LONDON! (I'll be adding more pictures to the blog shortly..I'd just thought I would get it up and running first:)

Our trip to London was amazing! We took a three hour train ride from Durham down to London King’s Cross, and I was surprised to find that the station at Edinburgh was far more grand than London’s! However, it was much busier for sure! Our hotel was a 10 minute walk from the station and was situated in a fairly quite area. Boy was it ever freezing! It was at least 5 degrees colder in London than anywhere else we’ve been previously, but it still didn’t distract us from seeing the sights! When we arrived at our hotel (about 12:30ish) we were informed that we couldn’t check in until 2, so we left our bags in the storage room, grabbed our map and set off to see the city! It seems like we weren’t the only ones planning on touring London over Christmas….the city (and our hotel) was jammed!

My first impression of London (Rob had been before) was that it was every bit as grand and impressive as I had imagined it to be. Huge, stately buildings everywhere, wide streets, and rich cars too- we even saw an Aston Martin!!!! One of the residential streets we walked down was filled with cars that cost no less than $60,000…and this was the norm! I also noticed that compared to Edinburgh, London is extremely clean! This wasn’t something I had expected from such a big city…but it seems that with it’s prestige and tourist industry, the council keeps it clean…which was a nice change.

As we left the hotel, we first headed in the direction of the Tower Bridge. On the way, we came upon St. Paul’s Cathedral, where Charles and Diana were married. It was absolutely stunning! In my opinion, it can be compared to St. Paul’s Basilica in the Vatican City, although it is much smaller. We went inside and could see a little bit of the cathedral…however we weren’t prepared to pay the almost £10 each that they charged to get in! To make it worse, we would have had to stand in line behind a huge school group…and that wasn’t happening.

After St. Paul’s we made our way over to the Tower of London. Rob had said, as had other people we had spoken to before going, that the Tower housed many of the Queen’s jewellery (including almost all of her tiara’s, etc.). However, after waiting in line for ages to see the ‘jewels’…I found out to my dismay that the Tower only houses the Crown Jewels…namely the crowns and the ball and septer that are used for coronations. While this was interesting…it wasn’t what I had imagined…and so I was a little disappointed…Rob claims they changed the exhibit…but I’m not so sureJ The Tower was interesting, to see the areas that I read about in my history book…but extremely expensive….about £14 each to get in. And while it was interesting, we weren’t able to see all that much…and so I’m not sure I would recommend it. However now I can say that I’ve been!

The Tower is right on the Thames, and beside the beautiful and famous Tower Bridge…I’d always thought that it was called the London Bridge…but that one, is actually just a regular concrete, and boring!, bridge down the Thames. We walked across the bridge to the other side of the Thames to find a replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. It is a beautiful building, but we had no real interest on going inside…and at this point we had been walking already for at least 3 hours and it had turned dark.

After the Globe, we started to head back to our hotel, and came across Oxford and Regent Roads…these are some of the main roads to shop on in London…and everything was 50% off!!! Tempting… They were beautifully lit for Christmas, and there were people everywhere. It was definitely an amazing sight to see! We then headed for dinner at a small Italian place, and then back to our hotel for 8 o’clock that night to get a good night’s sleep.

The following morning we woke up at 6:30, had a quick breakfast and were out on the roads exploring for about 7:15. It was a perfect time to go, because it seemed as if nobody else was really up. We decided to head first over to Hyde and Kensington Parks….as they were the furthest away from our hotel….and then make our way back during the day to see all of the main sites. The parks were nice…but again…not exactly as I had expected. I guess my expectations were a little highJ I had expected them to be beautiful big spaces, filled with lots of trees and iron benches everywhere…maybe some fountains…however they were more like wide open fields. Apparently this is so, because it used to be a popular place for duelling! However this soon stopped after lights were installed in the parks. In Hyde Park, it was neat to see a path for horses (with the fill that they use in a horse arena)…and people actually riding on it! Apparently, the Queen’s horses exercise there frequently. The walk way around the park was called the Diana Princess of Wales memorial walk. Along the way, there were a few monuments and fountains dedicated to her memory…but I think that she is actually buried on her family’s property…so we didn’t get to see that. However we did make our way over to her former residence on the far side of the park…Kensington Palace. Queen Victoria was born in the Palace, and lived there for most of her childhood until she became Queen and then moved into Buckingham. The Palace is beautiful, but looks more like a huge mansion (as it completely made out of red brick) rather than a palace. We decided not to go in, as we had read in the pamphlet that there was very little that could actually be seen, as it is still a working palace.

After Kensington Palace, we walked over to Harrods. The building was massive….and there was a line up outside (at 9:00am) and the store didn’t even open until 11:00!!! We took some pictures and decided to come back later when it opened. We then decided to go check out Buckingham Palace. It is situated basically in the middle of the city, and is surrounded by a beautiful park and huge walls with barbed wire around the Queen’s private gardens. As we walked closer, we noticed a huge number of people gathering behind police tape near the palace…and we immediately thought that maybe the Queen was making an appearance…however when we got there I remembered that every day at 11:30, is the Changing of the Guards ceremony…and that the Queen is usually at Sandringham over Christmas. Her standard wasn’t flying with the Union Jack over Buckingham, and so that’s how we knew she wasn’t in residence. We stayed for about 20 minutes or so to watch the ceremony…which basically involved the new guards marching down the road to Buckingham Palace to a fanfare of music, so that they could relieve the old guards. While it was neat to watch…I’ll admit it was a bit boring too. The palace on the outside is just as grand and as stately as I had imagined…surrounded with huge rod iron gates. The building of the gates was actually funded by some of the Commonwealth countries, and so two of the posts holding them up were engraved with ‘Canada’, while others were engraved for Australia and South Africa. That was a neat little tidbit of information, I’d thought.

Unfortunately, we found out that the palace isn’t actually open to visitors except during August and September, when the Queen and the Royal family leave London for their country residence, Balmoral, in Scotland. This was a little bit of a let down for me…as I had really been hoping to see some of the inside…although I can’t say the same for RobJ I had also hoped to see to Royal Mews (the Stables), and the beautiful Gold Coach that is used for coronations….but it too was closed. In compensation, I persuaded Rob to buy the guide books for each place, so that I could at least read about them, and see the pictures in the books!


We then journeyed over to Westminster Abbey…which was closed for Sunday service (and we decided we’d see it the next day rather than going in for the service and having to stay the whole timeJ ). Right next to Westminster however, stands Big Ben and the rest of the Parliament Buildings. They are extremely impressive, with beautiful architecture and they are just huge! Nearby stands the statue of Churchill, and down the road is number 10 Downing Street (which you actually can’t go see anymore, as the road is cordoned off by rod iron gates and protected by 3 guards with semi-automatic rifles!).

After taking tons of photos, we moved to go on the London Eye! For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, it is similar to a huge farris wheel, but instead of little open seats, the Eye has huge glass pods, that occupy roughly 15 people, and go high above the city….all of London can be seen from the top on a clear day. Luckily, we were able to see quite a bit! It was a great place to take pictures….although being up so high was a little bit unnerving. I would definitely recommend going on the Eye for anyone who plans to journey to London in the future. Although expensive, it was worth it!!!

By this time we were already exhausted…but there was still so much to see! So we walked all the way back to Harrods, to see what all the fuss is aboutJ As mentioned before, the store is massive, with so many levels I couldn’t even count. We didn’t stay very long (or check it all out) because it was absolutely rammed with people…and impossible to get around in! It carries all of the major designer lines for clothing, jewellery (it even has a mini Tiffany’s inside!), has beautiful food halls in the basement as well as a health food area, where you can get your basic Vitamin C pills. However I wouldn’t recommend buying anything there! Although it was the 50% off sale, nothing was affordableJ To give you an idea, we looked at how much a pizza for two people would cost. You’ll never guess. £45!!!!!!! That is equivalent to about $80!!! Absolutely unbelievable….better be darn good pizza…and amazingly there were people there eating some!!! Talk about having money to burn! Harrods was far too rich for our blood so we decided to hike it out of there…and make our way over to the Absolut Icebar (near Piccadilly Circus) that we’d made reservations at earlier.

Ian and Maria had mentioned that there was an Icebar in London…and so I researched it before we went…and decided that we’d go. I’m glad we did, because it was really neat! Although it’s not an igloo, or a building completely made out of ice, the inside of the bar is… We walked into the building, and were given fur ponchos and glove to put on and then were guided through a fur draped door into the bar. It was freezing in there, but so cool. The walls, seats, bar and glasses were completely made out of ice! Our entry price included one vodka cocktail…and we chose the one we wanted and sipped it out of an ice glass. It was really cool…the bar is owned by the same company that built the Icehotel, and all of the ice was also imported from Sweden. They only let about 35 people in at a time…so as not to melt everything I suppose…and we were able to stay in for 40 minutes if we wanted….but because it was really cold, and fairly small, we looked around, took some pictures, finished our drink and the left. A worthwhile experience to be sure!!!

Phew my fingers are getting sore! After the Icebar, Rob and I decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner out in London…thanks to a great Christmas present from Dad and Jen!J We had calamari and mussels to start, a bottle of wine, fabulous pasta dinner and cheesecake…mmmmm. It was a really nice experience…and gave us a taste of living large and what it would be like to really experience London to its fullest! After the great meal…we decided it was time to sleep…so we walked all the way back to hotel….(can you tell that maybe we were pretty tired at that point?). At 9pm, we were fast asleep.

Finally the last day! We woke up early again and headed straight for Westminster Abbey. On the way we walked through the magnificent Trafalger Square. The abbey cost us about £12 each to get in…but was worth every penny! The abbey is stunning, which huge vaulted ceilings, and tons of little alcoves and chapels inside. We were able to see the altar and chair where kings and queens have been coronated for centuries. The abbey was also, surprisingly to me, filled with the tombs of many monarchs, including Elizabeth I and her rival, Mary Queen of Scots. Their tombs were very impressive, and beautiful too. I have read and learned so much about them, that it was really surreal and a bit humbling to see their tombs! Among the monarchs, musicians (Handel), poets (Lord Byron), scientists (Charles Darwin) and even actors (Lawrence Olivier being one of them) are buried in the abbey. Apparently there are over 3,000 people buried there! One of the most famous and moving graves is the ‘Tomb of the Unknown Soldier’. For those who aren’t aware…this tomb holds the body of an unknown British Soldier from WWII, that represents all of the soldiers who fought and died in the World Wars. On the tomb, it explains that he was given the honour of being laid among the kings and queens for his sacrifice. It is a beautiful monument…and still has the power to move people, as we saw.

After the abbey we decided to check out the London Aquarium, which was a complete disappointment…as most of the tanks they showed, were smaller than ones that we have had in the past…and were filled with the same types of fish. I had hoped that this would be a treat for Rob, after making him go through all of the ‘historic’ monumentsJ Finally on our way back to the hotel in order to catch our train at 2pm, we stopped in at the British Museum(because it was freeJ)…which is filled with artifacts from all over the world, and from many of the former colonies. It was at least twice the size of the ROM…and is worth the trip for any museum buff. As we really aren’t, we basically just skimmed through as much as we could.

All in all, our trip to London was fabulous, and I can now say that I’ve seen one of the greatest cities in the world. It is absolutely stunning, and well worth the trip! Until our next adventure, take care! To see all of our pictures from London, you can check them out on my Facebook!

Lots of love,

Rob and Sarah