After the wedding, we took the train into London on New Year's Eve. A couple of teenagers with colorful hair (green and pink) taught us how to say "squirrel" and we taught them how to say "y'all" When we arrived, we were cornered by a man claiming to be a cab driver who bustled us into his car. We got a little suspicious when he had us reading a map and stopped for directions 3 times!! When we got to our hotel, he demanded 35 pounds (for what was an 8 pound ride). Very suspicious now, I told him we'd have to get change and ran in to ask the hotel manager if that was right. The manager told us exactly what it should have been, so I got change and went back out and gave the guy a 10 pound note. Boy was he mad! He said some very nasty things and accused us of cheating him. However, when I suggested that we call the bobbies to settle this problem, he jumped in his car (with some rather rude jestures) and ran off. Yikes!! Important tip - always take the BLACK CAB, never anything else!!
We walked down to Picadilly Circus to see the lights before dinner - quite nice!
After settling down after our harrowing adventure, we found a nice Italian restauraunt (Cafe Uno) in which to spend New Year's Eve. They had crackers, complete with paper crowns and prizes, and very tasty food. We spent the rest of the night enjoying the food and the company of the waitstaff and blowing kisses to passersby - as we were seated in the front window, quite of few of them left smooch marks on the glass :)
Most of the really rowdy celebrations were held in Trafalga Square.
We planned on taking a bus tour at some point - and when we did, it proved to be well worth it! The walking around we did initially allowed us to become familiar with the pace of the city, but the bus tour explained the history behind many of the sights we had seen previously.
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