There's Big Ben, There's the Parliament Building

London: Day 2

We did a lot of the tourist stuff today.  We got of the Tube at the Westminster station and Julia kept saying “We have to go up those stairs.”  So we did and the first thing I saw was the parliament building.  And I fell off a step because I was to busy staring up like a tourist.  We also saw the London Eye, Westminster and Buckingham Palace.  We didn’t go in anywhere, just looked and took pictures.  It was very cool and very pretty.

In the evening, Julia and I went to the National Gallery.  We only had an hour there first we went to the imprestionist.  I walked into the one of the rooms and freaked out because, there, on the opposite wall was Monet’s Lillypads.  It was just impressive!  We also saw Van Gough’s Sunflowers.  Then we wandered through the really old section of paintings which was less interesting in my opinion.

They were starting to shut off the lights because the museum was about to close so we started heading for the door. I saw this guy out of the corner of my eye who looked pretty familiar.  Then I heard him talk.  It was Mike Meyers.  In the National Gallery.  I was shocked.  So, I spazzed a little.  It was very cool.

Then Julia and I went on an adventure to find Kensington Garden and the Peter Pan statue.  By this time, I had been walking for about nine hours and I was starting to get tired so I didn’t think the park was as cool as I normally would have thought.  The statue was very pretty though and I got a picture in front of it.  (I have so many good pictures for my profile now, I don’t know which one to use.)

By this point it was almost nine and Emily and I decided to head back to the West End to try and find a bit to eat and wait for the others to get out of the shows so we could all go back together.  We also had another slightly more nefarious reason for wanting to go back to the West End. 

The night before, Maddie and I had found the stage door.  It was in a little alley behind the theatre that had a bunch of little pubs and reastrantes.  My plan was to go to one of these places and get dinner and just sit back there to see if we might see Catherine Tate and David Tennant.  Maddie and I had realized that Catherine Tate and David Tennant come out almost immediantly after the show so we told Jen and Julia that if they wanted to try and see them, they should leave before the curtain called ends. 

Emily and I were sitting at a table outside with a good view of the stage door.  We had decided that we were going to be cool and just sit there and watch them walk by because we figured they had to go past us to get to the street.  All of a sudden, the alley started filling up because the show had let out.  We were starting to have to stretch to still be able to see the door.  Then, the people around the door started screaming and Emily and I both leapt up. 

I really was going to be cool and not rush over and snap pictures.  I didn’t have anything they could sign because there was a rule that they only sign things related to the show.  I hadn’t realized this, else I would have brought my program with me.  Finally, it was just to tempting and I went over and snaped a few pictures over the heads of the crowd. 

After that we joined up with Jen and Julia and the lucky ducks had gotten programs signed!  Jen was awesome.  She kept going up to different actors and gushing about how great they were.  I think she got 3 or 4 autographs. 

We were still hanging out waiting for Maddie when Catherine Tate came out a side door.  We watched her take a picture with a couple of fans and then we started migrating towards her with Jen in the lead but we were to slow.  Catherine Tate said, “I do need to go,” and left with a friend.  She did look very tired but we just wanted to tell her that she was awesome.

It was another fun and only slightly creepy night.