Well folks, we had a smashing good time in London this past week. I know you are on the edge of your seats waiting to hear all that we did. I'll just go ahead and give you the run down in list format. :) But first, here is a sweet picture of Bailey and Daddy, riding the tube!
Wednesday- We drove over to London to stay with our friends. We left SUNNY Cardiff and arrived in gray, dreary London. The weather was awful, but oh well. It's usually about a 2 hour drive to London from our house, a bit longer to this particular part of London we were staying in this time. We didn't do much this day, Marc was meeting with someone there, a former gap year student so the girls and I just hung out at our friends flat. And let me just tell you about this flat. They live right on the Thames river y'all! It was an older flat, but had a huge bay window that overlooked the Thames. I loved it. We sat there watching boats go up and down the river, it was so neat!
The view from their front room! Right on the Thames River!Thursday- We made our way into town via the tube, the girls loved riding on the underground! We walked through St. James Park and made our way to Buckingham Palace to pick up our tickets for a tour- we were picking up our tickets for our Saturday tour, more about that later. We ate lunch at McDonald's (nice huh?) in Victoria Station, which made the girls totally happy! We went over to the Princess Diana Memorial Playground after lunch, even though it was raining. Since it didn't stop raining, we decided to get out of the rain and go into Hamley's, a large toy store in London. Apparently everyone else had the same idea. It was so crowded, but lots of fun! And then that night, our friends kept the girls so Marc and I could go see Mary Poppins in the West End. It was SO great! Complete with a man walking up the wall and across the ceiling and a flying Mary Poppins! It was so much fun!
Yum Yum, lunch at McDonald's!
The view from St. James' Park
Cerys in Hamley's!
Our Mary Poppins program
Friday- This was the day of disappointments. It was still overcast and raining off and on, but we made our way to the London Zoo. Please don't waste your time if you are ever considering going. What kind of zoo does not have elephants, bears or zebras? We saw 2 gorillas, some fish, some penguins, 2 giraffes and some birds. Cerys kept asking when we were going to see some animals. You know that's bad since
we were at the zoo! We made the best of it and enjoyed a picnic lunch anyway. After we headed back into town, we had planned to eat at Chili's! They have one in Canary Wharf, and yes it's double the price, but so worth it. Except this time. My favorite chicken quesadillas were £11 (yes, that's $24, gasp!) and they looked and tasted like they had been sitting under a heat lamp for days. There was hardly any cheese and I had asked for no onions, and there were onions on it. The chips were hard and stale too. Please don't think I'm ungrateful, I was happy to eat the stale chips because the salsa was SO good. And I enjoyed an ICE old coke. But the best part of the day, was ending it with a Krispy Kreme donut! OH my. Sinful. When KK first came to London, they were only in Harrod's but they are now scattered all over the place, and as we were walking back to the tube from Chili's, there was a little stall of KK's and it just made me forget all about the lack of animals at the zoo and my cold quesadillas! :)
London Zoo
Perfect!Saturday- The sun finally broke through and we had beautiful day! Our friends took the girls to the park so Marc and I could go on the tour of Buckingham Palace. I'm so glad we did this, it was £15 a person, but so much fun! They give you a headset for the tour and you can go at your own pace, so I would highly recommend it if any of you ever visit London. (It's only open to the public in July and August) We got to see the state rooms and dining rooms- amazing! We also saw a special exhibition that is only on this year because it's the Queen's 60th wedding anniversary. They had her wedding dress displayed and an assortment of wedding gifts they had received from around the world. It was fabulous! My favorite room was the Throne room! It was so amazing to see their two chairs on the red platform, it was almost breathtaking to me. I am a bit on the dramatic side anyway, but I just thought it was so cool. I know this sounds cheesy, but the room just commands your respect. I stood a little straighter and taller than normal. I started thinking about God, being seated on The Throne and I just couldn't imagine how much more magnificent it will be! Anyway, it was just a little moment between God and me. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the palace, but we could once we left the Grand Hall. The picture below is the back of Buckingham, where the Queen hosts Garden parties and such. One funny thing that I laughed out loud about was the lady who narrorates the audio tour, at one point she said, "You might have noticed the copious gilding around the palace." Well, "copious" is quite an understatement. I've never seen so much gold in my life. I just found it very humorous.
Oh, before heading home Saturday afternoon, we took a river cruise on the Thames and just loved it! Overall, it was great trip. We are exhausted from all the carrying and lifting we did- most tube stations do not have lifts (elevators) so it was hard work carrying the stroller up and down the stairs- some of those stations are DEEP underground! We both got a good workout!
So, that was... 2 children, a stroller with
buggy board, a backpack loaded to capacity, sweatshirts, raincoats, sippy cups, and umbrella. We are glad to be home!
Daddy explaining to Cerys how the underground operates!