English vacation (Day 3): London!

(You may have to click on some of theses pictures in order to see them better.)

We got up early (compared to yesterday) and headed out to London on the 9:45 train with Daisha and Tabitha. This was the first train ride for our family and it was actually pretty fun. My OB told me about the "mind the gap" signs all over, and here one is. Oh, lines are called "queues" (pronounced Q's).


When we arrived in London at the Blackfriar station, we headed up to St. Paul's cathedral to catch a site seeing bus, but as we approached the cathedral we could hear the bells tolling, which seemed a little odd, to me, for a Wednesday. When we saw the cathedral, there was a huge crowd and it was all blocked off. We found out that Prince Charles and Camilla were to be arriving shortly. We hung around to take pictures, but when they finally arrived, a bus got in my way and I just tried to video tape it. Pretty cool though, to see royalty on our first moments in London. Well, aside from the night drive.


We hopped on the London tour double-decker bus and sat in the bottom in the beginning, but then we were able to go on the top when it cleared out a bit, and that was really fun!



We snacked on "crisps" on the bus, and look at these flavors!!! Even though the name grossed me out, the prawn cocktail ones were so delicious! Hyrum tricked me into trying them, and after tasting them, I had to admit they'd struck genius with that flavor.


Then they made everyone switch to another bus for some reason, so we lost our seats on the top and just took up the back row in the bottom instead. Tabitha needed to "wee", as they say in England, then Hyatt did also, and we couldn't get off to find a "loo" (bathroom), so we put one of Kiersa's diapers on Tabitha, and had Hyatt pee in an empty water bottle. Whoever said girls are easier to potty train didn't mention that it's way more convenient to help a boy pee wherever he needs to.


Poor Tabs was mortified about peeing in a diaper (she's 3), and was NOT happy about the experience, but what can you do?

See? These are typical cars on the street. Not very small to me, though everyone told me they're so tiny. The smallest are Smart cars, and we have those even in Coos Bay. There is an obvious lack of large SUVs though. The little black old fashioned-looking cars are the taxis, although they're not always black.


Next we went on the river cruise tour, on the river Thames, which was especially fun since our guide had really funny commentary.

I swear our driver looked so much like Captain Culpepper from "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". Even Daisha thought so.

Just so you know, this bridge is the Tower Bridge.


And this boring bridge is the famous London Bridge.

Most people assume the Tower Bridge is the London Bridge from the song "London Bridge is Falling Down", but that's not the case.

Here's Big Ben, which is actually the name of the bell, not the clock. It's the second largest bell in England (St. Paul's has the biggest). Big Ben is at the Houses of Parliament.



The London eye is on our list of things to do.


There's really great architecture in London!
The Tower of London, where the crown jewels are kept.

This church is in the middle of the street and was designed by the man who designed St. Paul's cathedral.

This church steeple way off in the distance is why wedding cakes are tiered. A baker used this steeple as his inspiration for the cake, and it caught on.

St. John's cathedral, where Michael wanted to feed the pigeons on Mary Poppins.

This building is nicknamed "the pickel" or "gerkin".

This one is called "the testicle".

The tower of London again.

Shakespeare's Globe theatre, the only building allowed to have a thatched roof since the fire that wiped out London in 1666.

A gift from Egypt: Cleoptra's needle. It's twin is in New York.

I love how this old building is nestled in with modern ones.


We took the cruise down to Greenwich (pronounced Grenich) where we got off and saw the Maritime Museum,


but were too late for the observatory where you can stand in the east and the west at the same time. We saw the bright green line shining off into the distance during our night drive. In Greenwich, I saw several strange things.
A Chevy pickup at a movie set for "Dorian Grey" where they were covering the street with dirt to make it look old. I was told I wouldn't see a pickup in England. The carriage is for the movie also.


Bongs for sale.


A Mexican restaurant, which is extremely rare in England.


I don't know what's up with this armour. Must have been a jovial man who wore it. What's up with his hand too? Maybe they're not so proper over here afterall.



Straight to the point.

These are what all the sidewalks look like in London.


We hopped back onto the boat...



and went back up to the Tate Modern Museum (it was closed) where we met Edward and walked over the river on the "wobbly" bridge back to the St. Paul's area to find some dinner, since we were "peckish".

Edward is a serious speed-walker from working in the city and walking there all the time, so we had to practically jog to keep up with him (he's in black pushing the stroller). By the way, I think I've only seen one umbrella stroller that isn't a Maclaren out here. They are the only way to go in my opinion, and apparently in everyone's opinion over here too.


We ate at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen where we had burgers, chips (fries), milkshakes and smoothies. We were warned that the milkshakes in England are just milk that shaken (so a chocolate shake is really just chocolate milk...shaken), but we weren't told anything about the smoothies. So when we got our drinks, the smoothies were more like thick juice (not a creamy smoothie), and the milkshakes were actually thick and what we expected. Not to be proved wrong, Daisha said it must be because it's an Australian restaurant, so we have a challenge to find an English milkshake.

Saying goodbye to the city before we caught the train.


After dinner, we rushed off to the train and caught it in the nick of time, and after a long, fun, exhausting day, I fell asleep on the train.


Tilly was asleep too, but she was asleep before we even got to dinner. We got off the train after 45 minutes, walked in the dark down the road, up the alley, past the stinky house that must have a nasty sewer problem or something, and to the house. Now we can go back to London knowing what we want to actually go visit.

Oh, here are some funny words and things I saw in London today:
This trash collector says "I eat rubbish", and I wondered if that sign was hanging around my neck too.

The streets tell the tourists which way to look since England drives on the wrong side and you have to look the opposite way you're used to looking when crossing traffic.

This Sprite bottle said "Best served seriously cool". Who writes the labels?

"Ends" is a much better word to use than "butts".

A little bird told me there aren't any trash cans in London and I'd have to carry my trash all day, but I found them everywhere! I never had to carry any trash.

Check out the crazy hats and uniforms on the police.


Look at how narrow this street is! It's not an alley, and it's in the middle of London!

The actual city of "London" is only a square mile, and at each entrance to that mile is a dragon guarding it. I don't know if this is actually one, but it was where we were entering London on the "wobbly" bridge. The others I saw are statues.

Gotta love the phone booths!

This is for my Schumacher nieces.

I love the mail boxes, or post boxes, but what's franked mail?