Speaking of squats, we are really getting our workout here! We are on the top floor which requires 8 half flights of stairs to get too. It's only the fourth floor but each set of stairs has a landing. (When the young man helped us up with our luggage he said we were on the third floor...yea, the third floor above the first floor...) Both of us are winded by the time we get to the top (cardio!). Yesterday my thighs were burning a little bit, but today they were better. And the walking is incredible, of course. Each day you'll get a step count from our Fitbits. Back to the morning. Mom got up and ready after me and then she made breakfast. We had gone to a small market yesterday and picked up things for breakfast to keep our food budget down. We had eggs (which are stored at room temperature here), bacon "back" (which is the leanest bacon you will ever see) and toast with butter and honey. I had tea and Mom had coffee. It was a delicious breakfast! Then we headed out for the day around 11. This meant we missed the changing of the guard but we'll go back and catch it later. We headed over to Euston Underground station and at first got caught up in the National Rail Terminal and then figured out that we wanted to be down below. Once we got there it was easier but hot! We're thinking now that England is on a giant caldera because the underground is so warm! We took the Victoria line to the Green Park Station. From there we walked across Green Park to Buckingham Palace. The flag was flying above, which meant the Queen was in residence. That's the closest to the Queen of England as I'm ever going to get! (Actually I found out later that there is a different flag flying when she's in residence. Still I was on the same island as the Queen of England and it's still the closest I'm gonna get!) I took many pictures of the gates and the guards and the Victoria Memorial.
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| You had to pay to sit in the chairs...but they were arranged beautifully! |
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| A lot of history has happened on that balcony... |
While we were there a man came up to me with his camera and I just said "yes!" I knew he wanted me to take his picture with his family, so I took a few and then he asked if Mom and I wanted ours taken. Of course! So he took a few with mine and they were pretty fantastic! Tourists gotta band together!
From there we walked down to Westminster Abbey and took the tour (where you can't take any pictures). It was amazing.
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| Multiple entrances to the Ministry of Magic? |
Seeing all those memorials and tombs to people you've only heard of in history books or films was pretty mind blowing. There was the tomb of Henry III, Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, Issac Newton, Charles Darwin and so many more. There were moving tributes to the Unknown Soldier and the Air Force of every nation as well as damage from World War II bombing that has glass put in it to patch the hole, but leave the damage visible. After our walking audio tour we stopped at the cafe and had soup of the day (creamed potato with paprika) and afternoon tea. We did a little shopping in the Abbey gift shop and then passed the Coronation chair on the way out. Next we walked down to Big Ben and Parliament and took lots of pictures.
We followed the walk along the river a ways and then went in to Trafalgar square. The National Gallery was here and we had planned on seeing it, but we'd walked so much today that we were pretty beat.
On our way we found a money exchange and finally got some of our American dollars transferred to British pounds. Up until then we'd been using our credit cards only. We sat on a bench in Trafalgar Square for a while and then planned out the tube ride over to the London Eye. We took the Northern Line from Charing Cross station to Waterloo and then walked the small ways over to the Eye.
We didn't have to wait long for tickets or to get on and then Mom got to sit for a good bit. The London Eye never stops moving (unless someone disabled needs to get on), so they get everyone together in a group and then as the capsule is moving by (quite slowly) they open the doors and you just time it and step on. I took a ton of pictures there too of course and the sun was low in the sky, so the light was really nice.
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| The trains were such pretty colors! |
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| The Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey |
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| Waterloo station with The Shard in the background |
We walked along the Queen's walk after that and sat for a bit because I wanted to get some sunset pictures of Big Ben. It was going to be an hour or so, so we walked back looking for a place for dinner. We found a fish and chip restaurant and Mom got the fish, while I got chicken and chips. We'd done this yesterday and it was a good idea not to get the same thing because Mom didn't like the fish so much. Yesterdays was just one big fillet dipped in batter and fried. Today the fish had skin and a few bones left in. Yum. So Mom's pretty done with fish and chips around here. Not what she was expecting. By the time we'd finished the sun was setting, so we went out and I took pictures and we just enjoyed the general beauty.
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| The Royal Horseguards Hotel |
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| British seagull |
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| I know these all look the same, but it's so pretty! I couldn't stop taking pictures! |
It started to get a bit cold, which meant we needed to head home. We took the Northern Line from Waterloo up to Euston and then walked back home. In a day we've become fairly versed in the Underground! Tomorrow we'll head up to King's Cross and try it from there!
Fun Observations of the Day - It feels better in touristy areas when you are a tourist in a city. Outside of that it's a bit scary. People will walk right through you on the sidewalks around here and don't seem to pick a side to walk on. At first we were doing what we thought was wrong by walking on the right (instead of the left like their roads), but people sometimes walk on the right or sometimes the left, you just have to salmon through them (swim against the stream). But on the other hand they are pretty nice about it all! While they may lay on their horns if the car in front of them doesn't move quickly enough at a stop light or if someone is in the road and they have a green light, they are still pretty curteous. A man behind me at the Underground terminal tapped me on the left shoulder, so I stepped to the right and he got by to make the train, easy as that. Mom says they probably have to change their car horns yearly they use them so much.
Step Count - Carrie: 16549 steps, 19 flights of stairs. Cindy: 17759 steps, 19 flights of stairs. She's got shorter legs than me.
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