Lovely London

Jacob's parents came for a visit last week and we didn't do too much last weekend...headed to Brugge of course, but mostly just hung out around Brussels.  They had fun spending time with Autumn and even took a few days exploring Paris, but for this weekend we decided to all head to London.  This was our first time in the UK and I just have to say, it is so lovely being somewhere that the main language is English.  We can read signs and menus and ask for directions if we're lost...it's the small things...and it makes such a difference.

We got an early start on Friday and took the Euro tunnel over.  It was an interesting experience...with your car on a train and going under the English channel, but it was the cheaper route.  We were also worried about the drive in London because Jacob got lots of tips that it was going to be tough driving on the other side of the road with London traffic.  But aside from turning down a bus only street at one point we actually did really well...and I think we would definitely recommend it and will likely do it again.  When we arrived at our hotel, Park Plaza Riverbank we were pleasantly surprised.  It was really nice, we were just across the river from Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, and we got a great deal on Expedia...it was perfect.  We took our stuff to our room and headed right out to explore.

First we saw the House of Parliament...

Then Westminster Abbey

And Big Ben (which is actually quite little)

We found Piccadilly Circus (similar to like NY Time Square)

And Buckingham Palace

That night Jacob and I had the rare treat to go out on the town by ourselves.  We saw the musical Wicked and it was FANTASTIC!!  I've seen it once before, but it was such a special treat to see it in London.   That is definitely a night to remember

On Saturday we bought a train pass and just planned to see the city.  We visited The London Tower and The Tower bridge...so cool!!

We popped in to The British Museum for a bit since it was free and we had a tip that it was cool. Autumn was in full toddler swing after just napping so we didn't stay long because we figured our fellow patrons didn't appreciate our running, screaming, cutie pie as much as we did :o)

We then walked over to Covent Garden...a lovely open air market and shopping area with lots of street performers and personality.  It was a fun little area that if we had more time and money it would have been fun to hang around longer.  They even had their own Build a Bear & Disney store...I haven't seen those in awhile :o)  Autumn's favorite part was chasing away the pigeons...here she is quite proud of herself :o)

Our last stop of the day was Notting Hill.  We didn't really expect to find anything from the movie here...we just wanted to experience a small quant area of the city.  It was a nice little area...not really much too see, but on a beautiful day it was fun wandering around checking out all the beautiful houses and gardens.  By this time we were all quite tired and ready to head back to the room.

On Sunday we felt like we really had seen all the main tourist attractions, so we ended up heading back home a bit early. I'm sure we'll be visiting lovely London again soon...maybe even during the upcoming Olympics.  It was nice to get home early enough to enjoy some nice weather in Brussels and have some down time to close out another fun weekend.  We need all the down time we can get because we leave in just three short days for our next trip!!  Time to get laundry and packing going again :o)

Click here to view the full London album.