At the end of September we decided to try our luck with the Tube. We have lived in England for almost 1 year and have never ventured into London or taken the Tube. It was much easier then we thought and Ava had a blast. We had no specific plans on what we wanted to see or do, which turned out to be the best plan of all. The day was perfect, no rain or wind just sunshine and blue skies. We got off the Tube right under Big Ben, and I mean right under, we walked to the surface and immediately looked to the sky at this beautiful, huge, gold clock! We took our time and just strolled around. We didn't go inside anything (lots of things are pricey, so we thought better save it for visitors) but we did see a lot. We saw most things just by walking which was fun but I didn't wear the best shoes. My whole outfit was a "bust" when I look back at the pictures of me. Dave should have said something like "don't be mad but you do kinda look like an orange pumpkin with a frizzy blonde stem!" Live and learn.
The pictures are in order of what we saw.
The Houses of Parliament
Westminster Abbey (back)
Westminster Abbey (front)
Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk. This is a park the runs the entire length of the Mall
Squirrel (this guy was not afraid of humans at all!)
Geese in the park
Ava tried to feed the geese leaves
Buckingham Palace Plaza Statue
Throwing wishes into the Plaza Statue fountain
Ava at Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace. I though the front would have been more ornate, green with garden or grass, but it's an ugly red concrete.
Beautiful Palace Gates
The Palace Foot Guards. The Queen wasn't home on that day or there would have been double the amount of guards out front.
Sweet Canadian Tribute. Yeah Alberta!
Looking back at The Mall
Admiralty Arch
Horse Guards at St James Palace. You can go right up to these guards and their horses.
The boots they wore were amazing! Over the knee, stiff and shiny.
National Gallery at Trafalgar Square
Nelsons Column Guard Lions in Trafalgar Square
Ship in a bottle at Trafalgar
The Tower of London with the Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge
The bridge was being re-painted for the 2012 Olympics
Princess Ruby, waiting to get on the boat for our tour.
The Tower of London, from the water. You can see the famous Gherkin (the pointy bullet shaped building) They call it a Gherkin because it's lit up at night with green lights, and looks like a pickle.
This is the London Bridge. After years of singing the song "London Bridge is Falling Down" I had imagined it to be a lot prettier then it really was.
London City Hall (The family who wouldn't move out of the way for anyone's picture)
Cleopatra's Needle (We also saw the duplicate in Paris, France)
Famous London Eye
After our boat cruise we walked down to Piccadilly Circus, before heading home.
Now that we have been to London, and feel a lot more confident with the Tube, we are excited to actually go in and see things with visitors. Save your money and come on over!
