After a short rest, early Wednesday morning we loaded up the car and headed towards London. We drove across Belgium and in about 3 hours made it to Calais. We grabbed a quick burger at Burger King, exchanged some money to pounds and drove on to the train. It is really a weird feeling to drive onto a train. We drove onto the 2nd of two levels, put the parking break on and chilled for 35 minutes while we went under the English Channel through the chunnel! On the other side we drove off and started driving on the left hand side of the road. Left is good, right is bad! I have to remind myself at every turn which side to go on!
We found the little house that Kim found on airbnb. For London it is really cheap and we found out why. It is about an hour tube ride into London. The house has 3 rooms, we have two of them and the owner lives in the third. It is really weird to be sleeping in someone's house with them here. We were all a little nervous, but it has actually turned out well.
Once we unloaded our stuff we headed for London. London is one of my favorite cities in the whole world. It is so accessible, so much history and good food. It has really changed over the years I've been coming here for work.
We went straight downtown to the British museum. I love it because the first thing you see is the Rosetta Stone. The brits stole a lot of cool stuff while they ruled the world. Tons of egyptian tombs and mummies. Our favorites were the egyptian exhibit, the parthenon and the bog man. We spent about 2.5 hours and didn't even see 1/4 of the museum. The kids started getting anxious so we headed towards Trafalgar square.
The kids climbed on the Lions and then we walked towards Big Ben, Westminster and Buckingham palace. It was a delightful night and we just kept walking. I've never been in London with such beautiful weather. It was a perfect temperature and not a cloud in the sky. Tons of people were out enjoying the weather in the parks.
After walking we worked up quite an appetite so we headed for the closest Nandos. It is a GREAT restaurant for Portuguese Peri Peri chicken. We ate two whole chickens with hot peri peri sauce. We ate too much, but it was a great meal with free tap water with ice! We've missed that so much in Luxembourg!!!
After dinner we backtracked towards King's Cross station to see platform 9 3/4. There was a huge line and all of these young adults would spent tons of time getting the perfect picture. It about drove me crazy. The company taking the pictures could have made tons more money by hurrying and helping things along, but they were part of the problem. We waiting 45 minutes, but got our picture in the end of the kids following Harry Potter to hogwarts through the brick wall. Jake was a muggle and splatted on the brick!
After a long hot ride back on the Tube, we got off in Hainult and walked 25 minutes to the house. It is a long walk, so we drove it the next day. We all crashed and slept better than expected!
With the time change from Luxembourg to London, we all felt like we were sleeping in. We were out of the house by 8:00 and this time we drove to the Underground. That was MUCH better. For 5 pounds we found parking for the entire day.
Our first stop was Westminster Abbey. On the way in we were treated to drunk that had fallen asleep naked on the grass. The cops made him put his clothes back on were giving him a ticket.
Westminster is one of my favorite places to go. Most of the Kings and Queens, scientists, poets and dignitaries are buried there. We saw Handel, Darwin, Newton, Elisabeth I, Henry III, etc. There is a nice area for Shakespeare, but he's buried in his home town that we will visit tomorrow. It is a beautiful gothic church were most of the state events and weddings take place. We waiting about 30 minutes to get in.
The churches here have moved to a fee model, but they include an audio tour. It is expensive, but makes the tour much more enjoyable. Our favorite thing was the coronation chair. They have coronated pretty much all of the Kings and Queens on this wood chair. It was originally built to hold a stone from Scotland.
The kids each completed a packet on all of the interesting things in the Abbey and got a huge chocolate coin at the end of the tour.
After Westminster we were off to St. Paul's. On the way we stopped off and got some pulled pork sandwiches and curry. I think I was the only one that really enjoyed the meal. We ate in the shade of a big tree next to St. Paul's. There were tons of Londoners and foreigners eating on the grounds. We got another just beautiful day!
St. Paul's is impressive because it has one of the biggest domes in the world. We didn't have to wait in a line, paid our money and got the audio tour. We were also treated to a full on orchestra practicing for an upcoming performance. It was absolutely beautiful. The kids were awed by the dome and the best part is they let you climb it. The dome is actually made of two domes. Once you make it past the whispering level of the dome you keep climbing in between the two domes.
We pushed up and up until we arrived at the top. Before going outside you can look down from the top of the dome, through a plexiglass window to the floor below. Pretty impressive! Outside we were treated to beautiful views of the city. With such great weather we could see everything!!! After a long walk down we headed towards The Tower of London.
The Tower of London is the location of the main castle for the Monarchy and the location of the crown jewels. I haven't visited since the Olympics and they've really spruced it up. Our favorite room was the prisoner room where they held all of the diplomatic prisoners. The prisoners made elaborate graffiti with sayings and the coat of arms scratched in the sandstone. Some of them were pretty impressive. Kim liked seeing Lady Jane's name scratched in the sandstone. She had a great view of where she would eventually get her head chopped off!
The crown jewels are pretty impressive. It is amazing how much gold and jewels they've collected over the years. I didn't realize that the monarchy was thrown out in the early 1600's and then re-instated about 30 years later. The brits definitely know how to do pomp and circumstance. We saw several yeoman warders and guards.
After the crown jewels we visited the actual White Tower castle. It is the main castle that they used over the years to project their power. It is filled today with weapons and suits of armor. Probably the most impressive were suits of Henry VIII. They had about 3 suits of armor of his, including the ones for his horse! After a quick view at the torture methods, we took some pictures looking towards Tower Bridge and then headed off to find a Chipotle!
We haven't had a burrito in 6 months! So we found the closest one and had a delicious chicken burrito. It reminded us of home and how much we love Mexican food!
Overall, we had just an amazing couple days. The kids saw a good part of the city, the people and the culture. With London being the financial hub of Europe I'm sure I'll be spending a lot of time here over the next few years!
We are going to wake up early tomorrow and head out towards Stonehenge, Woodhenge, Shakespeare's birthplace and Sherwood forest! We should get about an hour away from Glasgow and the Cahoon games in Luss.
We're a little worried that on the way home we're going to get slowed down by the Tour De France. There are tons of signs everywhere we've gone warning about slowdowns. Who would have thunk we needed to worry about the Tour de France in England!
Wimbledon is also going on this week. We're pulling for Federer to win his 8th title!!!!!
Click here for Pictures of London
Click here for Pictures of London
Wow. You guys are having such an amazing experience!
ReplyDelete