A Peek at London

One reason I opted to travel with Darren to Paris was that we would take the train to London, through the Chunnel. I've always thought that sounded so cool, and I get the shivers thinking about a tunnel under something as deep and wide as the English Channel. So I was a bit disappointed by how underwhelming it was from the train. Just half an hour of nothing to see out the windows. Bummer. Maybe I'll get another chance sometime to see more of it.

London is huge! Huge, busy, fast. Yikes. My family did a big road trip when I was 16, and I think we spent one day in New York. I know I barely saw it, but London seemed even bigger. Biggest city in Europe, I think. With my travel-weary baby, I had no illusions of seeing much, so I was actually really please with all we did, squeezed in between naps.

Telephone booth, because it's bright red, and really good hot chocolate, not very sweet

It helped that our hotel was right next to Buckingham Palace! Pretty amazing. That put Hyde Park, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the Parliament Building all within a 5 minute walk or so.

Just around the corner from our hotel, you can see Westminster, Big Ben, the London Eye, and a double decker bus!

Our first day we walked around Buckingham Palace. I think we got to the front gates right after the changing of the guard, because tourists were swarming like flies on roadkill. Crowds of people kind of give me the heebie-jeebies, so we didn't stay too long. We walked past St. James Park, and then through Hyde Park. It's startling to have so much green space in the middle of such a crowded city. Very refreshing.

Speaker's Corner, at Hyde Park

The Serpentine, at Hyde Park

Herrod's was adjacent to Hyde Park, and I thought we'd stop in for a peek. It was terrifying! The ground floor has a grim army of men and women in black, prepared to attack with perfume and cosmetics. The women's fashion floor looked like it was prepared for a really expensive Halloween, and the children's floor was the worst. Big screens showing child models on the runway, dressed up like adult models. You know, dramatic make-up and hair, clothes from the Capitol in the Hunger Games, pouty, icy expressions. So, maybe haute couture isn't really my thing. I was also a little tired by this point, so we took one of those double decker red buses back to the hotel.

Our second day, I toured Westminster Abbey in the morning. What an amazing structure! So much history! It was really beautiful. Grant was napping in his stroller, which made it difficult for me to get into many of the little chapels along the side. But everything I could see was so beautiful. And they had a really nice audio tour included with admission. I thought they did a really nice, friendly, yet tactful job of sharing their faith as well as the beautiful building. That was probably the highlight of our visit to me.

After Westminster, I attempted to take a bus to St. Paul's Cathedral. I did manage to get on the bus, however, I quickly discovered that mine was not the only stroller. There were 3 other strollers, not collapsed, and at least a dozen large suitcases. Apparently that bus was heading for an airport. We really didn't fit, I was getting car sick, and Grant was fussing. So we got off, and resorted to our feet.

Steps of St. Paul's

St. Paul's is the cathedral from Mary Poppins! That was cool. We sat on the steps with a bunch of other people, ate our lunch, and attempted to feed the birds. There actually were pigeons there when we sat down, but Grant made a bunch of noise and scared them away. Oh well. Hopefully the "saints and apostles" weren't terribly disappointed as they looked down.

St. Paul's, looking up from the Millennium Bridge

From St. Paul's, we crossed the London Millennium Footbridge to see Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

Then London Bridge,

Chasing a pigeon, with London Bridge, and a funky modern building, in the background

And the Tower of London, at which point we got caught in a thunderstorm. We found a nice covered courtyard outside an office building, and I tried to play catch with Grant by rolling a mandarin orange to him. He had other ideas.

I was ready to try a bus again, but Grant fell asleep, and I ended up walking along the Thames all the way back to our hotel. It was a really nice walk, pretty path and all that, but I ended up walking nearly ten miles that day!