London

I am sure glad to be out of Budapest! I think the people that suggest that Budapest is perhaps prettier than Prague must have been on some serious drugs. I would not recommend travelling there for any reason. There were a couple of nice buildings, but they were few and far between. The weather was lousy, too...during the days it was unbearably hot; during the nights, it was unbearably thundery. This led to some nasty headaches. The fireworks our last evening were impressive, though. They followed a severe natural fireworks display (thunderstorm), and spanned the entire horizon from our little itty bitty hotel window. They were then followed by more thunder which delightfully lasted until our plane the next morning was supposed to take off, leading to a delay in takeoff. Luckily, it only added a half hour to our time. As per air conditioning, our room DID have it, if you can call a three-speed fan air conditioning.

I should go away more often, Mom, as you seem to be winning lots while I'm away. And Theresa, I am ignoring all mention of the "S" word.

Now we're in London! We had fish and chips near our hotel for dinner and then took a quick walk through Hyde Park. Our hotel appears to be a converted apartment and is full of corridors and staircases. There is a lift, but as we are on a 1/2 floor between the main floor and the first floor, we can't take it. Our three beds are lined up in a row like the beds in Goldilocks...except they're all too hard!!! At least it's quiet, mind you, as our last few hotels have been on very loud thoroughfares.

This morning we did a tour of London with a tour guide that, surprisingly (!) had a very dry British sense of humour. I think we were the only ones laughing at his wit and wisdom in the entire bus. I also bought myself a book at Foyles today. The weather's not great. After the stinking heat of Budapest (literally stinky!), the wet, windy weather is a bit of a shock to the system. I think tomorrow the weather is supposed to improve slightly. This evening, we are going to a musical that we got half price tickets for - Avenue Q, as The Lion King and Wicked do not sell half price tickets, and they didn't want to go see The Lady in Black.

There's no internet at our hotel, but I can get 30 minutes cheap at an internet cafe about two blocks from our hotel (I am currently sitting beside a display of teddy bears wearing London sweaters).

Tomorrow we are going to ride the London Eye (I'm hoping the weather will improve!), and I am going to go to the British Museum for as long as I can. The next day is our Cotswolds trip.

I'll write again tomorrow or Friday.

Luv
Trace