London

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from our Europe trip that we got back from in mid October. Things have been pretty busy around here though with the packing and coordinating things for a 3700 mile move, so I think it's reasonable that I'm just now getting to this.

First stop on our European Tour: London!!

Day one in London: First thing we did after checking into our hotel, take a walk down the river to explore the sights.

 And our first glimpse of Parliament and Big Ben

So pretty.

London Eye and Westminster Station Undergound

View from our hotel at the end of day one.

Day Two:

Start the day by riding the London Eye

That's Buckingham Palace in the middle of the greenery (which is St. James Park)

Saw this second hand pop-up book shop under one of the bridges

The Globe Theatre

London Bridge

HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge

Tower of London and the traitors entrance from the river

Poppies at the Tower of London for Remembrance Day

Traitors Gate 

Our Beefeater tour guide at the Tower of London

Changing of the guard

We had to climb so many stairs in the White Tower to get to the exhibits

More climbing, this time with a view

One of the infamous ravens in the Tower. The Tower has to have six at all time plus on in reserve. There were nine when we visited.

We also saw the Crown Jewels. We didn't have enough time to go in the Bloody Tower though. We'll just have to go back at some point.

Big Ben all lit up at the end of day two.

Day Three: What I like to refer to as the nerding out day.

First stop, King's Cross Station to see the Harry Potter stuff

On our way to platform 9 3/4. While walking there I asked Matthew on a scale from 1 to 10, how big of a Harry Potter fan are you? My response 9 3/4.

And on to our next nerd stop: 

The British Library

Matthew in front of the King's Library

We couldn't take pictures of the exhibits, but we got to see manuscripts from Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. As well as a Gutenberg Bible, the Magna Carta, and lots of other amazing stuff that I can't even remember right now.

We then went to Harrods to explore the store that takes up a whole city block and grab some lunch.

Mmmmm tea. We explored the store for a few hours before I became overwhelmed and had to leave. 

And our last stop of the day, Dr. Who's box. They were doing construction around it so I couldn't get close enough to touch it :(

Day Four: Our final day in London. 

Westminster Abbey

The greens inside the abbey. We ended up have lunch and high tea at a cafe in the abbey.

 

Matthew wanted a picture of the Institute of Civil Engineers

St. James Park, basically the front yard of Buckingham Palace

  

And we arrived and our final stop, Buckingham Palace!

If this wasn't enough pictures for you, you can see the full album here.

Up next on the European Tour: Paris, Venice, and Rome {one, two, three}.