London Part I

The next leg of our journey took us to London.  After a few delays we finally made it with enough daylight left for this great view from the air before we landed.

After several modes of transportation we finally got to our hotel room around 10:00 pm.  We were exhausted.

But we were up bright and early the next morning to start exploring one of my favorite cities.

Day one we decided to hit all the touristy things.  Starting with a boat tour.

Brian and I have both been to London before but neither of us had ever done the boat tour and we were both glad we did.  We learned so much we never knew about the city.  

After the boat we went directly to the Eye of London.  Besides the amazing views it was really nothing to write home about.  But a cool thing for the kids to say they did.

Views from the top:

Then we walked around making stops at Parliament, Westminster Abbey and of course Buckingham Palace...

That night on our walk back from dinner we stopped at the world's oldest toy store, Hamley's, and had fun admiring all their Harry Potter stuff (basically one entire floor was dedicated to Hogwarts)

We continued our evening stroll and headed to Trafalgar Square

Stopping for photo ops of course.

We admired famous works of art...

As well as street art just outside...

And even found a neon bench right outside our hotel

Day two in London we headed to the Tower of London.

Unfortunately we ended up on a tour with far too many people.  It was difficult to hear our Beefeater give the history of the Tower which was disappointing because when Brian and I were here in 2011 it was a highlight for us.

The boys still had a great time exploring and playing in some of the exhibits.

After that we wondered by the river and ended up at the Tate Modern for more art (Picasso was a favorite for Scott since he had studied him a little in first grade)

The real highlight was the playground on the museum premises.

I couldn't wait to show the boys the globe theatre, they were less interested...

But they were happy to eat ice cream in front of the theatre. Win some, lose some, I guess.

Day Three in London we just relaxed.  We walked around Nottinghill area and then spent the rest of the day exploring Kensington garden and playing at different playgrounds.

Some of the most magical trees, I have to say.

And we couldn't miss the Peter Pan statue.

That night we brought dinner into the hotel room and enjoyed a glass (or a bottle) of wine.