Friday afternoon and evening

After our jolly spin around the London eye, we went back to our hotel in Westminster, checked out and took a cab to our new hotel in Victoria- The Luna Simone. It's really cute, and I'm exited for the breakfast tomorrow! The bacon here is to die for. The Luna Simone also has 3 beds, two twin and a double, so I get to sleep on a bed for the first time in three nights... Yay! That is if I get any sleep. As most of you know, Mum's a mighty good snorer. Dad is also quite talented, and Ryan's learning well from the masters. So I spent most of last night listening to a choir of snores, grunts and snorts. Dad's gonna kill me when he reads this }:->

After checking in, we went down to Harrods, which I really enjoyed. I even bought a shirt there. For those of you who aren't familliar with Harrod's... It's a multi-level, high end store that sells a bunch of different brands under one roof. Think luxury Sears. The food hall was really neat. I'm posting photos now... www.flickr.com/sarah1313

After Harrod's, we made our way to Fish Hill Street, where our walk called Haunted London started. We were the only ones who showed up, so our tour was personalized. Our guide, Corriana, was alot like Auntie Karen!  You guys are probably wondering how we convinced mum to go on this walk... I told her it was called ''Flowers & Towers". She actually wasn't too upset with me when she learned the truth. We saw where the fire of London started, learned of ghost stories while passing old churches, and Corianna even sang a neat little tune about body snatchers.

Our tour conveniently ended at Tower Hill, where we had tickets for the centuries old Ceremony of the Keys,  which consists of the Yeoman Warders locking up the tower for the night. They've been doing this for 700 years at precisely 10 pm, except for one day during WWII when a bomb fell on the tower, causing the ceremony to be 6 minutes late. The ceremony lasts about 15 minutes, and happens with perfect timing, as the bell tower tolls, the Chief warden shouts " God save Queen Elizabeth", and we all yell " Amen". It's really neat. The keys are called Queen Elizabeth's keys and when she moves on, they will be named after the next monarch, hopefully William. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures of the ceremony. I'll have a few sketches done of it when I get back.

Tomorrow, We have our rescheduled photography tour, the Queen musical and another walk, this time Blood-Curdling London. Check out  flickr for the pictures. I've got to go to bed now, but the choir's singing at their best, so it might take a while !

Sarah