London

[Monday 5/8-Fri 5/12 - I'm way behind... trying to catch up]

We recently finished the first leg of our latest adventure - a European trip with our son, Thomas, and his girlfriend Caroline. We started with 3 nights in London and are now in Portugal for 10 days. Thomas & Caroline will head home after that, while Karri and I continue on for a week in Ireland.

Karri and I flew Seattle-to-London Monday night, arriving at Heathrow around 1:30pm Tuesday. Thomas and Caroline arrived from NYC a few hours before us and we met up at our hotel in the Blackfriars section of London. Dropped our bags and headed out to explore. Blackfriars is a great location - central and walkable to many of London's attractions.

We crossed the Thames to the South Bank via the Blackfriars Bridge and walked west along the river.

The London Eye

Graffiti Tunnel

Westminster Palace and the Westminster Bridge

We crossed back over the Thames via the Westminster Bridge and wandered around the Palace and Abbey - just a couple days after the coronation.

Big Ben

Palace of Westminster

Westminster Abbey

Later in the afternoon, the skies turned and it started to rain, so we ducked into a pub, The Harp, near Trafalgar Square, for our first British pint. We were all getting hungry - and tired - so we soon moved on to dinner at The Ivey for some local fare. We were back at the hotel around 10, proud of ourselves for powering through our first day (though Thomas and Caroline cheated and had taken a brief nap before we got to the hotel!).

Cheers!

Walking to dinner in the West End

Wednesday morning we grabbed a quick breakfast near the hotel, then headed to St Paul's Cathedral a couple blocks away. St Paul's is the seat of the Bishop of London. The current building dates to the 17th century and sits on Ludgate Hill - the tallest point in London. We decided to pay the admission so we could climb the dome and take in the view. Once inside though we decided to do the entire audio tour of the impressive church. Definitely worth a couple hours.

Cathedral dome

Choir... err Quire

Climbing to the dome galleries... 17th century Brits weren't known for their height

View from the Stone gallery - nearly to the top

Made it!

View from the top!

After descending the 528 steps, we crossed the Thames back to the south via the Millennium Bridge and headed to the Old Globe Theatre - a thatched-roof, open-air replica of the theatre Shakespeare's theater company made famous. Next we headed to Borough Market to take in amazing sights and smells. We grabbed lunch from a stall serving Indian food - so good.

Tech crew was setting up for a production at the Old Globe

A few of the hundreds of stalls at Borough Market

After lunch, we crossed back over the Thames and headed to The Garrick Arms, a pub just north of Trafalgar Square, to meet up with Fara, a good friend of Caroline and Thomas' from New York who was visiting family in London. After a pint, we walked to Old Shades - another pub - to meet up with our friends Renato and Melanie, neighbors from West Seattle who recently moved to London for a 2-year work assignment. The 'kids' joined us for a drink then headed out while the adults stayed for dinner - a fun night!

Joined by Renato, Melanie and Fara - at Old Shades

Walk back to the hotel after dinner

Thursday we walked to Buckingham Palace via St. James Park, then on to Hyde Park where we rented bikes and explored for a bit. We stopped at the Royal Albert Mansions, where Caroline's grandpa had lived for 6 years. Returned the bikes, walked past Kensington Palace, then decided to take a Tube back to the city since it was starting to rain.

Gardens in front of Buckingham Palace

Gates of the Palace (no royal sightings)

Hyde Park

We waited out the heaviest rain in a coffee shop, then headed to Tower of London. Thomas and Caroline left to meet up with Fara again while Karri and I toured the tower grounds, including a viewing of the Crown Jewels - some of which had just been used in the coronation. 

The White Tower - built by William the Conquerer in 1078 

The Waterloo Block - home to the Crown Jewels

Room in the White Tower where Anne Boleyn was convicted of treason in 1536

Tower Bridge

We walked back to the hotel to rest a bit before heading to The Old Bell Tavern - a 300-year-old(!) pub on Fleet Street - for snacks and a drink. For dinner, we walked to Hoppers in Soho for (our first ever) Sri Lankan cuisine - an excellent meal. Walked back to the hotel (topping 25,000 steps for the day!) and crawled into bed. 

Friday came early as we had to pack up and be in a taxi to Gatwick Airport by 9am. We had planned to take the train (~25min ride) but a rail strike dictated we take a taxi - with the ride taking nearly 2 hours. Fortunately, we had left ourselves enough time, and check-in and security were quick, so we made our flight easily. 

We loved our time in London. There's still a lot we didn't see, but we covered a lot of ground in 3 days.

Next stop - Porto Portugal!