Monday, April 15, 2013

London 2013: Part 1

On April 6th at 3:30am, the alarm went off. We all got up and got dressed to head to the airport for our 6:30am flight to London.Within the next 8 days, we will travel to London, Bath, Stonehenge, Newbury (Highclere Castle aka Downton Abbey castle), and Scotland.

Ava slept most of the way to the airport. She did great on the 1 hour flight to London. Once we arrived at the London airport, we caught a train into the city. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and checked in. It was way too early to get into our hotel room (8am) so we decided to go to Harrod's. I was not expecting the 4 story, 5-acres, 330 departments, one MILLION square feet store. I was expecting an upscale Neiman's. I was a little overwhelmed to say the least. It was such a fun place to see, though.



We were starving after spending almost 2 hours in the store so we went across the street to have tea at Richeaux's. It wasn't the nicest place to have tea but it was a neat experience. After having afternoon (or late morning for us) tea in London, it makes me want to have afternoon tea everyday!! I wish we could have gone to a really nice place to have tea like The Ritz but we just didn't feel like spending 100 pounds (around $150) to have afternoon tea and I also didn't feel comfortable taking Ava into such a nice setting. Maybe next time! ;) 



 Ava stayed entertained with the sugar packets.


After tea, we were exhausted from being up since 3:30am so we decided to go to the grocery store that was right next to our hotel to stock up for the week. Our hotel was actually like an apartment so it had a full kitchen. We bought breakfast and lunch stuff so we would only be eating out for dinner each day.

We got our groceries and went back to our hotel room. I was running a fever and feeling SO sick so we laid low the rest of the evening. I loaded up on the meds that evening and by the next day, I was feeling much better.

The next morning, we got up pretty early and went to the Kensington Palace which is the future home of Will and Kate (they will move in once Will is out of the military) and it was the home of the late Princess Diana. We went to the palace on our first trip to London but didn't tour the inside. I really wanted to go inside this time and I am so glad we did. It was beautiful.



This was a sign outside the restroom. Everyone is a prince or princess in this castle! ha!


These pictures really don't do this place justice. It was stunning.





Wouldn't you like to be the baby that sleeps in this cradle?! Wow! I am pretty sure this is the cradle that Queen Victoria slept in.

After we viewed the castle and had our sandwiches for lunch, we walked to St. Paul's Cathedral which was absolutely gorgeous inside but we weren't allowed to take pictures...




After St. Pauls, we went to see Buckingham palace, Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. They are all right next to each other except Buckingham palace. We had to walk a few blocks to see that one. Buckingham palace is only open a few weeks out of the year. It is the Queens main residence so it is only open when she is out of town. Unfortunately, it was closed both times we were in London.. :(




Parliament 

Westminster Abbey (Where Will and Kate were married)




We didn't spend much time at any of these places because we had already visited them on our first trip to London. 

Once again, we were super exhausted from walking all day so we ate dinner at Azzurro Italian restaurant and then headed back to our hotel for the night. 

If you want to read about our first trip to London, you can read all about it here..

Next up... Stonehenge, Bath, and the Highclere Caste!!! 


2 comments:

Andrea @ The Dawley Fam said...

how fun!!! I would LOVE to visit London! I am dying over the beautiful architecture!

Bethany Ruby said...

Great photos!! So cool about the Downton Abbey Castle!