#4 - Wednesday 4/7 in London

I love it when a good plan comes together. Today, unfortunately, was not so much that day. Not a waste of a day mind you, but certainly not to plan. I thought it would be simple, the open top bus tour which I did the full run of yesterday would be the best way to see everything logically and with transport sorted. Its 7:30pm and I've just got back! Its still very light though and the cabbie reckons another 2 hours of light to go. The sun comes up by 5am... I spent the morning shopping and got a little carried away - £400+ carried away, but have never seen jeans and shirts and shoes that I like. £45 and £51 for the jeans I bought. Levi's normally fetch well over a hundred bucks in Aus, so I went all out. I got some shoes too and I love them, but I would have loved if the sales assistant was more keen on checking he had two of the same shoe in the box, than keen on just taking my cash. Another trip to Oxford street and the resultant bag carrying through the National art museum and Buckingham Palace trip, I could have done without. After a big shopping adventure it was clear I needed a feed and perhaps a fine local ale so I went to the Sussex Arms for some fish and chips and Fuller's British Ale. Yummo. Wimbledon was on so I did watch Federer and Andy Murray for a set or two. A coffee to prep me for my final sightseeing adventure, hop-on-hop-off escapade was in order so I stopped by a local Italian coffee shop for an espresso. It was great - I was really enjoying it, until my life was put on hold when I reached in my pocket for my hotel card, and the familiar leather feel of my wallet was not there. Paniked, I ran back to the pub, but the only thing I was met with was blank looks... I was planning my speech tithe consulate officials and the Australian embassy, when I popped my head in the door of the Italian coffee shop where. Saw three Nonos looking at the familiar backing of an Aquinas College business card. My heart returned to beating and I promised I'd be back for breaks tomorrow morning. Whilst I was ever so thankful, I'm guessing they were asking me what the niter national dial code for Australia was... But I just keep smiling. Whew. I jumped on the tour bus at its familiar stop up the street and planned my journey. Although it was already 3:30pm i was keen to take some happy snaps and check out some historical places of significance.The national gallery was Aaaaaamazing! Buckingham Palace was pretty grand too - you can't appreciate the magnitude of it until you're there in reall life. The marble arch is also up there - along with the horse head that looks like its kissing the ground... A marvel of engineering!