Our first full
day in Europe together and our first full day in London!
This was one of
the few days we didn’t wake the kids up early. It was nice to get a little extra sleep before hitting the
city. Our flat was located about
15 minutes by foot from the nearest underground station. The underground was super convenient
and we used it to get everywhere we wanted to go. Our flat was right next to a busy series of train
tracks. It was pretty loud during
the early evenings, but by the time we went to bed the trains must have been
less frequent or we were just so tired we didn’t notice.
We've always
passed on hop-on-hop-off tours, but seeing London on an iconic double-decker
red bus seemed to be an England must. Unfortunately we seemed to be stuck in
traffic more than moving and the heat wave hitting London was too much to bear
so we didn't ride as long as we'd planned.
Big Ben and Westminster Palace – summer is apparently a very popular
time to cover historical landmarks in scaffolding for renovation
National Gallery
The guards must
really love all these tourists gawking at them
Drew also got
“car sick” on the bus and we ended up needing to shove an entire gallon sized
bag of grapes into our mouths so he could puke in the bag. Lovely.
We decided to
take a water taxi (included on our London passes) up to the Tower of London. In hindsight waiting for the boat ride
ended up taking much too longer than we’d have liked, but what was done was
done.
London Tower Bridge
London Tower
We grabbed some
quick sandwiches for lunch and then took a beefeater tour of the Tower of
London and checked out the Crown Jewels. We were thrilled to find a water
fountain in the Tower of London so we could fill up on depleted water
bottles. So, so hot.
(caught Jason and Katie mid-chew)
Next up was the
London Tower Bridge.
The kids enjoyed
laying on the glass floors high up on the bridge and taking pictures of the
mirrors above. We were up on top when they opened the bridge to let a boat
through so that was cool.
London Tower from
atop London Bridge
Justin and I reenacted
a picture of us from way back in 1999…
Our family sure
has changed in 19 years…
And then we ended
the evening with a sunset ride on the London Eye!
The kids asked
for lots of pictures up top
Making the shot
above
We ended up
riding the London Eye for free because the guy who sold us the tickets charged
us too much and when we complained to management they wrote it all off – free
makes the London Eye even sweeter!
What a fun day!
Jason’s on his tippy toes here – he hasn’t past up Carly yet!
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