London Town

So I met Ben in London last week. He insisted I take a trip with him sometime in the next 18 months. That was about 17 months ago.

My mom challenged me to document everything with selfies. I took that challenge very seriously. I've never really taken a lot of selfies before so I don't look that great in them, I was usually more worried about getting what was in the background.

So here we are leaving Paddington Station on the way from the airport to the hotel. It took us 3 hours from the time I landed, to the time I got to lie down in a bed. I did not find any small peruvian bears at Paddington Station.

After a hefty nap we left the hotel to find the nearest tourist attractions, here is St. Paul's Cathedral. Here we watched "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins on Ben's phone. We also saw a girl feeding the birds, but she was not on the steps, or offering crumbs to anyone else.

We walked from the Cathedral along the Thames, past the Globe theater to Tower Bridge. Anna insisted we make this stop. She wanted to see the pictures.

The next morning we rode down to the Parliament building and Westminster. Here we are with Big Ben. The London Marathon happened to be taking place at that very place and time. So we walked around through London finding random things like 10 Downing St. and the National Gallery and the British Museum, where we saw mummies and lots of artifacts.

Here is Westminster.  We had to come back Monday to take the tour inside, Ben explained that the idea of a Hall of Fame is not really used outside the US, but this is basically the British version of the Hall of Fame, they bury or memorialize everyone who is anyone in here.

Buckingham Palace. There was still no royal baby when we stopped by, she was born as we were flying home, but we saw the news outlets camping out close by. We also saw the changing of the guard, which is pretty silly when there is also a guy with a kevlar vest and a machine gun walking around next to them.

The next day Ben had to work, so I was on my own. I went to the Tower of London. Which is essentially their first castle. Built in like 1096 or something. It's a big castle surrounded by smaller buildings, surrounded by two walls. I went on the official tour, walked around the wall behind and among a french middle school field trip. I saw the crown jewels, some armor, a rack (for torture).

I also happened upon a smaller "tour" inside the castle chapel, mostly we sat in the chapel while he told us more history of the monarchs for 45 minutes, then he showed us two other spots in the adjacent room. One was the Royal Throne. As in Bathroom. There is only one and this little hole I am pointing to is where it got flushed out. I spent a good part of the day here at the Tower.

Afterward I rode the tube down further to the Victoria and Albert Art and Design museum which showcases artifacts that are examples of art from different cultures. These are some large sculptures I found in the hallway. They are holding little flags. Across from them there was a dragon and something else, but I really liked this fish and lamb.

The next day I was on my own again and went to the Natural History Museum, which is like, a really impressive building. Outside they had a butterfly greenhouse, I had to go in if only for the kids. I got them some nice sticker books.

So here is the inside, it is a huge museum but I think because it was lightly raining, it was seriously crowded.

This room was really impressive, like the Bean Museum on steroids. They had an entire blue whale! It was awesome. But eventually I realized that I don't care too much about seeing or learning more about animals. So I left the museum.

I walked up to Hyde Park, this is the Albert Memorial. They really liked that guy. Huge and very... Russian. It's across the street from the Royal Albert Hall. Albert was responsible for the Great Exhibition, which was held in a giant glass building in Hyde Park.

Hyde Park adjacent is Kensington Park and inside Kensington Park is Kensington Palace, which was nice I guess that's where some royals might live. Here are the gardens at the palace. Absolutely gorgeous.

Here I am with Peter Pan in Hyde Park.

The next day I waited around the hotel for Ben to get done with work early, when he was done we went into the city to eat. We ate exceptionally well on this trip. After dinner we were walking around Soho and accidentally found Liberty of London. It's a really old and really fancy department store where they have some extremely fancy fabrics that they design and sell only there. Like $30/yard of fabric. It was enough just to see them.

The next day we celebrated Ben meeting Benedict Cumberbatch and went to 221 Baker Street. The line was down the block, and we didn't care too much, so we just took a picture then hopped on a double decker bus.

We found ourselves back at Kensington and Hyde Park, tired of walking, we rented bikes and rode all over the parks, it was really the most fun thing we did.

That night we concluded our adventure with an evening at the theater. We saw Les Miserables, the longest running production in the world. It was very good. We got back to the hotel late then woke up early and headed to the airport.

During the first few days I couldn't help compare this trip with our Russia/Ukraine trip from 5 years ago. That was back before Ben was an experienced world traveler. That trip was great and exotic, but it had it's hiccups. This trip was amazing and new and nearly hiccup free. Thanks for making me come Ben.