I went to England again (yay!)

I did the numerous trips into London, looked at more tourist things, visited galleries and museums. I still love the Science Museum and I've found one painting from the National Gallery that I'd like on my wall. (Yes, out of all of them there was only one). I got to queue up with people and go through the Tower of London and I walked across the Tower Bridge and through most of greater London. Actually, I walked a long way.

I did two things that were brilliant and highly recommended.

First off was a trip to Bletchley Park. That was about an hour out of London by train. It was where the code breakers were during World War II and the site of the world's first computer. I found it fasinating to wander around, there are various little clubs and things in some of the buildings, various museums in some of them and an impressive display of memorabilia. Strangely the experience is decidedly British and you wouldn't find anything quite like it anywhere else in the world, sort of hard to explain.

Second thing was a visit to the Monument. Just called The Monument it was built to commemerate the Great Fire of London. It takes a little bit of finding, but if you get the underground to Monument then walk around, then you'll find it eventually. Its basically a huge spire with the story of the fire on each side of the base, there will be a few tourists around, but thats about it. However the interesting thing is if you walk around there is a door on one side, enter there, pay your money (50p for memory) and you can climb to the top.

The climb means walking up this long spiral staircase and after a lot of steps you finally make it to the top. I'll admit its not the best view in London now, but its still impressive and when I was there, I had the place to myself - not an easy feat in London. I loved managing to be alone in the middle of London and no one else I asked had ever been there. It was like my secret spot in the middle of the city.

Still, I didn't get enough time in the city. That seems to be a common complaint of my trips - lots of running around, seeing lots of thigns, but still not seeing it all.