Nelson Family Blog: London. Days 1&2.

Friday, October 5, 2018

London. Days 1&2.

What an amazing trip we have just gotten home from. I still can't believe we have seen some of the things that we have seen these last couple weeks. What a trip of a lifetime.

I'm not sure how to describe everything we did and all the sights we saw without writing a giant book, so I will try to just hit the highlights and let the pictures do a lot of the talking.

We flew out of Minneapolis Airport on Sunday, Sept 23rd at 6:00pm. After a 7.5 hour flight, we were in London. We rode the tube (subway) to our hotel's neighborhood. It was too early to check in, so we dropped off our luggage and checked out the town. We walked through Hyde Park, which is like London's Central Park, and we saw Princess Diana's Memorial Fountain. We also toured Kensington Palace, which was the first of many palaces that we saw on our trip. I was awed and amazed by every castle/palace that we saw. This one did not disappoint either. We spent a good hour going through the room and then we also toured the beautiful gardens. It was a nice start to our trip.

For our first lunch, we got some sandwiches and ate them beside the water. We then went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which has over 2.3 million objects inside. It was too overwhelming to see everything, but we enjoyed looking around and enjoying a little free WiFi. We also went to the Natural History Museum and saw some dinosaur fossils and looked around for a while. Next, to went to Harrods Department Store, which is 5 levels of shopping. We were too tired (and not rich enough) to check too much of it out, but we walked around a while, grabbed some supper, and then finally checked into our hotel and called it a day.

Our first day consisted of 24,000 steps, 10 miles, and 30 hours with no sleep. We were beyond tired, and ready to recharge for another day.

London from the air

Queen Victoria Statue at Kensington Palace

The red telephone booth

Princess Diana's Memorial Fountain

Prince Albert's Memorial

Kensington Palace

Huge Teddy Bear at Harrods

Day 2.
We started the day with the on-off bus tour. It was really nice to be able to ride to where we wanted to go, get off and see things, and then get back on. They also had really good commentary while on the bus. We made our way to the London Tower, and toured what was basically the first castle in London. It was really cool to see everything and hear about all the history tied to the tower. Our beefeater was a really good tour guide and we really enjoyed our visit. Like everything else in London, the tower was massive and we spent a good 2-2.5 hours looking at everything. We also got to see the crown jewels, which were pretty amazing. I don't think I have ever seen diamonds that big before.

Next we went to the Tower Bridge, which is a really famous bridge and landmark in London. We took our selfies and pictures, and then got to climb the tower and see some great views of London. There was also a glass floor to walk over, which was pretty cool to look straight down on the traffic below.

We then jumped back on the bus tour and headed to Leichester Square and got some supper. We decided on some traditional British food, I got fish and chips, and John got a meat pie. They were both really good and it was nice to try something local. We then bought some discounted tickets to Wicked.

Wicked was awesome. The cast was very talented and they put on a really good show. We were impressed. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was 11pm. We face-timed the kids (it was only 6pm at home) and then we called it a day. What a great day in London.