London, Baby!

Well I made it here ok, I thought the lady in Calgary wasn't going to let me on my flight because they overbooked and I was checking in late due to my flight from Edmonton. But I got on the flight and about 9 hours later met Gill at Heathrow Airport. From there it was an easy tube ride to find our hostel, except for the fact that I bought my ticket for the wrong zones and couldn't get out of the exit gate! So I payed one more pound and then purchased and Oyster card to make things easier (it's like a tube pass that you load up with money). Yesterday we went to Covent Garden, a nice outdoor busy market place. Ate a healthy McDick's supper then headed to Picadilly Circus, where we bought tickets to the Lion King for Thursday night! From there we walked to Trafalgar Square then walked to Big Ben and Westminster Abby. Then today we saw Madam Tussaud's, the Tower of London, and best of all, a 5 o'clock prayer service at Westminster Abby! The organ played and we sang one of my favorite hymns, Be Thou My Vision. It was a great experience, and we didn't have to pay the 10 £ entry fee! After that I dragged Gill into Westminster Palace, more commonly known as the House of Parliament. If you haven't heard, today Tony Blair announced he was stepping down as Prime Minister and now Gordon Brown is the new PM. Unfortunately we missed all the exciting stuff, but we sat in briefly first on the House of Commons and then the House of Lords (like our Senate). I found it very interesting. Lastly, we took a ride on the London Eye, the huge ferris wheel on the bank of the Thames across from Big Ben. It was just ok, as it poured rain and the view wasn't very good. But Gill and I are pretty impressed with the amount of stuff we have seen/done. Plans for tomorrow include seeing Buckingham Palace and Harrod's department store. Well that's about it for now, I will try to post again before I get to Africa b/c I don't know how long that will take!
Meo