Loving London

Our first two days were spent exploring some of the most notable sights of London: Buckingham Palace and the changing of the Guard, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, The Tower of London, The London Eye, The Winston Churchill Museum, Piccadilly Circus to see the Alfred Hitchcock show The Thirty Nine Steps , and a boat ride up the Thames River. Everything but The London Eye was in one day – yesterday.

That’s right. The day we arrived, Dave our fearless tour guide had a walking tour itinerary planned that covered three museums and half a dozen stops. Small problem: Caleb. With hardly any sleep and jet lag, his legs were not working properly.

My brain wasn’t working properly, either. So we decided to take The Original Sightseeing Bus Tour, a double-decker, hop on, hop off bus that takes you to all the major sights of London. Our bus had a live guide who was fairly interesting. It was a sunny, hot day in London. Apparently very unseasonably hot, since all the locals were complaining. Sound familiar?

We were actually very happy to sit on the bus for 2 ½ hours (no hopping for us), look at the sights, and for some of us, catch some sleep. It worked for all of us.

That night we went to Grumpy’s (we fit right in) for some traditional English grub. Dave took the kids to The London Eye, and I went back to the hotel and went to bed. Sleep is a wonderful thing.

The London Eye was Caleb’s favorite thing to see in London because he could see everything. For a seven-year-old, 40-inch kid, that rarely happens.

The next day, we woke up not grumpy, and had the busiest day possible, starting with Westminster Abbey and ending with a theatre show. Westminster Abbey was quite an incredible place, housing the remains of kings, queens, scientists (Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin), artists (Handel) and more. My favorite stop of the day was the Tower of London, a massive fortress and tower famous for its executions and beheadings of traitors, along with two unlucky wives of King Henry VIII.

The show we saw “The Thirty Nine Steps,” was a Tony Award-winning English comedy loosely on the Alfred Hitchcock movie. It was hilarious, witty, and wild. Everyone loved it, even Caleb, who stayed awake for the first and last ten minutes of the show.

Chloe and I decided we want to move to London. Maybe we’ll change our minds tomorrow when we arrive in Paris.