Our last full day in London

I failed to mention that one of the skills we learned - that actually wasn't mentioned in the People to People guides - was UMBRELLA ETIQUETTE! You would all be proud...no one poked or stabbed anyone with their umbrella yesterday!


Fortunately, we woke up to blue skies...and we took off for our day - after breakfast, of course!

We rode the tube for all our travels today. If you're not a subway rider, never fear, your son or daughter will know all the ins and outs of how to do it. We have raced from one train to another through horrendous crowds of people....and you'll be thrilled to know...we haven't lost a delegate! Counting off has become as routine as blinking your eyes. (a slight exaggeration)This is a map of the Tube... fortunately, we didn't have to read it, Sam knew it like the back of his hand. We just ran when he said 'run' and we jumped when he said 'jump.'

Anyway, our first stop was meeting with a former member of Parliament, Patrick Nichols. The delegates were impressive with their questions and their focus...especially after such a late night last night. We talked about the differences between our two governments - from how it's set up to certain laws - such as gun control...driving age...voting ages, etc.BubbleShare: Share photos - Powered by BubbleShare


From there, we headed to the Imperial War Museum - WOW! We ate lunch on the lawn and had some time to just hang out before our scheduled time to go in at 1 p.m. We had about an hour and a half to explore the museum on our own. They had an impressive part on the Holocaust which was similiar in design to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.BubbleShare: Share photos - Powered by BubbleShare


After that, we took off for Picadilly Circus...where we had about 2 hours to explore that area of London on our own - well, not actually on our own...you had to be in with a group. Most of us headed down to Covent Gardens...an outdoor mall/market/shop area with a lot of street performers and restaurants. It's awesome.BubbleShare: Share photos - Powered by BubbleShare


We had a wonderful dinner - of typical British food - meat pie, carrots, potatoes, brussel sprouts (there were a lot of these left on plates :) and a delicious chocolate/fudge pie with a streak of peanut butter in it to top off th dinner. We walked that off heading to the London Eye. That is incredible. We had 22+ of us in each pod. It takes about 30 minutes to make one revolution. I bought 2 photos of the group with me (the Eye takes a photo as each pod comes around that you can buy at the end...this blogger is a sucker for things like that!) so now there is a contest for who - in my group - can come up with the best caption for the photo...they get the 2nd photo!BubbleShare: Share photos - Find great Clip Art Images.


We manuevered the tube back home... and packed up to take off tomorrow for the next part of our itinerary. Hopefully I'll be able to post tomorrow night - but we'll be in a new hotel and I have no idea what the internet situation will be there.

Everyone is doing wonderful... we've had a couple of dehydrations ( I'm not a Dr....but it's my guess) so we got some Gatorade and encouraged more water drinking. All medicines are being taken...so don't worry about that - plus every meal has had vegan options - delicious ones I've been told. So...as they say in Australia... NO WORRIES!