Lovely and Lively London

Yes, I know - I'm quite behind in sharing our adventures with y'all. So, without further ado, here is the first 'installment' of our back-logged travels...lovely (and damp and chilly) London.

We left early morning on Tuesday, September 9th to catch our 8 a.m. train to Brussels - arrived 3 hours later, having read The Cat in the Hat for the 863rd time. We thought we would have a little bit of time to relax before hopping on the Eurostar (Chunnel train) to London, but no luck. By the time we made it through Eurostar check-in, passport check, and border patrol, we only had time for a quick potty break/diaper change. We boarded the train, Ben fell asleep pretty quickly, and Greg and I joined him in snoozy-land not long after. We arrived at 1 p.m. London time (one hour earlier than Amsterdam), so at least we gained an hour back in our busy travel day. We had 'sticker shock' right away - our underground (mind the gap!) tickets to get to the hotel were 4 British pounds each! Yikes! That's about $7.35 per ticket once you factor in the exchange rate - for a one-way trip on the subway! Thankfully, we were able to purchase the 7 day travel pass for 24 pounds, which allowed for travel on all public transportation. We definitely got our money's worth out of that! We made it to our hotel, Central House Hotel. Found it online, and the price was right - but I wouldn't recommend it for future visitors to London. Anyhow, we got checked in and settled, then ventured out.

It was about 4 p.m. now, and we made our way towards Covent Garden - in a drizzle. We made a quick stop at the Shipley (my maiden name) bookstore on Charing Cross Road for a photo op. We walked around Covent Garden for a bit, browsing through the market and peeking in all of the cute shops. We saw the Royal Opera House and St. Paul's Church, and then walked to the Seven Dials statue. We enjoyed Hamburger Union for dinner. Greg ordered a milkshake, of which Ben enjoyed almost all of! Still rainy, so we called it an evening and went back to the hotel. We called Dad, Sherry, and Grandma before going to bed - they were in Streamwood awaiting the cab to take them to O'Hare - to come to London to be with us! Hurray, it won't be long now!

We were up early on Wednesday to be sure that we were showered and had breakfast by the time family arrived. They got to the hotel about 9:15 a.m., after a 50 minute "supernanny" cab ride. Lots of hugs and kisses in the lobby! They couldn't get into their room yet, so we hauled their luggage to our room and had quite a "look at me" show from Ben. He was very happy to see Maw Maw, Paw Paw, and Great Grandma - and to show them all the new tricks he had learned since April. :) They were up for some sightseeing, so we left about 11 a.m. to ride the hop on/hop off sightseeing bus around the city. We saw the Marble Arch, Madame Tussaud's, Picadilly Circus, and the National Gallery to name a few. We hopped off at St. Paul's Cathedral for some photos, and we found "Ye Olde London Pub" for lunch. Mmmmm, fish and chips!

Hopped back on the bus after lunch...saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, London Eye (ferris wheel), and Tower Bridge. We made our way to the Tower of London, where we hopped off again. I had been to London about 10 years ago (wow, how old am I?) and remembered loving the Tower of London. Still love it! We walked in just in time to catch the Beefeater's tour - I love those guys! Except now, I guess I should say 'those guides', as the first female Beefeater was selected about a year ago. (See her below with the family.) We also saw the Crown Jewels (no photos allowed, but note the photo of the very serious guard protecting them).

We left the Tower and saw the Tower Bridge before cruising down the Thames River and passing under the London Bridge (free cruise ticket with our sightseeing bus ticket - yeah for free stuff!) In the second photo below, you can see the building called "the cucumber" through the tower walls. I always love the contrast of new and old. By now, Dad, Sherry, and Grandma were quite tired, and we were very proud of them for staying awake and active all afternoon! We made our way back to the hotel and had dinner at a cute little Italian place nearby. Then, bedtime - tomorrow is another busy day!

Thursday morning had a slower start - we met in the lobby at 10 a.m. to head for Victoria Station to catch the sightseeing bus to Buckingham Palace (can hop on/hop off for 24 hours, so we still had a few hours left). We were planning on seeing the changing of the guard, and then touring the State Rooms of the palace which are only open during August and September while the Queen is on holiday. Much to our dismay, my info on the changing of the guard was wrong - it does not happen every day at 11:30 - it happens every other day, and of course, this was not the right day. Since we were already there, we went ahead with the State Room tour. Amazing, it is clearly good to be the Queen! My favorite part was the Throne Room, set up as it would be for a State Banquet. The table was stunning, the flowers were gorgeous, and everything was so precise. Greg and I have added "going to a state dinner" to our life list now - don't ask us how we will get invited, we haven't figured that part out yet. No photos allowed inside, heartbreaking for this little scrapbooker/blogger. But, here is a photo of the back of the Palace and the little guy getting some shut eye (he obviously wasn't too impressed).

We left Buckingham Palace and grabbed some lunch on our way to Harrod's department store. Good thing we had already eaten, because the Food Hall (my favorite part of Harrod's) is so pretty that I wanted to eat everything! I could spend all day just wandering around in the Food Hall, but we made our way up to Christmas World. We all found small ornaments to buy, with no real damage done to our wallets. Whew!

It was now late afternoon, and Dad, Sherry, and Grandma were still doing their best to fight off jet lag. We called it a day and went back to the hotel. They were so gracious to watch Ben for the evening so Greg and I could enjoy dinner and a musical. We were hoping for Phantom of the Opera tickets, but nothing available (not surprising) since it was 6 p.m. and the show starts at 7:30. So, instead of romance, we ended up in the humor genre - we saw Monty Python's Spamalot. Very funny! On the busride back to the hotel, we saw someone reading a paper and just pieces of a headline that said something about "blaze, chaos, Chunnel". Uh oh, that can't be good!

Friday was Grandma's day! Her parents were born near London, so we went to Sheffield for the day (about 2+ hours by train) to see about getting birth certificates - and just to see the area. Ben was able to get a nap on the train (and so was everyone else, with the exception of me). Sheffield was really pretty, a cute little university type town (cool fountain outside the train station in photo below). Greg, our wonderful navigator, led us to the Sheffield Town Hall. The woman we spoke with was very nice, but since Grandma's mom was technically born in a little town called Swallownest, it was not part of their "district". So, we hopped a bus to Aston, where we thought we could find the town hall and get more information. On the way to Aston, a woman overheard us talking and told us there was no town hall in Aston. Apparently, we had needed to go to Rotherham. Oops! We were running out of time at this point, so we had to give up and make our way back to Sheffield. But, we did drive through Swallownest on the bus, so at least we could say that we saw it!

We caught the 4:15 p.m. train back to London - no time to stop in Leicester, where Grandma's dad was born. As we got off the train in London (where everyone had caught little cat naps again except for me and Ben), Grandma says that she is glad that she got to see a lot of beautiful countryside. Ha ha ha!! I am laughing out loud now, pretty sure that I'm the only one that could have seen any countryside. ;)

Also at the London train station, we stopped to speak with a Eurostar rep about our train tickets for Sunday morning. The Chunnel was closed today due to yesterday's chemical fire on a freight train (no fatalities, thank God), and the rep wasn't sure when service would be back up - she thought it may even be a month! Whoa, we love London, but we can't afford to stay here for a month! So, we grabbed a quick dinner, and then Greg and Dad got busy planning how we would get back to Amsterdam. They booked a flight for Saturday evening, which meant we were going to be cutting our London adventure a little short. We were sad about this, but I think everyone was getting a bit tired of our busy pace and ready to settle in at "home" (Amsterdam) for some R&R and more leisurely sightseeing.

Thus, Saturday morning was a busy one - getting ready, eating breakfast, getting packed up, and checking out of the hotel early. Oh, and cleaning up our bloody son. While we were packing, Ben was sitting on the bed and threw himself back into the corner of the nightstand. He started crying, and we started rubbing his head to make it feel better. Until we noticed our hands were bloody...ugh! Ultimately, he was fine, and apparently just wanted to add a little more stress into our lives. Even with all the extra excitement, we made it out by 9:30 a.m. to see as much as we could see before our flight. We started at Buckingham Palace, hoping that maybe we'd catch the changing of the guard...even though we assumed it had probably happened yesterday while we were in Sheffield. Yep, it did, and so we at least got to see the front of the Palace.

From there, we walked along St. James Park towards Big Ben and the Abbey. We were in search of Number 10 Downing Street (official residence of the Prime Minister), but were having trouble finding it. Dad walked up to a guard standing nearby and asked for directions (way to go Dad, a man not afraid to ask for directions!) The guard was from Schaumburg, are you kidding? And, he has family in Morton, IL. Crazy! There was a crowd gathering in the open courtyard, and the guard told us it was the changing of the guard. Clearly not the one in front of Buckingham Palace, but the changing of the Horse Guards. So, we stayed to watch that and while watching, Grandma saw a lady she knew from California. Seriously, what a small world!

We found Number 10 Downing St, had some fun in a London telephone booth, saw Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. Stopped for a quick lunch, and as we were walking back to the Churchill Museum/Cabinet War Rooms, we walked right down Storey Gate (Storey is Greg's mom's maiden name). Couldn't have planned that if we tried! By now, it was about 1 p.m., and we had 1 hour to explore in the CWR/Churchill Museum. It was really interesting seeing all this underground space that was used during WWII and learning more about Churchill's life.

We quickly made our way back to the hotel, and the airport shuttle came at 3 p.m. Arrived at Heathrow at 4 p.m., checked in, went through security, and Ben and Maw Maw had a great time playing in the airport and looking at all the people. :) We did a little shopping, had dinner, and boarded our 7:30 flight. Short flight, only 45 minutes. Got our bags, took the train to Amsterdam Central Station, took the bus to our apartment...walked in the door at 10:30 p.m. We were all pretty wiped, except Ben who was happy to be home and show off his home and toys to his visitors. Took him a little while to get to bed that night, but not the rest of us - we were zonked! :)

We had a great time exploring London together. It is a beautiful and exciting city, and I'm so glad I could share it with family. And now, we have 9 days to enjoy together in Amsterdam!