London Day 4: Sunday

Sunday morning we woke up and went to church. It took about 40 minutes to get there and was inside a school. We met in the gym. Here I am outside the school. Church is always nice and Aaron said it was exactly what he expected from a downtown/central London church. There were a total mesh of people there and very few kids. The people were super friendly.

Then we took a bus (yes, the double decker bus) to St. Paul's Cathedral.

It was brought to our attention on our boat tour the day before that during the week you can take a tour of the Cathedral for 16.50 GBP or go on Sunday for free, but not be able to take pictures inside. Well, we like free and it kind of worked out because we were already in church attire so we went.

Had to get a picture of the famous double decker buses.

It is beautiful and huge!

The details are great!

We then went inside. We entered while a service was going on and the choir was signing. It was really neat to walk into this very historic, beautiful, huge cathedral with the choir singing. We thought it was such a nice change from hearing a tour guide. I liked St. Paul's a lot more then the Abbey. St. Paul's is much better kept. We learned that Princess Diana and Charles got married here and then walked down the steps to take a boat in the river to start their honeymoon. There is now a bridge there, so you can't do that so maybe that is why Kate and William opted for Westminster Abbey to get married.

Anoop and Vanessa wanted to say good bye so they met us at St. Paul's, we visited for about an hour and then said goodbye.

Then, Aaron's co-worker, Rich (who we have had over to our house a couple times and  the kids just love) called and wanted to meet up. We didn't have time to go back to the hotel to change, so we just went to Tate Modern. This is the bridge that now exists in front of St. Paul's and goes to Tate Modern on the other side.

We had time to get some pictures of Shakespeare's Globe. We went there Friday morning for a tour and it was fantastic. It is an exact replica of the original (except they have added a sprinkler system and glass windows since it is right on the river.)

Down from the Globe is this pub, The Anchor. We ended up eating lunch here, but it has been around since Shakespeare and it is believed that he went here. In more recent years, Mission Impossible 3 was filmed here. The food isn't great, but I had the traditional British food of fish and chips.

There is a pirate ship close by, which I knew the kids would love to see a picture of.

We then went to Hyde Park. This is like Central Park. Rich came with us. It is large. I likes St. James Park better, but we thought we should experience Hyde Park since it is more popular.

Here are Aaron and Rich next to the area they made for people to swim in. Although I don't think anyone swims i n it now. They have paddle boats instead.

This was at the end of our walk and thought it was a pleasant surprise.

We then headed back to the hotel. This is our hotel with the foot bridge that goes right over it that connects it to the financial district. We got some dinner with Rich and Aaron's other co-worker Jason.

London Day 3: Saturday

Friday morning, we woke up for our big sightseeing day and found that Aaron's phone didn't charge that night. So Aaron ended up using my phone on Friday for the GPS so we could get from location to location, so I didn't get any pictures on my phone on Friday, but I got a ton on my camera..you know, the one that I lost. Aaron did some on his phone, so I will steal those sometime and post them.

Saturday morning, we went to Greenwich, and took a boat tour from Greenwich to Westminster. We have determined that we like these boat tours. You learn so much and get great views.

We lucked out! We got to see the Tower Bridge opening. This rarely opens because they don't use the river for cargo anymore so there really aren't big boats coming down the river. Friday, we went on a Tower Bridge Exhibition and got to go to the very top of the bridge. Awesome views.

Here is the bridge closing.

Almost totally closed as we go under it.

Tower of London. We also went here on Friday. It was super crowed, but we were able  to see the Crown Jewels (can't take pictures in the anyway). We also see many of the rooms where they held prisoners and the rooms where they tortured people.

In white lettering, it says "Entry to the Traitors Gate". This is the way they would bring the traitors in.

The other side of Tower Bridge. Such a great looking bridge.

The London Bridge! Friday we went on the London Bridge Experience. It was underneath the bridge. Years ago, they would behead traitors and put them on stakes and post them at the bridge as a warning to traitors. We learned just how they did that. This experience as they call it, was like a halloween/spooky thing. It was actually a really neat way of learning about the bridge.

Cleopatra's needle...the oldest thing in London.

Another view of the London Eye.

Once we docked in Westminster, which is right by Big Ben, House of Parliament and Westminster Abbey (we went to the Abbey on Friday) and then we went to Portobello Market. It is a pretty trendy place to buy stuff. We were able to find some things there. We are pretty fast shoppers and we had a schedule to keep, so we did it in about 40 minutes.

Then we figured, since we were so close, we might as well go see our buddy Sherlock Holmes' house. So here is 221B Baker Street. Yes, the actual street is Baker Street.

We were told by our friends that the museum is not worth it, so we jumped in front of the 2 hour line and just took pictures.

We then went to the British Museum. We are not huge museum people, but I must say, the British Museum is impressive and free. It is more my type of museum because it isn't an art museum. Can you see Aaron in the crowd?

The main reason why we wanted to go here...the Rosetta Stone.

We met up with our friends Anoop and Vanessa at the museum. We done a couple things with them on Friday as well. Anoop is from Birmingham England and works out of the PwC office there. He would come to the States occasionally and Aaron and Anoop would work together on some engagements. One time Blake and I (this is pre-Dylan) went to San Diego where Aaron was for the week and stayed with him for the weekend. Anoop was there too and  that is where Blake and I first met Anoop. Anyway, when we found out that we were going to London, Aaron told Anoop, so he made plans to come down for the weekend to hang out and show us some things since his girlfriend, Vanessa lives in London. Birmingham is about an hour and a half train ride. Vanessa is from Italy and is currently getting her PhD in Accounting and Finance. For work, she teaches at one of the univeristies (they just don't use the word college there). They are a fun couple....so different from one another. Vanessa is posing like the people in the carvings behind.

They had so many mummies there. They are small, but the really small ones were kiddos (kind of sad).

This doesn't really give you perspective, but I thought it was about 4 feet long.

This was preserved incredibly well. It is a young man who was stabbed. There wasn't only Egyptian things in the museum, but that is what I took the most pictures of with my phone. They had some things from Easter Island that was neat and stuff from every country. Asia had some fun Buddhas and some jade items. If you go to London, go to the British Museum. Vanessa was saying there is some controversy about them having so many artifacts from other countries. The thought is they should only be in the country of origin. She has been to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt and said how hard it is to get there. So, I am glad that they are able to have a lot of Egyptian artifacts because I don't think we will ever make it to Egypt. 

After the museum, Anoop and Vanessa took us to a Garden Market, where they used to use it like a farmers market. It now has high end stores, but still set up like it was many years ago. Once again, reason why I love how they blend old with new. Anoop and Vanessa then left and we walked around for a little bit, then headed back to the hotel. As we got to the underground, I realized I didn't have my camera. I reported it and we walked around looking for it, but surprise...nothing. So, we went back to the hotel and  then went out for dinner.