We decided that we would make this a day to go see all the sights and take pictures of all the most famous parts of London. Meredith, Rodney, and Voni had all seen them all before but I had only seen a few of them when I was 16 on a short layover.
1st we went to Trafalgar square and saw the large fountains and 4 giant lions at the base of Trafalgar’s statue (we made sure to take pictures of these to show the boys). There was also a large digital countdown clock that was counting down to the Olympics in London next summer! City officials were actually setting up for the lighting of a huge Christmas tree and for Christmas carols to be sung there that evening.
Then we walked down to the area where Big Ben is. Along the walk we saw where the Prime Minister lives (a building painted black!) I learned something new about Big Ben actually. “Big Ben” refers to the bell inside of the clock tower, not the tower itself. This area is where the houses of parliament are as well as Westminster Abbey. There were actually government protesters camped in tents across from Parliament.
We went inside the chapel next to Westminster Abbey and heard a choir practicing. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go inside Westminster Abbey because it was so expensive. It was actually sad because they used to allow people to go in for free but now they have a sign up saying that although it is still used as a place of worship, the main source of income for keeping the facility running is from the tourists that pay to see it.
Next we walked across the bridge next to Big Ben in order to grab lunch and see the “London Eye”. We ate at a McDonald’s there and I was shocked to find that the same chicken sandwich I buy from the dollar menu in the U.S. was 2.59 pounds (which currently translates to $4.27!). That was just the sandwich by itself, not a meal! We took lots of pictures of the “London Eye” to show the boys but we didn’t ride it either. There was someone selling half price tickets for 18 pounds each ($30 dollars) so we decided to save our money.
We found the tube nearby and took it to the area where the Tower Bridge (commonly mistaken as London Bridge) and London castle are. The castle was awesome and near the castle were parts of walls remaining from the 1st and 2nd centuries. Also near the castle was a giant sundial, which had the history of the city of London commemorated from its formation to today. It was extremely informative and really cool because it was also illustrated. We walked halfway across the Tower Bridge and back and we could actually see London Bridge because it is the next bridge over.
Then we met a friend at Victoria Station who was able to come for just a couple of days. While we were waiting for him we went to Starbucks and found a good set of collector’s mugs to add to our mug collection. I also realized here that my Starbucks partner discount is good everywhere in England!
We tried to go see St. John’s but it was already closed for the night. There was a huge group of protesters against war involvement who were camped outside St. John’s as it began to rain pretty hard. We quickly found a burger restaurant nearby and ate dinner. Meredith and I drank tap water and shared one hamburger and French fries (they called them super skinny chips) but it still cost 12 pounds (20 bucks).
After dinner, we got on the tube and headed back to our hotels to call it a night. It was a really fun and eventful day but our feet were super tired from all the walking!
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