London fun

So going through my photos, I realized that I never finished posting about my trip to London. How could that be!? It's been fun to go through these photos and relive the fun that Erick and I had...

How could we possibly go to London and not take a ride on the Hogwarts Express? Erick was not interested, but I took a leap through the wall: 

We stopped by the Harry Potter shop and picked up some chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. They really do have earwax flavor, and it tastes just like earwax smells. Ick!

We tried to see all of the "usual" tourist-y things. We went to Westminster. I didn't realize how close it was to so many other buildings. I had a hard time taking good pictures of it:

Westminster Abbey has been the coronation church since 1066. The church as it looks today started to be built in 1245. I know I've been in Europe for a while, but these dates just blow my mind. I'm so amazed that architecture this old is still standing all over the world:

The Parliament building in London is known as the Palace of Westminster. The first palace was built in this location in the 11th century. It burned down in a fire in 1512. In 1834 an even greater fire burned the palace. The palace as it looks today began construction in 1840 and took 30 years to complete:

The most iconic part of the Parliament building is, of course, Big Ben:

We saw Winston Churchill:

and a few red phone booths:

We went to see the Tower of London. Of course we took the Underground to get there:

When I arrived in London, I knew nothing about the Tower of London. If you are in the same boat, let me give you a quick lesson.

Since it's construction in the 1070's, this building has served as a fortress, a royal residence, a home for the Royal Mint and the Crown Jewels, a storehouse for weapons and other military equipment, and a very scary prison.

Erick and I did not go inside. I know, it's a shame. But we were very low on time, and it was pretty darn expensive. We opted for dinner that evening instead. But here are my photos of the exterior:

We had to grab a photo of the famous Tower Bridge:

After taking exterior photos of the Tower of London, we saw some small vendors that were selling fish and chips. I really wanted to try real English fish and chips, but the food that was being served by these vendors looked questionable and smelled terrible. We did not order any.

We started asking some of the nearby shop owners where they would recommend some good food, especially fish and chips. A nice woman recommended Wetherspoons right across the street. She was right, they served some GOOD food:

I got to eat some fish and chips. And look at the view from our table! Tower of London and Tower bridge. Seriously? Can it get any better than this? 

One last photo before heading back onto the tube:

We enjoyed walking around some of the parks in London. This is a view from the park near Buckingham Palace, but facing the other direction:

This park was very close to our hotel. We walked through it on our way back to the hotel on our last evening:

I really enjoyed the fountains:

Before I post this, I want to send a shout out to Mary Anne and Dusty, who had our kids this entire long weekend. They entertained my kids and made them feel so special and so loved while we were away. Thank you so much. I am honored to call you my friends.