Please, Mind the Gap

Ah, London. I did a lot, saw a lot, spent a lot. On my first day there, I hopped in a tour that went around to the main famous buildings; saw Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Big Ben, Westminister Abbey, the home of Prince Charles, the Royal Guards...the main "London" things. It was a nice thing to do on the first day because it helped me get my bearings. After that, I just kind of floated about doing things that I had written on a list. I was in London for about five days--flew in Oct 24 and ferried over to France on Oct 29. Some highlights: (For the complete story, see my book...jk)
1. The Underground
If anybody knows how to do public transportation, London does. Wow. The tube was sooo efficient, sooo easy, soooo reliable, comfortable (the seats were totally padded!), and they were safe too! Each day, I bought a day pass and hopped on and off the trains to my heart's content. By the end of my five days, I was almost a pro. I knew which trains went which directions, which stations were where, and yes, I minded the gap between the train and the platform.
2. Camden Town
What started off as a venture to find a store turned into almost an entire day's adventure. I hopped of the underground at Camden station, walked up the steps, and found myself in the alternative part of London. Punk, Goth, Hippie, Ethnic, Druggie--you name it, it was there. I stumbled upon several awesome markets while wandering down the street. The largest of them was completely amazing because it wove in and out of several buildings. One minute I would be walking in the rain (yes, it rained while I was in London--what a surprise) and the next minute I would be inside a open building. The entrance I took to get into the market was lined with little ethnic food stalls. I gave into the delicious smells and bought a taco from the Mexican stand. It wasn't a normal taco though; it had peas in it. But it was good. And it was cheap.
4. Crown Jewels
Talk about secruity. I went to the Tower of London to check out the Crown Jewels (took a tour of the castle too). After waiting in line for a while, I finally got to enter the vault--yes, vault. The doors were probably a foot thick and all metal and very high secruity-ish. And when they mean jewels, they mean JEWELS. To view the actual crowns, they had two moving walkways on either side of the case which took us right past these completely bejeweled crowns. I just wanted to break the glass and touch it. Or maybe try it on. They were stunning.
3. Stonehenge
I found in one of the brochures that I had picked up a tour that left from London and visited Salisbury and Stonehenge. As I was alone and didn't want to mess with figuring out how to get to Stonehenge by myself, I thought this was a good idea. Plus, I paid about the same amount for the entire tour as I would had for just one train ticket. Yes, bargins! The tour met in the morning and we took a train into Salisbury, a quaint medieval town that is the closet civiled place to Stonehenge. We took a tour around the town, saw its medieval buildings and its amazing cathedral and close. We then took a bus out to Stonehenge, via the country road. What totally amazed me on our journey out was the fact that there are still buildings that use the thatched roof. I was floored; I thought that had died out. Also, I never knew how in-the-middle-of-nowhere Stonehenge was until I looked out the window of the bus, and lo and behold! there was Stonehenge. Amazing. I was in fits of giggles because I couldn't believe I was actually there. Our tour guide took us around the circle, stopping every so often to tell us a story or some history. We were almost all the way around when the threatening black clouds all of a sudden let loose. At first I thought it was snow (it was so cold!), but after I second I realized it was hail. So, my last memory of Stonehenge is running towards shelter while the hail poured down around us.

And then I woke up at the butt-crack of dawn on the 29th to catch a train to Dover, to catch the ferry to Calais, to catch a train to Paris...