet on the pillows and our heads at the foot of the bed. That didn't last long. We kept this goofing off up for a while and then Collin started throwing pillows. At first we took him seriously, and shut up, but then I started throwing the pillows back.
It was war.
We were chucking the pillows back and forth and I think even Collin thought it was fun by now. Melissa woke up when Collin accidentally hit her, and she thought it was a grand old time, and chucked a couple pillows herself before knocking out again. Eventually we all figured we were going to be dead tired in the morning (plus we were actually tired by now) and we fell asleep.
Well, that's Monday, and I have to go get the bags, so I'll maybe post up to current tonight. I hope.