London Calling

T has an annual meeting in the UK each spring. With a late Easter and the Royal Wedding causing extra business holidays, his only chance to make the trip ended up falling over Easter weekend and B's 6th birthday. Rather than heading out and feeling guilty about missing the two important events, B and I got to tag along on T's trip.

Day 1 - Arrive in London and try to stay awake until bedtime.

We decided to head over to Harrod's for some snacks and toy shopping. The brisk walk in the sunshine kept us awake. The streets were bustling with holiday shoppers as people prepared for the Easter holiday. B wasn't excited about the crowds, but didn't seem to mind the break for Chocolate Fondue at the Chocolate Bar.

We settled into our hotel and got some sleep. The view wasn't half bad either.

London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace

All visible from our window. As the wedding approached, the flag on top of Buckingham Palace

changed and colors on the buildings also changed.

Day 2 - Easter Sunday - Attempt to see Changing of Guard

We started the day with Easter Mass at a beautiful church just a few blocks from our hotel. The biggest difference we noticed was that the church was nearly empty about 10 minutes before Mass began, but was full within 1 minute of the scheduled start time (so it was like a typical Catholic Sunday Mass!).

We attempted to see the Changing of Guard at Buckingham, but since a large portion of Green Park was closed due to the media coverage of the Royal Wedding, we couldn't see anything but the crowd.

We saw some interesting characters as we crossed Green Park.

In an effort to see more of the city and stay awake, we boarded the Hop On/Hop Off tour bus near our hotel. Along the route we saw:

Westminster Abbey

St. Paul's Cathedral

Tower Bridge

As we waited for a bridge lift, our littlest traveler took a snooze on the bus.

Easter dinner was a very traditional one at HARD ROCK CAFE! :) Thanks to a heads up from cousin Amber, we asked for a tour of "The Vault". We were escorted downstairs and got to see several photos, guitars and other memorabilia. Unfortunately, the $50 million Jimi Hendrix guitar was out on tour.

Day 3 - Tower of London /London Eye

We continued our Hop On/Hop Off tour that allowed for a River Thames cruise. We took the tube over to Westminster, gawked at the thousands lined up for a glimpse inside Westminster Abbey, opted instead to visit the gift shop before those thousands finished their Abbey Tour and headed in for some trinkets.

T & B with Big Ben

The London Eye

Tower Bridge, from the water

Tower of London

Yeoman Warder (who prefer not to be called Beefeaters)

Raven

Guarding the Jewel House

Kate Middleton look alike doing press for CBS.

After we finished walking around Tower of London, we headed back toward Westminster and rode The London Eye. Since we were blessed with such beautiful weather, it was great way to see the entire city. The lines were long but the wait was relatively short. B was pretty excited about the fact that it doesn't stop moving - each car is unloaded and loaded while the Eye is still in motion.

The big structure in the middle of the photo is Buckingham Palace, as seen from the Eye.

Day 4 - B Turns Six!!

T had to head west for his meeting, so B and I had a few days to play in London on our own. After reading lots of info about the city, B chose the London Transport Museum as his first stop on his birthday. I call it "6 year old boy heaven". There were lots of trains, buses and buttons to push, as well as video game simulators for driving buses and trains, not to mention, a game that took the littlest visitors all around the museum collecting different shaped hole-punch stamps in their game card.

Playing with a display of Tube trains over the decades

Birthday ice cream at Harrod's.

Playing in Green Park (between our hotel and Buckingham Palace).

Day 5 - London Zoo

We took a relatively long Tube ride coupled with a lengthly walk to the London Zoo at Regents Park. I enjoyed the less-crowded, more neighborhood-like atmosphere. We even walked past Whole Foods.

Leaf cutter ants - the ropes between the glass cages for NOT enclosed.

If an ant wants to go rogue, they are free to do so.

The proximity of this kid's head to the ants still makes me nervous.

Notice the warning signs...

This animal bites, too, if he gets really hungry! ;)

We ended the day at Paddington Station meeting T's train from Hereford. B had a great time watching the arrivals screen as well as watching all of the trains and commuters enter and exit the station.

Day 6 - Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Park at Kensington Garden

I wish we had stumbled upon this park earlier in the week. It was huge and each section had enough vegetation surrounding it that you felt like you were in a totally different world. We only had a couple minutes to explore before we had to head to the airport.

We took several trips on the Tube, which meant a little walk from our hotel to one of two nearby tube stations. B's favorite included a walking through a maze of pedestrian subways. It felt fitting to snap our last few photos of these two heading back to the hotel.

The taxi ride to the airport was a bit annoying as there were so many rode closures in preparation for the wedding the following morning. The driver even stopped to fill the gas tank, despite our rapidly approaching departure time. (Even left the meter running!) Thankfully, the airport felt empty and our flights were uneventful.