Day 58 & 59, Full day in London and 1st day in Wales

Yesterday was an exhausting day in London. We ate breakfast in the hotel around 9:15 and then headed out. We mainly walked around the city all day and looked at all of the main attractions... Big Ben (House of Parliament), Tower of London, London Bridge, London Eye, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, Shakespear's Globe, and we went the first night to see Buckingham Palace. We paid the admission to go inside Westminster Abbey and had the audio tour. It was AMAZING inside! There was so much to see inside that you wouldn't expect.

We originally planned to go to Madame Tussauds first thing after breakfast, but by the time we got there (we got lost walking), the line just to buy tickets was over 2 hours long, and then once you had tickets you had to wait in an even longer line to get in. So we are planning on buying tickets online for that and the London Dungeon for Tuesday/Wednesday when we go back.

On Wed, we ate lunch at a small cafe called the Swan right outside of Shakespear's Globe. I ordered a salad with tomatoes and goat cheese. Well, the "salad" was a few tomatoes with goat cheese on top. So that didn't really fill me up... luckily, I had mixed nuts in my purse that I was able to snack on throughout the day.

After Westminster Abbey, we were going to go to the Natural History Museum and then to the Hummingbird Bakery for cupcakes, but we ran out of time because we had to get back to the hotel to get our bags and catch our train at 8:15 pm. We ended up walking to the Hummingbird Bakery, but they had closed an hour earlier :( so we ended up buying sandwiches at the train station, and Kelsey and I bought Starbucks Frappucino's for the train ride.

We got to Cardiff, Wales around 10:15 pm, and had to walk to their apartment. We stayed up awhile drinking tea and having cookies, then we went to bed and the bed has never felt so good!

This morning we woke up, had some toast and fruit for breakfast, and then walked about 30 minutes to the bike rental place where Jeannie rented bikes for Kelsey and I. (Jeannie is paying for EVERYTHING and will not let us pay for anything. She says we are treating her by being here and giving her company so we are not to argue with her). Once we got our bikes, we biked 6+ miles to Castell Coch (an old castle). Right before we got to the castle, we stopped at a little pub called The Lewis Arms and had fried fish n chips.

After touring the castle for about an hour and a half and taking lots of pictures, we began biking back. It began raining on our way back, and then it started POURING! we stopped under some thick trees to try and stay as dry as we could (although I was already drenched). While we were waiting out the rain, Jeannie was turned around talking to us, and about 200 yds ahead of us I saw what looked like a guy who was naked dart across the path into the woods. I interrupted Jeannie and said "i swear I just saw a naked man run across the road up there!" Kelsey and Jeannie were like are you sure? And they started laughing saying how something was in my water at lunch (because they both had a beer). Not even 5 minutes later, the same guy comes around the corner right in front of where we were standing and I yelled "there he is! there he is!" And sure enough, BUTT NAKED in the rain, just jogging with his running shoes on. I wish someone would have taken a picture of my face... my jaw was dropped all the way open and I could not look away, and then I burst out laughing and he sprinted by us. Kelsey tried to get a picture once he ran by but it is really blurry. It was so funny! And about 15 minutes later, Kelsey and I were still laughing about it, and I said "was he even wearing shoes??" HAHAHA.

Anyways, once we returned our bikes and walked back to her apartment, we walked to the grocery store to grab some groceries. When we got back, we showered and put on some dry clothes, and then around 7 we ate dinner... spaghetti, pizza, lasagna, and salad. Just small portions of each. It was very good. Now we are having tea and cookies.

Tomorrow I'm planning on waking up and attempting a run around Cardiff, then we are going to tour the city and have fajitas for dinner. I haven't been able to run the past 2 days, but all the walking and biking I've been doing has been more than sufficient. I AM SO SORE!

I definitely needed the laugh that the naked guy gave me today after all the bad news I've gotten from home this week... my 10 yr old dog, Lexxi, had to be put to sleep on Tuesday :( and I found out last night that one of my family members was found dead. It's been a really rough couple of days to say the least, so if you'll please keep my family in your prayers, that would be greatly appreciated.

I should be able to blog most nights, but I'm still going to wait and post pictures once I have my laptop back.