Old London Town
Trip Start
Apr 04, 2008
1
44
108
Trip End
Jul 03, 2009
London,
England,
United Kingdom
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
We were very excited to be arriving in London but primarily to catch up with our good friends the Sutheralnd's. Tom was extremely excited to be having a whole month of Jack Time. So with much hugging, kissing and shrieks we met at Gloucester Rd Station and began our adventure for the next month. We did the hop on, hop off bus, stopping at the Tower of London where we caught a ferry back up to Westminster which had the funniest unofficial tour guide. The Brits have such a great sense of humour as he made fun of most of the sights along the way and threatened with a fall off the gang plank on our exit, we were more than happy to tip for this tour. We then went to Harrods for a look around and after assuring the security guard who had already evicted Tom and Jack that they were Ok and with us.
Day 2 started with the London eye where Gill swears you're able to see the Eiffel Tower on a clear day, as it was cloudy we had to give her the benefit of the doubt (NOT) as we could only see for about 20 miles... (this of course led to her being given the nick name Eiffel) We then walked along the river and deposited the kids in the London Dungeon (unfortunately only for an hour and a half and torture was not included) while we went and had a leisurely 3hr lunch in a pub along the Thames. Suitably rested and refreshed it was then off to Madame Toussads which turned out to be a favourite of everyone's with lots of fun photos. From there we walked to Covent Garden were the stamina of the boys wore out and they retreated back to the Sutherlands hotels for Thai DVD's. US adults appreciating the history and beauty that surrounded us continued walking thru London past Trafalgar Square, St James Park, Buckingham Palace. Unfortunatley the Queen was in Scotland an unable to receive us. Next Time...
One the 3rd day we hired a car and drove to Oxford and Birbury in the Cotswolds to show everyone a bit of the English countryside. Cold day but sunny, which made it a really nice drive. Oxford was a great town and although we only spent a few hours there we really enjoyed it. The beautiful old buildings and gorgeous gardens.... Then a little further on we arrived at Birbury which is a picturesque Cotswold country village straight out of the movies. While we oohed and ahhed at the gorgeous cottages and church the boys were more inclined to play in the stream and watch fish, ducks and swans. A long drive home into the night and managed (without too much shouting) to find our way back into London where we hired the car.
The next day it was off to Paris on the train via the Chanel Tunel. We arrived to find our train was cancelled and quickly phoned the Sutho's who were on the next train and told them to come straight away or they may miss it altogether as people were being shuffled to later trains. Good thing we did this as we were able to witness the run in Rhy had with Customs and the British Police. Rhy (now named Smuggler or Red Alert) tried to carry the several knives he had bought in Bangkok through the security point. Of course these showed up on the xray, so he and family were hauled off for interrogation. Lucky to avoid imprisonment in her majesties finest Rhy and the rest of the Sutherland's did join us on a very relaxing journey south to Paris onboard the high speed train.
