Planes, Trains, and Automobiles... and feet.: Mind the Gap

So we got to London Southend airport on a flight from Venice and made our way by train and bus to a bar called the Chippenham Pub. There we met Ron. He is the person we stayed with for the length of our visit to London. Ron works at the same company as my mom and that's how we got in touch with him. Ron had been in London all of a week before we showed up so his place was still pretty empty, though we did our best to try to get him to fill his shelves.

Day 1

Our first day, we went down to the Westminster tube stop and went to see Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament with the Elizabeth Tower, commonly (and incorrectly) known as Big Ben. Big Ben is actually the Bell inside the Tower. The London Eye is also there across the River Thames (Tim's). The London Eye is a huge Ferris Wheel right off of the river. After seeing that, we did a walking tour that went through many of the places where Harry Potter was filmed. The tour guide, Richard Walker, was very knowledgeable and kept it interesting... he also sounded exactly like Malcolm McDowell if you know who that is. After the tour we went to an outdoor open air market called the Portabello Market, we had crepes there and they were very good! Then we met up with Ron for dinner and headed back to Westminster to see it all at night.

Front of Westminster Abbey.

Parliament and Big Ben.

London Eye.

London Eye at night.

Day 2

Sunday was the day before St. Patricks day and there was a cool parade going on in celebration of that. After that we walked around Picadilly Circus, Oxford Circus and down Oxford Street all the way to Hyde Park. I saw a McLaren driving along (wow, nicest car I've personally seen in action). We then made our way to a pub that was showing the Tottenham v. Arsenal football match. These are both London teams and they are pretty fierce rivals. It was not good for Tottenham fans... 1-0 Arsenal. Ron met up with us there at the pub and after the game, we hung out with him the rest of the evening. We ate at a restaurant that was Sherlock Holmes themed.

Bagpipers in the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

The Sherlock Holmes pub/restaurant where we ate.

Day 3

We started out this day and got a ticket to a Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus tour. This is a cool thing that lets you take a bus all around London with a live tour guide or with recorded audio commentary depending on the line you are on. We saw many sights around town, hopped off at Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace and then Baker Street. We saw 221b Baker Street and saw where a certain detective is from. After that we went to the King's Cross station and stopped by Platform 9 3/4 (Harry Potter reference if you don't know it). We went to a curry restaurant and it was great. Then we headed to the London Eye and took a ride on it. The views around the city were amazing!

St. Paul's Cathedral.

Tower Bridge (sometimes incorrectly regarded as London Bridge but London Bridge isn't really that special looking)

The Shard. The tallest building in the EU. Looks like a big shard of glass.

Buckingham Palace... The Queen was in.

The home of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes.

The ceiling in Kings Cross station.

View of the Eye from inside one of the pods.

View of Parliament and Big Ben from the Eye.

Day 4

In the morning we headed out to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Then we headed to Leicester Square and bought tickets to go see the Lion King on the West End in London. After that we made our way to Camden. Camden is an interesting borough in London. There is an awesome market that was made from an old horse stable that is huge and there were street vendors with tons of different cuisines. The were all giving away free samples too! It was nice because they weren't pushy about buying their stuff if you took a sample. They were pretty laid back.

Then we headed to the British Museum and walked around that. That was amazing. We saw exhibits about ancient Egypt including the real Rosetta Stone, ancient Greek and Roman sculptures, Chinese jade, Ancient Japan and we barely scratched the surface.

Then Rosalie, Ron, and I went to the Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre. It was great. They did such a good job, I got chills three times watching it. It was the first professional theatre production Rosalie or I have seen and we were not dissappointed.

Changing of the guard.

Day 5

On this day, Rosalie went back to the British Museum and did some shopping on Oxford Street and I went on a tour of the cities' Football stadiums. I did a tour of Tottenham Hotspurs' stadium (White Hart Lane) which was awesome, and then I saw Emirates Stadium (Arsenal), and then Stamford Bridge (Chelsea). Then Rosalie and I met back up and went to a place called Nando's for dinner. That was good chicken and interesting too because they had free refills on sodas and frozen yogurt which is almost unheard of in Europe.