Weekend before last was our big adventure to London. John took Friday off and we took the train to Waterloo station in London. The trip going was pretty easy. It took almost 2 hours on the train to get there and we were able to stay on the same train the whole time. Paul played some and then took about an hour nap on the way. When we got to waterloo it was very busy. We got a taxi and went straight to the hotel to drop off the luggage. It was a beautiful drive through London to the hotel. One thing I noticed right away was how crowded the roads and sidewalks were. We arrived at our hotel and checked in to our room. You never know exactly how a hotel is when you book online, but we were very pleased with our choice. It was new, clean, and had air conditioning. We went to London on the hottest weekend they have had for many years (almost 90 degrees). We had a large bed and while we were getting settled we sat Paul on it and he decided to “officially” start crawling. He was all over the bed. His first day of crawling was our first day in London.
We decided to go on a walking tour Friday afternoon. We walked to Buckingham Palace and took pictures of the front gates and guards. We went into the gift shop, but couldn’t tour the Palace because the Queen was in residence and it was closed. The Palace was due to open at the end of July. Across from the Palace was a huge fountain with statues. It was so hot that lots of people were putting their feet in the water. We let Paul put his feet in the fountain. He loved it. I can’t wait to take him home and go to the beach and the pool. It is too cold over here to swim at the beach.
We walked through St. James Park on the way to Big Ben. It was a pretty park with water and very pretty flowers and trees. The park had pelicans in it. A woman from Johns’ work had a picture on her cell phone of one of the huge pelicans eating a pigeon. We looked to see one doing that, but only saw them swimming in the water. We took a break from walking under a tree and let Paul play for a little while. When we got up we noticed we had berry stains on our rears because the tree we sat under had these berries on them. Oh well…onto Big Ben.
There were so many people in London; it was hard to walk down the street with the stroller. It was shoulder to shoulder people. I had read that the summer was the peak time to visit London and it proved to be very true. We made it to Big Ben and found out that you can’t go in the tower you can only look at it from outside. It was still impressive and the Parliament Building was massive and unbelievable. I have seen pictures, but there is nothing like seeing it in person. After taking pictures of Big Ben, we walk across the Westminster Bridge to look at the Thames River. On the bank of the river is the London Eye. It has looks like a Ferris wheel and has glass oval observation rooms all around it and they put up to 35 people in one and it takes 30 minutes to go completely around. The views are supposed to be spectacular, but we didn’t take a ride.
Across the street from the Parliament Building was Westminster Abbey. It was closed for the day, but we did walk around the grounds and go into the gift shop. What an impressive church. We decided we would come back tomorrow and tour the inside. While in the UK, we have seen so many wonderful churches and castles. It is like stepping back into time and wondering how they accomplished these things without the conveniences we now. It is great to see how these places are being preserved so well for future generations to enjoy. Across from the Parliament and the Abbey was a patch of grass called Trafalgar Square. This is public heart of London for having protests and rallies. While we were there, many people had tents up and were staying to protest the war. I noticed a few signs for people who were on a hunger strike for the war.
After seeing the part of London, we walked back to the hotel because it was getting late and we were tired. Just before we got to the hotel, we passed a Mexican Restaurant where the food looked great. After we got back to the hotel and rested some, we decided to eat dinner at that restaurant. We sat on the sidewalk and ordered nachos, fajitas, and a burrito. The food was great. Even better than the Mexican food back home. Paul loved eating outside; there was a lot to look at. The waitress loved playing with Paul every time she passed by. After dinner back to the hotel and to bed!
Saturday we got up and went to Victoria station. It was just across the street from the hotel. We wanted to change our train tickets to leave from this station and get some breakfast. The line was huge to get the tickets changed so we didn’t take care of that, but we did get breakfast and looked at a couple of shops in the mall there. We bought tickets to go on a bus tour of the city. You can hop on and off whenever you want. We rode it to Westminster Abbey. We sat on top of the double decker bus. It was open and breezy when the bus was moving. Paul really like it, but got wore out and took a nap. You could plug your headset into your language plug and hear about the sights we were passing by. We enjoyed the ride.
Westminster Abbey had a line to get inside. But while standing in line, you could already enjoy the inside of the building. I also learned while in line that you could not take pictures inside. We have had two places so far where that has been the case. I hate not being able to take pictures. This building is considered the finest example of Early English Gothic in existence. Inside the Abbey is a chapel called The Lady Chapel. It took 16 years to build and was a beautiful part of the Abbey to view. There were many famous people buried in the Abbey and memorials to Shakespeare and Jane Austen. We sat in a nice airy area called “The Cloisters” to feed Paul his lunch. This area was filmed in the movie, “The Da Vinci Code.” This is an area the monks used to meet or read during the day. In the middle was a pretty large patch of grass. Very nice view and cool because you can feel the breezes come through. We had a great time here.
We walked over to the Thames River after the Abbey to get on a river cruise. We took the boat up the river to the Tower of London. We enjoyed the river cruise. The man who was the tour guide was funny and very informational. We got to see many sites on the way to our destination. Paul got to learn that the London Bridge is not falling down. We went under it in the boat. We passed by a memorial for the great fire of London. It was a tall pillar with a gold flame on top because this fire was started by a candle. It is 60.6 meters high the exact distance from the base of the monument to the place where the fire started. We passed The London Eye and learned you can get married for 2000 pounds on this Ferris wheel type ride. The ceremony starts at the bottom and by the time you get to the top, you get to kiss the bride. Shakespeare Globe Theatre is across the London Bridge and is a where Shakespeare’s works are performed (the only house with a thatched roof in London). Coming up to the Tower of London was real impressive. It was nice seeing it for the first time by water rather than walking up to the bridge to see it. After doing the walking tour on Friday, it was nice to site with the breeze and see the sights.
Next to the Tower was the Historic Royal Palace. We didn’t get to go inside, but we got to see the outside when we got off the boat. It was past lunch time and we had to find a place to eat. We found a fish and chip place next to the Palace and had lunch. We decided it was getting too late to pay to tour the Tower of London. Things close earlier here than back at home. It makes the sightseeing days pretty short. We went to the gift shop and bought a couple of things and then got back on the sightseeing bus to see more and head to Harrod’s. We saw Piccadilly Square which was named after the elaborate Piccadilly collars. Today it has video screens and loads of people. It is said that if you stand in the square for 37 minutes you are bound to see someone you recognize. We also saw Regent Street and Oxford Street. These are the two most popular shopping streets in London. Back in history it is said that on one side of the street was the Soho district. This was where the poor people lived. The other side of the street and beyond is where the rich people lived. The store windows on the poor side were made larger to attract business from the other side of the street. The store windows on the rich side of the street were smaller so the poor people didn’t come on their side to shop.
We almost missed our stop for Harrod’s because we were up top of the bus and it took us a while to get down. In the haste I left our bag from the Tower of London’s gift shop on the bus. I was bummed about that. I had found some cute wooden play toys for Paul and a couple of gifts for family. Harrod’s was a real interesting department store. It was divided up into different sections on different floors and was hard to find your way around. There were cute little eating places all over the food floor. There were lots of specialty food sections and cute dishes. We went into the children’s section and there were lots of cute toys. John and Paul found a hippo they liked, but it was almost 1,000 pounds. OUCH!!
When we got back to the hotel we were tired. John walked across the street to the train station and got our train information and dinner and came back. We ate in our room and put Paul to bed. I will continue this with my next post…
Missing everyone!
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