London

This is long, but more than half of it is pictures, so it is not actually that much to read.

London was so wonderful. I had expected it to be crowded and noisy and dirty, but I just had to go. It was so great, I loved it. During the day it really wasn’t as crowded as I thought that it would be. There were people, but the traffic was moving at a good pace, and there wasn’t a huge amount of people walking around. There were sky scrapers, and beautiful, old buildings(we were walking around and I saw a building with a large statue on it and thought “that looks like a temple to a Greek God” it turns out that the statue was of Zeus), lovely parks, markets, and, of course, crowded tubes(subways) as everyone is getting off of work.

We arrived in London about one.  Aunt J doesn’t like London very much, so H and I went up there early on the train, and she took the car, the kids, and the bags up larer that day, met us in the hotel room, and then we all spent the next day together before leaving. The first place that we went to was St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was fantastic. You weren’t allowed to take pictures of the inside, because it was still a running church, but I got some pictures of the outside and from the top.

When we first got there they started a service. Helen and I both felt really weird about wondering around while they were trying to have church, so we decided that it would be the perfect time to climb the tower. It was so high! I told you guys that I don’t like heights, right? I was determined to get my pictures, though, so I went up, it was so beautiful

The whole cathedral was beautiful. The paint was still so vivid. The murals were just gorgeous.

The Globe Theater(Shakespeare’s theater) was just across the river from St. Paul’s Cathedral, so we went there next. We didn’t get to go inside it or anything, but I took a picture outside.

We got lunch on the way to the tube. We took the tube to St. James Park, it was so beautiful! I loved it! I wished that I had had a few hours to just sit quietly in it and relax, have a picnic, and just lay there. Here is a picture from a bridge in the park, you can see Buckingham Palace in the background.

As you can probably guess from the last picture, out next stop was Buckingham Palace. You couldn’t go in it, because the queen was in, which was kind of cool, knowing that the queen of England was just inside, but I walked around it and took pictures.

I saw the outside of the national gallery, but we decided not to go in. I love art and all that, but I can go to an art museum in Denver, I can’t go to Big Ben in Denver.

I got to see the changing of the guards at Horse Guard. That was pretty cool. We were just walking by and noticed that some people were waiting in front, so we asked what was going on, and they told us that the changing of the guards was in ten minutes, we were right up in the front, but we didn’t have to wait .

Next was Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. On the way we saw the Prime Minister’s house. You couldn’t even go down the street, there was a big gate and armed police men, outside the gate and in. We also saw several embassy buildings.

Big Ben was really pretty, even if it was just a big clock with a cracked bell that doesn’t tell the right time(my aunt’s words, she really doesn’t like London).

I did get a picture of Big Ben that would have been gorgeous, if there hadn’t of been some kind of unknown object right in the corner. I like this one, too, though.

This is Houses of Parliament from the river.

The West Minster Abby was also right there, but it was closed, so we couldn’t go in it.

Things were starting to get busy about now, everyone was getting off work, so we went to the market, since we didn’t want to have to travel to far on the tube right during rush hour. It was really fun. I stopped to look at this one place that had hand painted silk scarves, and the lady comes out and starts showing them to me. I told her that one of them was pretty, so she put it in my hand. I told her that another one was pretty, and she put that one in my hand too. I didn’t think anything of it until she told me that I just needed four more, I guess there was a sell going on or something, that was when I realized what was happening. I did end up buying two, one with Big Ben and the Millennium eye on it, and one that is pink and blue with large butterflies. They are really pretty.

It was still really busy when we went home. I decided that the bag that I brought was perfect. It had a pull string, then a noisy Velcro flap that went over that, and if I was really worried I could just swing it around so that it was in front of me and put my arm over the flap, so I didn’t have to worry about pick pockets.

We were crammed in on the way home. I had never seen a subway or anything so crowded. It had been great that day, there were people, but you were not bumping into anyone, it wasn’t overly crowded, during rush hour it was.

The next day we all went out. Aunt J absolutely refused to take C on a crowded tube, which I thought was really smart, it would have been so easy for him to get separated from us, and that would be that. So we stayed in calmer places where we could keep sight of him, and then took a tour bus(one of the double decker).

The first place we went to was the Tower of London. It was a lot bigger than I though it would be.

I loved it. We took a little tour of it, learned some of the history, then went off and looked around. I got to see the crown jewels. Wow, they are extravagant.

We also got to see the tower ravens. An old superstition says that if the ravens ever leave the tower London will fall, so they now keep eight ravens there with their wings clipped, six official ones, and two back up ones just in case something happens.

Oh, and I got a picture of me beside a teddy bear of a beef eater(this is not like my teddy bear, mine has the red coat and tall fur hat).

After we left the tower we went on the tour bus. That was pretty fun. It was freezing cold, but it was fun.

Here is the building that I though was a Greek temple, though not the best shot.

This is a picture of Big Ben looking through the Millennium eye.

The tour was great. If anyone here ever goes to London I would recommend taking one. You get to go all around London, learn some interesting facts, and you can get on and off as many time as you want for one day, so you can also use it as transportation if you want.

After the tour we took a boat ride down the river, which was also included in the price of our bus ticket. That was pretty. It was also inside, so it was warm, which we liked because we had just been sitting on top of a bus in the cold for the last hour and a half.

After that we went back to the hotel, packed up our stuff, had some desert, and went to bed. The next morning we went home. The plane ride home was long, but not nearly as long as it had been going there, and there were no delays or anything, it just takes a long time to fly to or from England.

I do miss England just a little. I didn’t when I first got home, but I am starting to.  While driving through town I saw a shopping plaza and thought about the cobble stone streets with the adorable brick buildings and the market places, it just isn’t quite the same.  I am really glad to be home, though. The last week or so I had been ready to come home. It was really fun, and I am glad that I went, I would love to go again, but I am glad to be home.