London

Sunday morning we caught our flight to London.  Because of the times we were not able to attend church in either Dublin or London.  Cora was disappointed, she had wanted to attend Sunday School with some British speaking YM.  

It was a clear beautiful day for flying.  The window seat next to me was open, so once we had taken off, Cora switched into that to see.

Once we landed we got Oyster cards for everyone.  These are preloaded cards that you just scan every time you get on the Tube (underground railway).  You can reload at any time and get your money back if some is left when you are done.  We road the Tube to our hotel and checked-in.  This time we had two rooms down a little hall from each other.  The first night we tried sleeping parents in one, kids in another, but that made me nervous.  For the last two nights we did boys and girls.  By this time it was afternoon and we were hungry.  Found a local pub, which is what most eating places are, and got some fish and chips.  Blake and I tried the hamburgers.

I was already really missing the 'no smoking in public places' laws from home. I was very blessed to not have headaches and nausea the whole trip.  After dinner we got back on the Tube and went to Buckingham Palace.

I had jokingly said that we went to visit Elizabeth but she wasn't home and Kita pointed out that she was most likely in church.  :)

On Sunday The Mall is closed to vehicles.  This is the long street that you always see the Queen driving on.  It goes from the palace to the government building.  It is a good long walk.  It was a perfect evening to stroll down The Mall.

At the end we got a little snack of muffins and water,  paid for our first bathroom, and found a telephone booth.

We then walked to Trafalgar Square.

Checked out a few places to possibly buy souvenirs and went back to our hotel.  The next morning we really slept in.  Almost missed breakfast.  We were in need of some rest.  We had gotten hop off hop on tickets for the red bus.  Supposedly we could go anywhere in London, hop off and see thing then hop back on and ride some more.  Our first destination was the Victoria and Albert Museum.  This is were they still had the Pusey Horn on display.

Back in the 10th or 11th century, Dave's ancestor was given a horn by the king.  He was to blow the horn and all that was in hearing distance would be his.  That is a basic jist.  Anyways we went to find the horn.  I found a library I loved.

We had to really look for it.  I had asked and got a display room, but there was still tons in there. Cora ended up finding it first.  It was way back at the end where they were doing construction, almost hidden.

After looking at a few more things in the museum we decided to hop back on our bus. We had previously bought tickets to Tower of London and River Thames ride.  Both closed at 5 and we didn't want to miss them.

(This picture is so London to me.  The red phone booth, pigeon and taxi)

We ended up waiting 45 mins for our bus.  They told us they came by every 10 mins.  At this point we were getting a little worried about missing our other things.  Traffic was so slow.  We ended up hopping off and riding the Tube instead.

Finally made it to Tower of London with only an hour to look around.

We could have used more time here, but we did see the Crown Jewels.

Heard some cool stories and saw the armory.

Beside the Tower was the spot to get on the boat.  At this point it started to lightly rain.  We were glad, you can't go to London and not have any rain.  There was lots to see along the way and we stopped at Big Ben.  That was really cool.  So much bigger than I thought.

Cora looked around for this phone booth.  She was sure she had seen a picture of her Great-Grandpa and Grandpa Puzey.  Taken when David Sr was getting picked up from his mission by his dad.  She wanted to recreate it.

West Minister Abby was close by, and we walked around that.  Dave said he wish he would have thought about it the night before and we could have taken the kids to an Evening Mass there.

Again we found a local pub.  Blake and I needed to try the fish and chips before leaving England.  The other thought ours was better than theirs.

Back to our hotel and to sleep.