Sunday, March 28, 2010

March 10 - 13; London, England

What can we say about London? The city is awesome. The history, the museums, the people speaking English.....it was heaven. We packed a lot into our three days, and because we had great timing, there were no crowds and we did in three days what would normally take six (and the weather was still very mild).


First stop, Trafalgar Square. We were so impressed with this square. The column with Lord Nelson was larger than life, and the lions, well, what more could a kid want than to climb on these??

Admiral Lord Nelson.

We loved that every street had "look left" or "look right".

The horse guard coming up the mall just before the changing of the guard.

The gates of Buckingham Palace at 11:30 for the changing of the guard.

Westminster Abbey was really incredible. We spent quite a while in here to see everything and for the kids to do the "treasure hunt". This Abbey is one you can NOT miss if you go to London.

At the end of the treasure hunt in the Abbey, the kids got a large chocolate coin from the gift shop for completing the hunt.



Of course.

These horse guards are right in front of the Prime Ministers house on Downing street, we loved the sign.

Our first pub lunch, Bill serves us our drinks!!

On to the British Library where we saw *the* Magna Carta and old manuscripts, pages of writings, music, and drawings from the Shakespeare, Jane Austen, the Beatles, Mozart, Lewis Carroll, etc etc etc. No pictures allowed.

Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station took a little bit of time to find. They keep moving it around as they update the underground. It was worth it and again, no lines for our pictures.

A great view of Parliament from the other side of the river Thames.

Inside the london eye as we took our 30 minute ride.....very cool.



The tower bridge. We also saw the London Bridge but really, it's just a bridge. This bridge was part of the old castle and where many people in history stayed imprisoned including Ann Boleyn, William Wallace, King Henry VI, Catherine Howard, and William Penn!!

Our "Beefeater" who gave a great tour of the castle.

At the Rainforest Cafe, our dessert had a sparkler which Nolan loved, but Katie did not.

Our last day, we checked out of our hotel and went to the British Museum as our last stop.

They allow pictures of just about everything in the museum. We could have spent the entire day here looking at the relics from Egypt and Greece, not to mention everything else. Two days here would do it justice, our time here was great but too short. We saw things that are thousands of years old. It was extraordinary.

Nolan loved the mechanical clock exhibit.