London Sightseeing with Mom and Dad Bauer

Hello!! Its been a while...we've been pretty busy so let's back up to our first weekend in London...

A few things we have learned about London:

London is such a wonderful city! It is big without feeling big. Could you get lost when out on a walk? Sure, but there is always a friendly Londoner just around the corner. Speaking of getting lost, very few roads and intersections are straight here. When London was built, the people paid very little attention to making roads straight or kept the size of the road consistent. So, they ended up with a maze of roads that makes it very difficult to drive, let alone them driving on the other side of the road! At every crossing area, they have painted on the road "Look Left" or "Look Right" so that you don't forget!! I think we are finally getting the hang of it (though my first instinct is to look left then right!

Most of the buildings are not over 5 stories tall, except for the few sky scrapers. Like the Swiss Re building. It is 40 stories high with a bar/restaurant on the 39th and 40th floors. You have to be somebody to get to go up (or know somebody who works at Swiss Re ;) ). Lol! No, you either have to make reservations a couple weeks in advance or know a Swiss Re employee who can get you in.

After Dave and Renee finished their two week tour of Europe, they returned to London for the weekend. It was so much fun!! Colston was so excited that they were here!! And that they brought a surprise:

Colston loves his new Ferrari hat and shirt!!

It was the first time Kyle and I really explored London, and Wow!! What a neat city full of history, architecture and big city life! We decided to take them to the Tower of London first:

Then, London Bridge:

It just happened to go up when we were about to cross!!

We walked along the river looking for something to eat and happened across a little cafe in a covered, but open, shopping area. It served French cuisine and it was wonderful! Colston saw the lemon on my plate and decided to give it a try:

It was too funny!! We walked back to our flat across London Bridge, giving us an awesome view of Tower Bridge.

The next morning, we decided that we were going to go see Big Ben, the London Eye, Parliment, West Minster Abbey, etc, which are all near eachother. We decided to walk there...wrong decision!!! It was a long walk, but we did get to see the city a little better. We saw many old buildings and walked through several gardens, all along the river. We found a red phone booth:

And saw St. Paul's Cathedral:

The first big landmark was Big Ben:

We actually got to hear him ring. It was really neat! Then, we just happened upon the Royal Stables and caught a few guards on duty:

We decided then that we were going to see Buckingham Palace the next day, so we headed up to Piccadilly Circus, where we had lunch, and saw Trafalgar Square:

 and Regent Street to do some shopping at Hamleys Toy Store:

Wow!! It was 6 floors of toys for kids of all ages. At the top was the candy store. We will have to bring Colston back!

After a few more stores, we decided to take the tube back home. Once you get the hang of it, it is actually one of the easiest, and by far the fastest ways to get around. We had dinner at a place called Fish!. It was my first fish and chips...I may try them again somewhere else to see if they are any better...

The next morning, we took the tube to Victoria to go see Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guard. Here is the Palace:

There were so many people there, and we were even a little early. We couldn't see much:

But we did get a good photo-op when the soliders were leaving the palace:

After they marched out, we headed out to the monument in front of the palace:

We had lunch and then decided to walk to Harrods (the city's largest department store) and the Science Museum. All along the way, we saw so many neat buildings and cars! (I now have a new idea for my front porch, but you all will just have to wait and see til I get back home! :) )

Monday morning came too fast! Kyle was able to get us to the top of his building before Dave and Renee had to take off (I forgot my camera...). The views were absolutely amazing!! You could see London in all directions. It was breathtaking! Here is a picture of all of us in front of Swiss Re the night before:
 

Then it was time for the good byes...I know we will be ok, its just hard in the moment when you know they are leaving and we are staying. I guess we will just have to look to the future and our next visitors in a few weeks!! Anyways, our weekend was jampacked, but it was very enjoyable! I can't wait to do some more exploring in the coming weeks!!