Day 6

I am ashamed that it has taken me this long to talk about a trip that happened many months ago, but I need to stick to my commitment and finish writing about it before I move on to other things. So much has happened since this trip, but I just don't want to forget how special and exciting this trip was, so I need to write about it.

Today Myrna volunteered to watch Lydia for the day so Jeff and I could head into downtown London. While we call this our London trip, and George and Myrna were called to the London South mission, and serve at the London temple, we were not all that close to London itself. So it was definitely a full day to take to see the sights. We saw it as a win win for all of us. We got to tour without Lydia and the stroller, and because George and Myrna could not get the day off to tour with us, it worked out that Myrna got to spend the day with Lydia anyways.

We got to the train station  in the morning as we had a lot to pack in to a little bit of time. Thankfully we were well educated on the train system by now, so that part was a breeze. We made sure to wait until after the early morning rush so we weren't steam rolled at the train station again. After our 40 minute or so train ride, we arrived. I have to say, while riding the train, you always hear the name of the station upon arrival followed by "Mind the Gap". It seems like such a funny saying, but I figured it was just one of those words or sayings that UK people say and no one thinks twice about it. Well, I was sure happy to see magnets and post cards and T-shirts and many other types of souvenirs in the shops all saying Mind The Gap. It made me feel better to know that it wasn't just me that noticed the common saying. I could probably write a short list of words used there that are not used often here, but this one definitely stuck out the most to me.

When we arrived at the station in London it was POURING rain. We knew that we wanted to take a hop on hop off bus tour, but I sure did not want to go outside in the pouring rain to find one. So we wasted time wandering around trying to avoid the rain and still trying to find a bus. We were not successful. Finally the rain stopped and all of a sudden vendors appeared from everywhere. I hate paying more than I have to for things, and I knew what the price for the buses online were, and all the vendors were charging quite a bit more. So we wasted time while I complained and refused to pay their ridiculous prices (probably really only $5 difference), until I got over myself and found what we figured was the best deal there. It's one of those issues I have that I really need to conquer. Thankfully Jeff is SO good about it and just accepts it.

We finally made it on a bus. It was so neat to be on a real London double decker bus! We drove through downtown as we were shown many different sights. I noticed a lot of Starbucks, just like home, they were on every corner it seemed. We passed JK Rowlings home, which was neat to see. (Was it really her home? We don't really know, but the bus driver said it was).

JK Rowlings home

I enjoyed taking in the sights. Again, it just felt so surreal. So many things I have only seen in movies that I was living and seeing for myself. Like their taxis. I know, something so simple, but they are so different than our taxis. We saw a few different police vehicles. At least I think they were police of some sort. They were some fancy vehicles and the people driving them were dressed very nicely, but the sirens were going and they were driving extremely fast.

One of their taxis

We drove past Westminster Abbey which was way bigger then I imagined it being. I couldn't help but think of Clara as we passed it since she was so fascinated by the royal wedding.

Westminster Abbey

We continued on past the parliament building and the clock tower with Big Ben (which has since been renamed). We saw the London Eye, which really did look out of place. I mean any Ferris wheel in the middle of a city is weird, but a city with so much history and such old buildings, and then you see this random Ferris wheel. As you enter the side where the London Eye is, you start to realize that many of your surroundings are very different and much more modern. I can't say for sure what all we saw, I was too busy being in awe of such a different surrounding. I do know that we made a stop at the Tower of London and wanted to go in so bad, but we were just too cheap. Later we figured out we actually had a coupon in our hands for 50% off admission because we took the train, but we unfortunately we did not realize in time.

Our bus guide called this old meets new. A view of Big Ben tower through the London Eye

We got off the bus and took a short boat tour. We went under the London Bridge, which you think would be a nice bridge, but it's not, just a plain boring old bridge. The cool bridge was actually the Tower Bridge.

You would think this was the London Bridge. It's not. It's the Tower Bridge.

This is the London Bridge

This is Shakespeares Globe. It's actually a reconstruction of the original Globe Theatre.

Love these underground signs.

Somehow we found our way to the coolest shopping district called Regent Street. It was so busy, but so neat. Our bus driver told us as we were getting off that London has been doing the New York thing long before New York even existed. Honestly, I had no idea that this place existed, which may come as a surprise since I always scope out shopping, but this trip did not involve shopping, so I was too busy scoping out other things. I can't say I was disappointed to end up shopping after all. I can say I knew about the toy store Hamley's and I was SO excited to visit it. It was huge, and overwhelming and full of marketing pitches, but it was neat to see. Even if we did get sucked into purchasing some random toy that never gets used.

From Regent Street we ended up taking a very long walk to Buckingham Palace. The queen was there so it was not open to the public, but it was really neat to see regardless. We watched a vehicle enter the gated lot and as it did all the guards started marching back and forth. It's fascinating to me that some one could stand there all day without moving and I couldn't help but wonder if it is a relief to them to be able to move their muscles even if only for a moment.

Couldn't leave without a photo of the phone booth.

From here we walked back to the train station, stopping along the way for some crepes. I know, wrong country, but they were good anyways. I had been complaining to Jeff for a while that my feet were killing me, but he was so good and just listened instead of getting mad at me for being a baby. It can be confusing trying to figure out which platform your train will be stopping at since there are SO many trains running through the station every day. Basically you sit and watch a screen until your station shows up and tells you what platform and arrival time. It's a bit of organized chaos.

We arrived back to our home station and George picked us up again. He was a fabulous taxi driver for this trip, the roads were way to scary for me to drive or even have Jeff drive on. We went back to our room and got ready for dinner. Thankfully Lydia behaved herself for Myrna. We couldn't have her acting bad because it was our last day and there was no time to redeem herself. Before dinner I wanted to walk around the temple and take some pictures. I had no idea there was so much land surrounding this temple. It was amazing. Simply stunning. It was so green and so well manicured. What a beautiful setting and I am so grateful that I got to experience it.

It was a sad evening for me knowing we were leaving in the morning, it didn't feel like we had enough time. It was so fun to have evenings to spend with Jeff's parents, but I wish we had more of those evenings. We stayed up chatting and even attempted skypeing with the kids. Of course it had to be our last night there that we attempted this. Oops. At least we did it and the kids can't hold it against us.