London - Day 1

Our lovely train delivered us to Liverpool Station, in the heart of London, and we set out for adventure.  The plan was to visit Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey first and then make our way to Buckingham Palace in time for the changing of the guard.  We found our way to a ticket counter for the Tube and bought our day passes and picked up a tube map as well.  Unfortunately, the friendly guy at the ticket counter didn't tell us that London was in the middle of a tube strike that day!  

Luckily there were transit workers wearing bright pink vests at each station and they were more than happy to answer all our questions and help us figure out the best way to make our way around despite many of the lines having reduced service or just being closed completely.  We were told that it was an easy walk to Parliament from Liverpool Station and were given directions that seemed clear until we got outside and started walking.  It was really difficult to find my way without a map of the streets or a point of reference.  We stopped to get our bearings at one point and saw a sign that said "Tower of London - 20 mins" so we decided to chuck our plans out the window and go to the Tower and I'm so glad we did because it was so much fun.  We ended up spending the entire morning exploring the tower.

Abigail and Madison with some of London's beautiful skyline in the background. The Tower has been used as a prison, a royal residence, a zoo, an ordnance storage facility, a royal mint, a storehouse, and an observatory.  We spent our first half hour or so walking through a part of the tower that was used in the 1500s as a royal residence.  

Madison standing at the entrance of a small chapel inside the residence wing

Abigail by the window in the chapel overlooking the Thames and the Tower Bridge

Sitting on the steps that lead up to the royal bedroom

We decided to take the Yeoman Warder tour because it sounded like fun and I always like to get a general overview before spending more time exploring.  Our Yeoman tour guide was entertaining and knowledgeable so the hour long tour flew by.  Some of the stories he told were pretty gruesome, particularly the ones about the history of the Tower as a prison and execution site.  It was a great tour and was very interesting.  I think it was definitely worth the time because it made it easier later on to understand what we were seeing.

We learned about the difference between the Tower Bridge (pictured above) and London Bridge (which can be found in Lake Havasu, Arizona)

He also told us about the history of the Tower Guards

and about the legend of the Tower ravens.  Apparently, if the six ravens leave the Tower, the kingdom will fall.  To be safe they keep seven ravens at the Tower, six and one spare.

Once the tour was finished we looked around all four floors of the White Tower, the oldest part of the Tower.  When it was first built under William the Conqueror in the 11th century, it was the tallest building in all of London and could be seen for miles as boats sailed up the Thames.  It was so large both to deter foreign invaders and to impress Londoners.  The upper floors were used as a palace and the basement was used as both an armory and prison.

Inside the White Tower there was an amazing dragon made from old weapons and armor.  The dragon is placed at the beginning of an exhibition of royal weapons and armor spanning back 500 years.  

After we finished looking all around the White Tower we made our way across the courtyard to see the Crown Jewels.  I don't consider myself to be much of a jewelry person, but wow, that stuff was amazing.  It was really neat to see and to talk with Abby and Madison about which crown we'd choose.  Surprisingly we didn't all choose the crown with the biggest diamond! Unfortunately, photography was not permitted in the exhibit so we don't have any photos of our silly faces admiring the amazing and beautiful collection.

Right before we left the Tower to set off into London again, we found our first telephone box!  It's not red, but Abby still wanted to have a quick picture taken.

We were happy to learn that the Tower Tube station was open and running trains that day.  We had to take a little bit of a back and forth route, but we were able to get where we wanted to go without walking the entire way!  We made a quick stop in Leicester Square to buy theater tickets for that night and then set out to find lunch.

My friend Esther had told me that when she visited London with two of her boys they ate at Pret a Manger, or Pret, because they were everywhere in London.  Sure enough we found three within sight of each other.  I've since learned that there are 176 Pret a Manger stores in London and I think we ate at 173 of them; not really but we did have Pret for lunch that day and Pret for snack, lunch, and dinner the next day.  Plus we stopped at the Pret in the airport on the way home and bought snacks to have for the drive home from the airport.  It's safe to say that we thought Pret was delicious and after a quick google search we were happy to find that there are 7 Pret a Manger locations in DC!

We ate our lunch in the shadow of a fountain in Trafalgar Square, walked around the square for a bit, and then started walking toward Parliament and Big Ben.

Madison was excited to find Downing Street, even if we couldn't get onto the actual street to see Number 10.  

We grabbed a quick photo with Big Ben in the background and then went on to Westminster Abbey.  The plan was to visit the Abbey, but I couldn't see paying 36 pounds (about $60) to see a church especially because we've seen many, many old churches in Europe.  Instead we visited St. Margaret's Church which is a small chapel connected to Westminster that is free to enter.  It felt really good to just sit down after waking up so early to travel and then spending so many hours walking around London.  Madison and I both pulled out our Kindles and started reading, but Abigail just sat with her head on my shoulder and eventually fell asleep in the cool and peaceful church.  Feeling refreshed, we set out again and decided that Buckingham Palace should be the next site to see.

Buckingham Palace - since the Union Jack was flying and not the Royal Standard the Queen wasn't there that day.

The Victoria Memorial

When we finally found Buckingham Palace we were about four hours too late for the changing of the guard. We probably spent more time trying to get a decent picture of Abigail and I at the Victoria Memorial across from the Palace than we did actually being touristy at the Palace! Abby was being silly and kept making faces or keeping her eyes closed.

We decided to take a break from our usual habits and not eat at Pret for dinner that night.  Instead we stopped at a Cornish Pasty shop I had seen as we were walking to the Palace and oh. my. goodness. They were delicious!  Again we were surprised by British food and were left thinking that maybe it shouldn't have such a bad reputation.  Mine was filled with pork sausage, apple chunks, and cheddar cheese and I still think about how good it was and wish I had a recipe for something similar because I think our entire family would love these.  

Okay, so this trip was not all about food, but we were excited to see a Krispy Kreme in the train station as we were waiting for our train to the hotel.  So what if we had just eaten dinner, right? After carrying our luggage around with us all day we were ready to get to the hotel and drop our things off.  It wasn't so bad since we had each only brought a backpack, but it was nice to have a place to leave our things before we headed back out for the evening.  Madison even took a nap before we set out again.

The main reason we went to London was to see a show.  We talked a lot about which show we'd most like to see and if we would maybe have the time to see more than one.  In the end we decided on Wicked because Madison and Abigail love the music and were totally sure they would love the show. Since we didn't have time for more than one show, they wanted it to be one that they felt confident they would enjoy.  We had purchased our tickets earlier in the day and ended up with pretty great seats - fourth row back and just to the left of center stage.  We were so close that it was almost too loud for me during some of the songs.

These two ladies were so excited when we finally made our way into the theater.  They both took a peek in the orchestra pit before the show began and we all spent some time studying the map of Oz up on the stage.  The show itself was really great; it was a lot of fun to see the way the sets were changed for each different scent, the music and acting was quite good, and of course the songs are stick in your head amazing.  It was great first day in London!