We arrived in London Heathrow Friday afternoon and took a train over to Temrinal 5 to meet our English exchange family. We are travelling now with just Chuck and Colleen, everyone else having left from Ireland. We met the four kids (very excited about their journey), their mother and their grandma (on crutches)! We hung out with them for a while waiting for the father who was delayed. finally they went through security and we held his passport and computer, hoping he would make it (which he did with 40 minutes to spare). It was a little crazy to say the least.
Then we left the airport and promptly got lost because the GPS is different and there are TOO MANY ROADS in England. We recovered but you could say we took the long way home.
The house is quite lovely but we were really disappointed in the "guest house" out back - it smelled too mildewed for anyone to actually want to stay there, meaning all visitors here will sleep in bunkbeds! Fortunately, they are full size and very comfortable, according to the Chuck and Colleen, the first occupants of that room.
We went to a nearby town to find dinner and ended up at The Boater's Pub on the banks of the Thames river. We are "living" in Richmond-upon-Thames, about 15 miles west of London, I would guess.
After dinner we went to the grocery store to stock up on breakfast items and drinks and then went to bed. Travelling is sure tiring.
The next Day, Saturday July 23rd, we tackled London for the first time - taking the tube into town (about 30 minutes).
Our first stop was the Tourist Information place to pick up our two-day London Passes. There was a computer problem and it took a while to convince them that we had paid for them. Kind of a scary way to start our day off, but it turned out just fine. We then "popped" back into the tube and headed to Westminster Abbey. The Pass allowed us into varous attractions for free and with no waiting in lines, as well as gave us travel cards for the two days.
We arrived at Westminster tube stop first as we knew that the abbey closed at 2:30 on Saturdays and we wanted to make sure we got a chance to tour that. As we emerged from the subway station, our first sight was Parliament and Big Ben (the bell) - and the several million people who are also visiting London. The crowds were a little shocking but didn't turn out to be too big a problem.
Around the corner from Big Ben and through Parliament Square, we quickly got to the abbey. Everything was bigger than expected and very impressive!
We toured the amazing abbey using an audio guide. No pictures were allowed in the abbey, sorry, but it was gorgeous with much history stored and buried in it. Every hour they say a prayer - that day it was the Lord's Prayer.
From there it was a quick walk to the Churchill War Room museum. This set of underground bunker rooms was where Churchill and his chiefs directed the war effort to save Britain from Hitler. They worked down there for the better part of 6 years and just closed the place up and walked away the day after VE Day. This museum was opened just in the last 7 or 8 years and was truly incredible. It was attached to an interesting museum all about Churchill. We learned how his concerns about Hitler invading England were dismissed by everyone initially because he was always crying "wolf" but they soon came to believe him! The whole things was beautifully presented and very interesting.
We ate lunch in the War Room cafe where apparently the ham and egg salad were being rationed, as there was very little on our bagettes.
Then we headed for St. Paul's - making this our primary church day - they are all closed to tourists on Sunday, for obvious reasons.
I would have to say that St. Paul's was even more impressive than Westminster Abbey. The central part of it actually reminded me of Grand Central Station - it was just immense. (Again no pictures inside). Ton's of amazing people are buried there: Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, a bunch of Edwards and Georges, along with Christopher Wren who designed it and many of the other buildings in London. also buried there are Charles Darwin and Sir Isaac Newton.
We learned that the famous dome that is so recognizable all over the world is actually two domes. The one inside is propotioned to be pleasing from the inside but would have been too small for the skyline view, so there is an outer dome which is higher and more massive.
Then we walked across the Millenium pedestrian bridge to the southside to see The Globe Theatre. It isn't the real Globe but it was meticulously recreated, largely through the efforts of an American, Sam Wannamaker.
The tour of the Globe was very, very good. We sat in the theatre watching them change the stage setting for a different play and listened to an excellant guide tell us all about what the theatre was like in the days of Shakespeare. We hope to go see a performance while we are here.
We ate dinner at pub near Victoria station and took the train home (and collapsed). Phew. A very long full first day but we thoroughly enjoyed what we saw of London.
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