Euro Recap–London

Now is an exciting time to visit London. Between the Diamond Jubilee, The Euro Cup and the Olympics coming up, there’s a lot more hub-ub.

Our first experience of the city wasn’t a good one. There was a mix up of our train’s arrival time and where we’d be staying that resulted in us scrambling around the city at 2 in the morning trying to find somewhere to sleep for a few hours. Our taxi driver was awesome though. “I can’t just drop ya off he-ah, it’s a bit dodgy this part of the city. Ya know wha I mean?” Thank goodness for kind people in the world! Kyle was so upset with me for getting us into the mix up in the first place. It took another day for him to start speaking to me again. I, however, was having a great time all along. I also kept thinking to myself how grateful I was Casen didn’t come with us. That would’ve been disastrous.

Piccadilly Circus and Tralafalfar Square are like the Times Square of New York. Had it not been so stinking cold, it would’ve been a more fun atmosphere.

Big Ben is really BIG! He is appropriately named.

Westminster Abbey (very cool) and the quintessential red British phone booth.

Nothing like a true English pub to make you stop and think about life…

Tower of London (wowzers!) We watched an 8 episode series on the history of the Tower a few months ago. We were so glad we did cause we had so much more insight than what we could’ve learned by just visiting there.

My favorite part was the armor/weapons/Medieval torture device rooms and the crown jewels.  This armor suit could’ve fit Casen!

The Tower Bridge tour was awesome as well. Seeing the city from the top was an incredible view. We took a river cruise later and saw some pretty neato views of the city from there also.

Kyle, Big Ben and Houses of Parliament.

I begged Kyle to come to the Florence Nightingale museum with me. It was pretty inspiring. The audio guide was the stethoscope. How cool is that?!

Buckingham Palace. The Queen was home. You can tell because the flag is flying.

We’re like 6 stories underground in the ‘Tube’ here. The public transportation was super easy in London.

Kennington: my mother’s maiden name. We’re from England. Kennington is also a suburb of London. We visited one day per Aunt Cheri’s recommendation and ate fish n’ chips at the fish bar. Then we hightailed it out of that ghetto city. Also per Aunt Cheri’s recommendation.

St. Paul’s Cathedral from our double decker bus. We attended a worship service there. The front steps remind me of the bird lady on Mary Poppins that sings “Feed the birds, toppins a bag.”

How could you visit King’s Cross train station and NOT take this photo?!

Goodbye London! Loved that city (more individual posts to come later).

Darlington train station… just a few kilometers from Ryan & Gabby’s!