After only 6 weeks and three attempts, we finally made a trip to London.
We got on the train at Farncombe Station and made the 45 minute trip into the city. We arrived at London/Waterloo Stations just before 1pm on Saturday.
Since it was our first time together in London, we decided to see the traditional tourist sites. Our goal was to see as much as we could see.
We walked from the train station towards the Houses Parliament and Big Ben (which is not the clock but rather the bell inside the clock tower).
Stopping on the bridge only for a photo opportunity we continued toward our first destination...Westminster Abbey.
We walked the grounds of Westminster but did not tour inside (it was quite expensive). The church is beautiful and it was great to be up close.
Everywhere you turned there were the signature London Phone Booths and just as many people posing by them for pictures.
We continued our adventure walking along Diana Princess of Wales Memorial walk, stopping to see the Calvary, heading toward Buckingham Palace.
We only paused briefly at Buckingham Palace and hope to return on another day to see the changing of the guards.
From there we walked toward the National Gallery where we stopped to rest (Lillian of course had a diaper explosion to be dealt with and was hungry and the rest of us wanted to rest our legs).
Trafalgar Square lies directly in front of the National Gallery. The monument dedicated to Commander Nelson (from the HMS Victory) is surrounded by 4 lion statues. We could not resist to pose our Lioness with a Lion.
With Lillian fed and changed into clean clothes we wandered toward Regent Street and caught sight of Piccadilly Circus (a large TV attached to the side of a an even larger building) - London's Times Square.
From there it was to our final destination of the Tower of London.
Tower Bridge (as sung about in the song London Bridges ) is along the northern bank of the Thames River near the Tower of London.
While we did not go into the Tower of London (again very expensive) we all enjoyed walking the perimeter reading the historical signs and descriptions of the building and events that happened there (it was where Anne Boleyn was executed).
Finally we crossed the Thames (walking along Tower Bridge) to the South Bank to return to the train station and home.
We stopped at a fast food chicken restaurant (probably the equivalent of Chick Fil A but not as nice) for dinner then raced to the station (seems like we are always in a rush to get a train) and then home.
We boarded the train with moments to spare and completed the 30 minute journey home (it was a shorter trip since it was later in the evening and there were fewer stops on the train route).
Lillian slept through most our adventures but was happy to ride the train home (she loves it).
We can't wait to return to London again.
(Madison is dying to ride a double decker bus!)
