Day 6, Saturday,  in London-our last full day of vacation. We decided to spend the day visiting all the big museums. They all have free admission, which was good since we used up our London Pass. Most of the museums are located near Buckingham palace, so we thought we'd swing by and watch the changing of the guards before visiting the Natural History Museum.

Turns out, the Second Saturday in June is set aside to celebrate the Queen's Birthday. We did not know what to expect at the palace, but we thought we'd get an early start. After our train and subway ride, we arrived near Westminster Abbey. We thought we'd run in for a quick visit since none of us has seen the inside of the beautiful church. Still have not seen the inside-it was closed for a private event planned for the Royals.

So we made our way to the front of Buckingham palace. We discovered quite a crowd had gathered, along with tv cameras and reporters. We did not realize that the Royal family takes a carriage ride down the Mall to the Wellington Barracks, a nearby armory where the Queen inspects the Troops, AKA Trooping the Colours, and then heads back to the palace. So we were caught up in the parade crowds. Scott tried climbing on a fence pole to see over the people, but a Bobbie quickly asked him to get down. So we had to watch the parade from the back of the crowd and just glimpsed the top of the Royal family heads-mostly of the Queen's hat. Afterwards, as the crowd dispersed, we walked over to the History museum.

It is an incredibly beautiful and massive building with lots of incredibly old artifacts including dinosaurs, stuffed animals and birds, some brought back by Charles Darwin himself. We then planned on visiting the Science museum, however, after checking out my tour book, Tom thought the British museum would be a bit more fascinating. Turns out he was right! The British Museum was full of amazing mummies and artifacts. And when we left the Science museum, we were treated to an aerial display over London in honor of the Queen's Birthday! Guess we missed the entire family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, but we really could not have seen much of anything with all the crowds. Instead we enjoyed watching the festivities on the BBC tv broadcast that evening when we got back to the hotel.

We stopped into another pub for a late lunch, and on our way back to the hotel, we slipped into the National Portrait Gallery to catch some of the paintings of quite a number of very famous Brits like Shakespeare, Handel, Queen Victoria, Beatrix Potter, Prince Harry and Prince William, Queen Elizabeth and  celebs like Amy Winehouse as well as  our very own George Washington. We really enjoyed our day of touring the museums, but it makes for a rough visit since none of the buildings are air conditioned and they are quite large and full of lots of stairs.

We found our way back to our vacation starting point at Trafalgar Square, but we did not stay long. A very large crowd of demonstrators was gathering-some to protest eating meat and others for the release of some political prisoner. And the crowd was getting ugly as they took over one of the double decker tour buses. That was our cue to head back to the hotel. And also watch the protest on tv.  We did take one last walk through Kingston along the river to say goodbye to the swans before stopping in a local restaurant for a late dinner. We considered heading to the movie theater to catch the opening in London of Jurassic World, but we were all a bit to worn out from our long day of hiking through the museums.

On Sunday it was time to pack up and head home. Tom decided we would take the train to Heathrow airport(not again), but he chose a different route based on some phone app. This time we were headed all the way to Paddington station, quite a bit north of Heathrow. It did not make a whole lot of sense to me-I was navigating as the crow flies-a more direct path on trains and subways just like our arrival route. But we packed up and headed to

Paddington station, running for our train. We boarded an incredibly fancy train, not like the basic commuter trains we were used to riding and discovered that our Oyster pass did not work on this train. This was a special airport commuter train. You had to buy separate tickets for this train and each ran around 40.00 American dollars-one way, per ticket. Tom's app showed him the fastest way to the airport, but not the cheapest. We quickly grabbed our suitcases and hopped off. Tom broke down and decided to call for an Uber ride. We located our ride in about 20 mins outside the train station and had quite an enjoyable, if not exciting ride through the streets of London to Heathrow airport. And a whole lot cheaper for all 4 of us. We managed to get to the airport with plenty of time to spare before our flight, so we opted for lunch at Gordon Ramsey's restaurant inside the terminal as well as spending some time souvenir shopping.

We had another wonderful flight home and since this was during the day, we spent a lot more time watching movies and playing video games. I managed to catch up with 3 oscar winning/nominated films. And again, British airways fed us way too much food.

So we arrived back in Baltimore early in the evening and we even had time to pick up Cookie from our neighbors before heading to bed. We all agreed that our trip to London was quite a highlight for our family vacations and we would all love to go back!

Thursday and Friday, Day 4 and 5 London Tour 2018

We were on Day 3 of our London Pass. We scheduled another very long day-this one involved more travel. We headed to Paddington station (yes the bear)on the train and subway to visit Windsor Castle.

Windsor Castle has been in the news recently as Prince Harry just married Meghan Markle on the site. Allison and I had already visited the castle, but talked Tom and Scott into a repeat visit as we knew they would enjoy it. We arrived around lunch and stopped into an old pub(of course) in town called The Three Brewers. We had a remarkable lunch and then started off on our tour. Tom and Scott opted to just wander the grounds, but Allison and I waited for a guided tour. Our favorite is the life size dollhouse by Queen Mary. We especially loved meeting up at the end for photos on the stairs of the chapel, St Gregory, where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had recently stood posing in their wedding garb. We also toured the inside of the chapel and watched a portion of the wedding ceremony on a large screen tv placed in the foyer. It was quite spectacular. Especially since we had watched it on tv before visiting. After our tour we stopped into town for tea time. We enjoyed a pot of tea and cake, clotted cream(butter) and scones and then wandered through the small town and the train station filled with shops and restaurants before starting off on the long train ride back to our hotel.

When we returned to Kingston, we walked down to the river to have dinner at one of the pubs and watch the boats and swans go by. We still had one more day planned on our London Pass and the kids wanted to visit the London Zoo.  Allison and I had also wanted to visit Universal Studios in London to see the sets for the Harry Potter movies, but it seemed quite a bit of traveling and expensive for a visit to the movie sets. We also stopped along our way at Picadilly Circus to visit some souvenir shops, although Scott was not too fond of the loud, crowded streets. The kids did not like the Soho area either(a bit to rough for their liking). Very much the theater and arts, music area.

On Friday we planned on spending the whole day at the London Zoo. It is located North of the city in one of the many large parks, Regent Park. We attempted to pick out the nearest subway station, however, once again we had a bit of a problem navigating the streets on foot. I think we could have walked to Scotland and back by the time we found the main entrance. But it was worth it. The London Zoo was quite fascinating, and we saw quite a few creatures and events that you usually don't see in your average zoo. After a very relaxing lunch in the main dining area, we were off exploring. Our favorite events included watching the Komodo Dragon hunt for a chicken dinner, as well as the white tigers who went off looking for their snacks hidden around their pen. They even had to climb up a few trees for their treats. And we especially enjoyed wandering through the pens with the lemurs and monkeys. We had to keep our phones out of their reach while snapping photos-I guess they like to steal them from humans!  We made sure to see all of the zoo before it closed, and we would have stayed for the Friday night food trucks and beer, however, after all the walking we did that day, we decided to head back to our hotel since we knew it was going to be a long trip.

I did notice that the area the zoo was in seemed very familiar. Turns out the Girl Scout World Center was located nearby. Allison and I had visited Pax Lodge during our GS European tour 5 years earlier. The boys really had no interest in visiting the GS center, but we did run across a statue of Lord Baden Powell on our wandering(founder of Boy Scouts). Tom and Scott also managed to locate a monument to the Boy Scouts with Lord Baden Powell when they visited DC for Scott's passport. (I think he is following us!).  After a lot more walking and train/subway rides, we managed to return to our hotel for the night.

We had one more busy day planned-visiting the London Museums and Buckingham palace, Westminster Abbey. More walking!

Day 3 WEds London Tour 2018

So we had spent the first day of our London Pass and still had many more activities on our schedule. We decided to spend Weds at the Tower of London and Tower Bridge located up the Thames river in the area known as The City. After breakfast and our train ride back into London, we boarded a boat for a brief tour up the river to the Tower of London. Seems like we always run into an American or two. Allison and I sat next to a very nice gentleman from Louisiana sightseeing with his adult son(the adult son decided to take a quick trip to Scotland, just so he could say he went there). We very much enjoyed our educational and brief boat trip up the Thames to the Tower of London.

This castle built in 1066 is right on the Thames and was used as a prison for some very famous London residents, as well as the guard house for the crown jewels. We joined a tour already in progress to learn all about King Henry VIII's first wife and how he had her executed at the Tower(and how they cut off people's heads and placed the criminal's heads  on stakes dipped in oil which they posted while on fire along the one bridge into town to keep out any riff raff). Gross. They also used to bring the prisoners into the castle through a gate off the river by boat after sentencing them downriver at Parliament. We toured the many rooms after our tour including the chapel(for funerals mostly), the White Tower that houses suits of armor and weapons, including the suit of armor worn by Henry VIII(quite large for the time) and even suits of armor for the horses. We viewed the crowns worn during coronations of Kings and Queens with incredibly large jewels(no photos allowed), and finally said hello to the Ravens that live in the Tower of London. Legend has it that if any of the 6 Ravens leave the grounds, that London will fall. The guards stationed there or Yeomen/BeefEaters are to keep the Ravens safe, guard the castle(and give tours). Usually retired military personnel. The castle was also home to a zoo at one time.

We had a great time wandering around the buildings and soaking in all the history, and then headed across the river via the Tower of London Bridge. We also had a London Pass to enter the elevator that takes you up to the cross walk at the top of the bridge. They actually have a glass floor so you can see down to the river and the road below. Quite a view up there! And fascinating to see how the bridge was built  starting in 1894 with steam powered bascules(arms) that lift the bridge to allow large ships to pass under.

On the other side we stopped into lunch at another very old pub, The Fishermans Wharf. A favorite of historical writers such as Shakespeare. The rebuilt Globe theater was next door. Allison and I wanted to tour the place and maybe take in a play. But the tours were only in the morning since the plays were scheduled in the afternoon and late evening so we could not go in. For only 5 pounds(about 7 bucks) you can stand in the center of the theater, no roof over your head and watch a Shakespeare play for two hours. For a whole lot more, you could sit on a very uncomfortable wooden bench in the round. Just like in Shakespeare's day. We decided to skip it. But Tom and I took a quick trip up the elevators into The Shard building with our London Pass(the kids were pooped out). The tallest building in London at 800 feet, it has an open sky deck on Level 72 with incredible, 40 mile views of London on a clear day. We had a beautiful clear day and loved visiting the top with the open roof and bar where they serve strawberries and champagne. We skipped the bar and just marveled at the expanse of London and all its historical as well as modern architecture. We then headed down and walked back along the river, across another foot bridge towards St Paul's Cathedral(where Diana and Prince Charles were married).  St Paul's cathedral was rebuilt after the great London Fire in 1666 and looks very similar to the Vatican in Rome. It was getting late and everyone was off work in London, hanging outside in the streets at the pubs. We decided to skip the St Paul's Cathedral tour and instead stopped into a local pub, The Punch for dinner and to wait to visit with one of Allison's friends from GS camp. Many girls from England travel overseas to work at the GS summer camp and we met up with  Nicole  for dinner after she got off work. The girls had a lot of fun catching up while we ate, and then said goodbye as we walked up Fleet Street(also known for the legendary murderer Sweeny Todd the Barber of Fleet Street), to another very old pub, The Olde Cheshire Cheese Shop. This pub was down a side alley, very dark and very cozy and had seen many famous authors and artists in its past.  It was so cozy we sat and chatted with a few young men out having a beer after work, discussing differences between the US and England. It was so much fun. Scott was amazed how friendly and comfortable the pub people were and how chatty. I guess beer will do that to you! We headed back to our train station and the sun was just setting around 9:30 at night. We did not realize how light it stayed during the day which made it even better when we were out traveling. Another great day thanks to our London Pass.