London Attractions

Well, today we conquered a lot. Slept in a little bit, and had a relaxing time at the hotel just slowly getting ready. We left and took the tube to Westminster station. On the tube we listened to part of a walking tour by Rick Steves, which was great because he talks about a lot of different place and monuments that we wouldn't have otherwise looked into, and really knows his stuff. The Big Ben is actually the bell inside of the tower, but because you cannot see it the tower just ended up being called Big Ben. The bell does a jingle at the top of the hour and chimes every 15 minutes. The tower is attached to the parliament buildings, which has a flag that flies when they are in session and you can go in and sit in. Apparently today was Election Day, we hadn't a clue as we didn't see anything about it, so thank you to snapchat for informing us. 

        

The London Eye, Londoners originally called the London Eyesore. Haha which is so true because it really doesn't look pleasing to the eye. It also isn't actually a Ferris wheel, it is an observation wheel. Or in other words, it is a spinning piece of metal structure that has pods on it that can hold 25 people. Yea I am neither a height person or a Ferris wheel person and thankfully this didn't interest Luke so this was just something we looked at. Still super cool to see.

 

Next was Westminster Abbey. Wow wasn't ever a spectacular place. Although we didn't go in, even from the outside there is some spectacular work put into it. We did go into the gift shop and looked around and in some of the books and it is beautiful. It is shaped like a cross which you don't really see, but you can sort of notice when you are walking past it. 

         

We got our classic pictures with the phone booth, YAHOO!! Classic. Some of them are actually black and the have wifi apparently. Pretty nifty.     

Now, I am in no way a bagpipe person. But this is one of the instruments that are played on the street, as entertainment. It is super entertaining to see they dress up in full uniform, also interesting because bagpipes and accordions seem to be fairly common here. A few of the other things that we saw along the way. Women in World War 2 memorial, the war museum that is guarded 24/7, Whitehall, Banquet House, 10 Downey street, and ended in Trafalger square. We continued to walk through the theatre district. We even stumbled across the M&M world. Now, I don't know if you have been to one before but they are always epic places; and they definitely don't disappoint. This multi-level store is filled with everything M&M there are big M&M statues that are dressed up. The yellow one is a knight, red one a guard, green was a princess, orange one is a soccer player, blue is a cool dude in a car. The they had a few set up walking like the classic picture of the Beatles. You can personalize your M&M on many different floors. There was a double decker bus in it, really is a cool place to go into. Even though you could have been in one, they are all so different and cultural somehow, it's interesting.This was in Picadilly Square, which is one of their main squares tons of people, and dancers that are entertaining multiple movie theatres. It is so neat to see the culture.

Onwards to Buckingham Palace. One of the gates is actually about Canada."The coats of arms of six Canadian provinces were included in the Canada gate in 1906 this of British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Alberta approved later are inscribed on the pillars" the Alberta Coat of Arms is on the far right pillar.This gate actually caught us by surprise. We were not expecting to come across a Canada anything here. We also saw the Canadian embassy today, never seen one of them before. Lots of Canada flags flags outside, definitely drawing our attention. The palace is quite large, has 4 guards that move around every now and again. In the summer the Royal family goes to their summer castle in Ireland some place, an you can actually get a tour of the Palace, that wasn't yet but it would have been super neat to sere inside. 

Yes it was the Queens birthday. We hadn't made it to London yet at that point, but it was a very big deal as you can imagine. Apparently the Queen was even out walking around on her birthday, pretty nifty! We also found out that they have a monarchs birthday here, just a general day that they celebrate. aye it is past birthdays we don't know.

 

We learned that Great Britain is the mainland, but the United Kingdom includes Northern Ireland. Random Fact for ya. Seem to have a lot of random facts lately, makes me feel more knowledgeable 

I am yet again having some difficulties with pictures. So these will he to do. I have a ton more of M&M.  Buckingham palace was neat to see. We didn't go for the changing of the guards, but it is a big beautiful place. Well I have more pictures in general.

 

Just for fun here is a few more random rid bits:   

I also had my first "Lindsay" moment this evening. Here pedestrians do not have the right of way. You walk when you deem safe to walk and eventually a long time later you will actually get a walk sign. We were going to run across a street. We were holding hands, I must have stubbed my toe on the uneven pavement, causing me to fall, but because I was holding Luke's hand, I was dragged a little bit... All because I am me and clumsy and usually can not walk properly. Oops. 

 

Here they have these pins that say 'baby on board' that women wear and that mean that they are pregnant and you are suppose to offer them your seat. It it pretty cool that they do that because the train really gets busy. I am not sure what you have to give them in order to receive the pin but we haven't seen a ton of them so they must all really be pregnant it isn't just a scam to get a seat. 

We love the British accents. Especially in the comfort of our room. We always have an accent it is so fun.

Quote of the day; from a passer by as we were having lunch: "well she was more in love with her cat then she ever was with you" poor guy who ever she was talking to!!

We walked for a little longer than decided that we would get a coffee cooler and relax for a few minutes and plan the evening. As soon as we started to relax we realized we were done walking for the day, and so were our legs. We took the tube 'home' and grabbed some take away along the way and had a nice evening in. It was a full day seeing lots and even though the stories for today may be slim we made some memories that will last forever.

And so the adventure continues...