London pt. 2

Our second day in London was such a big one! It started out with Deirdre and I going to Portobello Road Market. I loved it. It's an outdoor antique market that starts at one end of a really long road and goes on and on.

I'd hate to be living on this road on Saturday mornings!
Next we headed out to meet our husbands and kids and ride the London Eye with them. There was a park nearby where we let the kids play for a while first.

The London Eye is a giant Ferris wheel type thing, but instead of chairs it has pods with clear sides. You go inside the pods and get a really fantastic view of London.

One thing that really surprised me (okay, and kind of scared me) is that the pod doesn't stop for people to get on or off. You just have to step onto it as it is going past. It wasn't dangerous or anything, but still!


Look kids, Big Ben! Parliament!
After the ride, Deirdre and her husband took their kids AND our kids home with them, so Mike and I were free to look around whine-free for the afternoon. :)

We went over to Trafalgar Square, and escaped into the National Museum of Art for a while to get out of the rain.


Next we walked through Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, then took the Tube up to Harrod's. It was huge! My favorite part was stroller heaven (picture coming).

Our Tube station was closed when we came out so we had quite a hike to the next one. When we got back we got take-out fish and chips which were really good, but not quite as crispy as our first ones.

The next day was our last full day in Europe. After two busy days in London we decided to take it easy and drive around the Richmond area. We saw Richmond palace and some of the surrounding area which was really beautiful. Olivia had a fun day playing with her cousins and we had a delicious home-cooked dinner that night.


Thanks again to Deirdre, Brian and family for their warm welcome and hospitality. We had a great time!

London

We took the fast train back to London to stay with Mike's (second?) cousin Deirdre and her family. They were very fun and gracious hosts and we enjoyed our 4 days with them very much.

Friday morning we got up and took the kids into London to see the Tower of London, which ended up being one of my favorite things to see there. The tour guides (Beefeaters) are the actual guards of the tower. It's worth it to listen to the tour, very interesting. My favorite parts were hearing about the resident ravens and seeing the carvings in the stone of the prison walls. Olivia's favorite part was the jewels.

After that we walked across the Tower Bridge to an outdoor market called Borough Market. It is a specialty food market with food from around the world, and it supposedly is the oldest market in London. It was pretty neat to walk around and see the amazing variety of food. I liked what this person wrote about it. This was also where we had our first fish and chips. One serving was big enough for our whole family!


Not only did we get to see two really unique and amazing places and have some delicious food, we also took our first ride on the Tube, saw the oldest cathedral in London and walked over London Bridge. It was a great way to start our visit.

View of the Tower Bridge