London!

No pics in this post, writing from a net cafe in London near the hotel (Westminster, about 6 blocks from Buckingham Palace).This is going great, despite my cold getting worse (boo) before it started getting better (yay). Tisha seems to have caught it (boo), but my foot’s all better now (yay). Why do I feel like talking about cursed frogurt?Monday night we got into town, and went straight to the hotel. The cabs here are awesome — they’re built to be cabs from the get-go, so it works out really well for getting in and out and the seating. Very comfy and spacious. The hotel is quite sparse, but I knew that going into it. I have pics on my camera I’ll post when I get home.Speaking of pictures, I’ve learned lugging the big camera around is not desirable. I think I vastly over estimated how many pictures I was going to be taking. The big SLR is great for taking Photographs (with a capital P). The small point and shoot (or even the phone cam) is great for pictures, and that’s what I’m looking for here. I used the big camera now and again, but I’m here to be a tourist and experience Europe, not be a photographer. So I’m snapping pics of what amuses or interests me, and will leave the Serious Photography (ooh, two capital letters) for another time.Our first night in, we hit a pub across the street, where I was served a pint of Guinness colder than anything I’d had stateside. I don’t get it — based on the signs I see on some bars here, I think there’s a self-loathing when it comes to their beer, each bar priding itself on how cold it can get the beer. One advertised temps between 1 and 3 celcius! I want a Guinness the *right* temperature! My quest continues tonight.Yesterday, we rode the London Eye and on a great day for it — sunny and beautiful. We then visited the London Aquarium, where we got to pet some friendly rays, and finally, we visited the Tate Modern, which was great! The method of getting from the various floors to the ground level is… unique. You can ride a giant slide! The art collection in the Tate was more to my tastes, compared to the Rijksmuseum. Totally dug it.Today we visited the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill museum, which took us a long time, but was terribly interesting. I know more about Churchill and WWII than I ever did before. We tried to do a BBC tour, but my guidebook steered me wrong, and they were fully booked anyway.Tomorrow, off to Portsmouth in the afternoon, and an overnight ferry ride to France! I’ll write more then!Cheers!