London Adventures

Our first full day in London! It was jam packed with interesting things!

Our first event if the day was a city tour that was partially on a bus and partially walking around. We saw all of the major tourist destinations (St. Paul's Cathedral, Westminster, Trafalgar Square, and Buckingham to name a few) and then we were given free reign to explore the city on our own.

We quickly learned to navigate the Underground and made our way to the Tower of London, walking over London Bridge on the way (it did not fall).

At the Tower, we walked the entire perimeter of the battlements as part of the tour. During our walk, we learned of the history of the Tower all the way from medieval times to current day. (Did you know the Tower held a managery of animals before the London zoo was built? Did you also know that spectators were allowed up close interaction with the animals and there were several instances of the animals attacking people who got too close? Who knew that petting a lion's paw could result in loss of limb?)

We also got the pleasure of seeing one of the Tower's ravens up close!

After the battlements, we went through the White Tower (in the middle of the complex) where we learned about the military history.

Our tour of the Tower concluded in the courtyard where most of the executions took place. 

(Fun fact, the Tower of London has free wifi!)

The rest of our afternoon was spent walking through London. We found China Town, Covent Garden, and Trafalgar Square before we decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel.

And that about sums up our first and only full day in London! I'll be posting again soon with an update about our excursion to Oxford and Stonehenge!

Stay tuned!

18 Hours Later

We made it to London!  It took nearly 18 hours, but we did it!

And by 18 hours, I mean total travel time from when I left the house to when we made it to the hotel.  Our plane was supposed to leave MSP at 5:25pm.  However, due to a broken component on the plane, our flight kept getting delayed further and further until we were informed that they were just going to swap out planes.  We didn't leave MSP until 10:15pm.  At least we got a free meal out of it?

So we wound up landing in London a little after noon.  Found our luggage, got through customs, and found our driver with very little hassle.  We made it to our hotel and dropped off our baggage before making a beeline for the nearest cafe for some much needed caffiene!

Afterwards, we walked through the rain to a nearby mall.  Not because we really wanted to go shopping, but more like we needed a way to stay awake before the welcoming drinks at 6pm.

As I write this, we've both settled into our hotel room, taken showers, and are snacking on Cheese-its.  This evening we'll get to meet the rest of our group who opted to do the early-extension to London and hopefully find some good food!