Wednesday didn't quite go as we'd planned but it was a lovely day, despite the minor set backs. The beautiful, sunny skies were at least in our favor. It didn't rain once on us while we were there!
We started the day off by switching to our new hotel before heading to the British Library via the King's Cross Station, where we found Platform 9 3/4 under construction. We took pictures by a fake version of the platform anyway.
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| King's Cross Station |
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| British Library |
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| The Rosetta Stone |
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| There were LOTS of MUMMIES! |
Then we headed to Westminster Abbey. Unfortunately, we got there only to find out it was closed for the afternoon and the next two days. It didn't open again until Saturday (which was the day we would be leaving).
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| Big Ben |
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| London Eye/Big Ben |
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| Westminster Abbey |
The Churchill Museum was down the street so we decided to go there instead. We walked to see Buckingham Palace, after a short rest in the park. With the Royal Wedding only a week a way, there was lots of excitement and the media had a fort built to view and share all the news.
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| In front of the Gates of Buckingham Palace |
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| Waiting and Resting at Trafalgar Square |
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My dirty Feet
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| The countdown to the Olympics |
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Later that evening, we enjoyed seeing The Mousetrap, an Agatha Christie murder mystery. It was very enjoyable and entertaining! It's also the longest running play in London.
Thursday morning we got up early and made the trek out to the Tower of London. We saw all the royal jewels and crowns. There was a lot to see at the Tower of London.
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| The building that held the royal jewels and crowns. |
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| This is where the Yeomen Warders or Beefeaters live. |
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| I'm being attacked!!! |
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| View from the top of the tower wall |
After a a morning of exploration at the Tower of London, we went to Borough Market to eat some lunch. :) We spent the rest of the day discovering the city of London and climbing up a LOT of stairs. We climbed to the top of The Monument of the Great Fire of 1666. It was 311 steps to the top. There may have been a reward for me at the top, if I made it up quickly. We could see all of London from the top of the monument. Since the 311 steps of the Monument weren't enough of a challenge, we climbed about 530 steps to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral.
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| Walking across Tower Bridge to Borough Market |
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| At Borough Market, the coolest way to make a grilled cheese sandwich or nachos |
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| Tim buying his Turkish Delights! |
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| View from up top of the Monument |
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| Amazing VIEW of Tower bridge! |
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| Walking back down |
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| At the base of the Monument after finishing the climb |
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| Resting outside of St. Paul's Cathedral before we climbed to the top |
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| Statue of John Smith |
Later that evening, we went to eat some Indian Food and go see Lion King. The Lion King was spectacular.
Portobello Road, Portobello Road. Street where the riches of ages are stowed. This is where we spent our Friday morning. Walking and shopping on Portobello Rd. Tempting as it was to break out in song and dance down the street, we manage to contain ourselves.
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| I found this for my BFF |
Next, we checked out Piccadelly Circle (Time Square of London), before heading to the H.M.S. Belfast. We toured the H.M.S Belfast, a museum ship. It once was Royal Navy cruiser but was converted into a Museum to give people a better idea of what life on was like on the ship and some historically information about the ship's past encounters.
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| HMS Belfast is able to help but not with everything |
Hurrying to make it to the Globe Theater before it closed, we rushed through the streets of London.
The Globe Theater was doing a recitation of the Bible the week before Easter to be finished by Easter. It was interesting to hear a couple minutes of recitation.
Our last evening in London proved to be busy. We ate a quick dinner before making our way to the London Eye. There was a longer line than we'd anticipated, but we past the time by playing Scramble (a word game like boggle) on my ipod touch. We made it on the London Eye just as the sun was setting. The views were excellent especially with the night approaching and the city lights gleaming.
Ceremony of the Keys is a special program done at the Tower of London. It is the ceremony performed by the Yeomen Warders at the end of each evening to lock up the tower. Only a small group of people are allowed to attend and we were lucky to have gotten tickets. This ended up being one of the highlights of the trip. A Beefeater, who lived in the tower, was our guide for the evening. He prepared us for what we would be observing. It was very ceremonious and ended with a gun salute. One of my favorite parts was the Q&A after the ceremony. It was an enlightening experience.
We only had a few hours, Saturday Morning, before we'd have to take the tube to the airport. Since we still hadn't toured Westminster Abbey, we headed there as early in the morning as we could. As we entered the Abbey, an orchestra was playing beautiful music. There were also many preparations for the Royal Wedding taking place. One room in the Abbey was blocked off to prepare the flowers. It was fun to be in London amid all the excitement of Easter and the Royal Wedding.
Harrods was our last stop before getting our luggage back at the hotel. It's a huge department store that was simple too overcrowded and not much fun to shop in. We didn't stay long as we had a plane to catch.
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| HARRODS |
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| At Harrods |
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We had a contest to see who could spend the rest of their Pound and have the least amount of change left over.
I won with only 4 cents left over! |
What could have been a long plane ride home, ended up being quite enjoyable. :) Before I knew it, we were back in the United States and the trip was over and had gone by way too quickly.
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