Pub Crawling in London England - Day 4

The next day we decided that the National Gallery was going to get its due. But before we could get to the museum we past many ads for the the Olympics.  During the winter of 2006 London was trying to be the host city for the 2012 Olympics.  Old news, it won!  But at the time it was anybody's game and NYC was in the mix as well.  I love New York City and was hoping we would win and I thought we really had a chance until we came to London.  London went all out for the Olympic Committee; I mean all out!  Everywhere you went there was something to remind you that London meant business.  In NYC, the only thing I remember advertising that we were up for the bid was stickers put up on the subways.  Not every impressive.  There was no way London was going to lose!

Big Ass Runner

This theme continued as we headed to the National Gallery Museum. There we were surprised to see a huge helium filled runner pumping its fists in the air in victory with a sign that read: London 2012.  Nice touch!  We had a good giggle over it and snapped a photo.  Strangely enough, in the photo it looks like a miniature rather than the giant it really was.  We tell people about how huge this thing was and they stare at us like we are on crack!  But it was huge, I swear! Any Londoner who saw it will vouch for us.  You look at the photo and you be the judge!

Back to The Gallery!  The Gallery houses one of the largest and greatest collections of European art in the world.  It is decently sized and could take a couple of days to get through, so my advice would be to look at the brochure and pick out what you really want to see, because you won't see it all unless you are speed walking, but then you would be defeating the purpose. 

Lion Tamer

After several hours, we decided we were hungry and decided to get something to eat, but we got sidetracked by these huge lion statues that were on these high pedestals in Trafalgar Square.  Okay, actually I got distracted, as it doesn't take much.  I came up with this brilliant idea to climb up and see the lions up close.  Angie helped me up by lending her hands for me to step onto and I used by brute arm strength to pull myself up; I was a beast!

I was so excited, I won't lie.  Climbing comes naturally to me being that I spent a few years in the Northwest, which is what we do in Oregon.  I was thrilled and Angie took some photos to document the moment.  People even waved and cheered me on! 

It was awesome!  It was awesome until it finally dawned on me that I had to get down.  Not an easy feat.  There was no way that Angie could reach that high and carry me down.  I thought about jumping but at least one of my legs would be broken in the process.  So. I stood stupidly looking for an escape route.  Someone on the street took pity on me and asked if I would like some help down.  Indeed, I would kind sir!  Luckily, my rescuer came in the form of a very tall, strong, Russian tourist.  Being around 6'5 he could reach me easily and brought me down as if I were a mere child.  I thanked him profusely and he smiled and congratulated me on my climb.  Yeah, this guy was a class act in my book!

Huh?

After dinner (again Lebanese), we headed to the pub before calling it a night.  We briefly watched some bad TV before I called it a night.  I seriously thought about sleeping on the floor as my back kept getting worse from the crap bed.  That and we were having problems with ants in the room.  But after the long days we were having we both passed out rather quick.  Life was good...