London, England

Our first couple of days in England we spent touring London.  We packed a lot in, looking back I am still impressed by how much we were able to do!  I think we did just about everything that was on our wish list!  Sorry about the length of this entry, we took over 500 pictures, and it was so very hard to narrow down.  These are the highlights!

One of our first stops was an english phone booth.  These are very stinky, so I wonder if anyone ever uses them at all anymore.  We liked this one the best because you can see Big Ben in the background.

We like to get ice cream where ever we go.  In England they have a style of cream they call "mr. Whippy".  It was very different then the rich gelato we are used too, but still very good.  The best I can describe is, it is soft serve that is almost like a rich whipped cream.  Very light, creamy and refreshing on a hot day!

 It was neat to see the olympic rings on the Tower Bridge

 We went on a river cruise along the Thames river, it was a great way to end one of our evenings in London!

 walking across the Tower Bridge

We took lots of breaks through out the days.  This stop the girls are putting together a sticker book they had gotten in the Tower Bridge.

 We went to the Winston Churchill war rooms museum.

This was fascinating, all a series of rooms in a bunker built underground, right near Parliament.  It was pretty fascinating to see their system, and also to see they still had their creature comforts...like separate bedrooms for Mr and Mrs. Churchill, private dining rooms and kitchens...fascinating how the aristocracy lives, even during war times.

 Big Ben, next to the House of Parliament.

 Westminster Abbey

No pictures were allowed inside, but we saw some awesome things.  My favortie parts of these old churches are the crypts.  We saw the tomb of Edward the Confessor, Elizabeth I, Mary queen of Scots.

Pretty fascinating!

Big Ben 

Inside the House of Parliment.

We actually sat in on a debate conducted by the House of Lords.

White wigs and all, it was pretty cool to see.

The boys had to wait outside in the hall, I wonder why?

The London Eye

 Inside the Eye.

This was probably one of the more expensive things we did, but we thought it was worth the money.  It gave a great overview of London, and was just generally a cool experience.  I was amazed at how many fit in one compartment, it was much larger then I had envisioned.

 Some 30 statues of the Olympic mascot were placed around London.  We didn't find all of them, but ran into quite a few.  This was one of our favorite...he is dressed up like Big Ben.

 Going under the London Bridge while on our river cruise

 Buckingham Palace

 Buckingham Palace

 Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace

I was amazed at what a ceremony this was.  It lasted well over an hour, with many parades of soldiers, a brass band  concert, and then the final march as the guards left the Palace grounds.

Next we visited St. Pauls cathedral

We got to hike up the dome, and learned that whispering domes make our boys even louder...if that is even possible!

The Tower of London

here is traitors gate, where one of our ancestors, Robert Overton, was imprisoned.  He was probably brought in through Traitors Gate by boat, that is how most prisoners were brought in.

 One of the many "towers" in the tower of London.  This place was huge, you could easily spend the better part of a day touring all the different buildings of the Tower.  We only had little over an hour, so just hit the highlights.

 One of the "highlights" is the White Tower.

This was the main residence of William the Conqueror, and is also built along side the ruins of the old Roman settlement Londonium.

The Crown Jewels are housed in this tower.  Also the medals for the Olympics were kept here until they were awarded.  We weren't able to view the medals...they weren't on display for the public.  But we were able to see the Crown Jewels, which are pretty amazing

This guard was awesome.  The boys were so fascinated with him, that he started marching for them.

 One of our last evenings in London, we walked in Hyde park, and ended up on the border of Kensington Park to see the statue of Peter Pan.

Each night ended in a ride on the London Tube, as we headed to where we parked our car.  The london tube was so vast.  It was mind boggling, but by the end of our London excursions we were traveling it like pros.

We loved our time spent in London.  It was so fun to tour a city and be able to speak and understand the language!  so refreshing!!