London Calling

HELLO! SORRY ABOUT THE LACK OF BLOGS…THINGS HAVE BEEN PRETTY BUSY FOR DREW AND I BUT THEY ARE ALL DONE NOW! WE’VE POSTED THEM IN ORDER BUT THAT MEANS THAT YOU HAVE TO GO DOWN TO THE LAST BLOG POSTED BY DREW (ABOUT NEWCASTLE AND THE CRUISE) AND THEN READ UP TO GET THE CORRECT ORDER OF EVENTS. SORRY FOR ALL THE CONFUSION. OH YEAH, YOU MAY WANT TO GRAB A SNACK…THIS COULD TAKE A WHILE!

Drew’s mom and little sister came to visit us. They arrived on Wednesday…we took them out to eat on Wednesday night to celebrate Carla’s birthday. On Thursday Drew, Carla and CarlyFaith went into Edinburgh to see the castle and some other sites. On Friday morning we headed off to London for the weekend. On Friday night Drew and I went to the Wicked at the Apollo Victoria. We both really enjoyed the show so I was really glad that we went.

On Saturday we spent the entire day exploring all of London’s biggest sites. We saw Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, Hamley’s (Britain’s largest toy store), the Marble Arch, and Hyde Park where we got to see the Peter Pan statue (Carla was very *happy* that Drew had made her walk around half the park to find the statue), and Princess Diana memorial fountain. At Buckingham Palace we watched the beginning of the changing of the guards. Being that it is not high season yet they are only doing the changing of the guards every other day so it was incredibly busy (as I’m sure it always is). We were up at the very front of the group against the gates and, unfortunately, the people in front of us were very inconsiderate and kept shoving us back. Not really a problem except that Carla is pregnant and, understandably, wasn’t very thrilled about having these rude women constantly running into her belly. We stuck it out for a while but then decided that we’d had enough so we went to leave but, there was a huge crowd, so making our way through the crowd with CarlyFaith and the baby buggy was quite difficult. So, being crafty, Drew decided that the best way to get out of the crowd was to hoist the buggy over it. We took CarlyFaith out and Drew lifted the buggy high in the air, over everyone’s heads. Amazingly, the crowd parted so Carla, myself and CarlyFaith were able to follow pretty easily in his wake. We got to the outskirts of the crowd and Drew put the buggy on the ground, kind of dropping it helter skelter. There was a huge gasp from the people there who didn’t realize that there wasn’t a baby in the stroller. It was really hilarious, but I guess you probably had to be there!

We toured Westminster Abbey which was really neat because Drew and I had not gone into the Abbey the last time we were there. It was amazing to see all the tombs that were in the Abbey…I had no idea they had so many and so many famous people. After a full day of walking and discovering that most of London’s underground is not handicap accessible so getting really good at carrying the stroller up and down the stairs we headed back to the hostel for a nice quiet night in to relax and recuperate. We got some pizza and then headed down to the hostel’s hot tub…it was a great way to end our Saturday.

On Sunday we took a walking tour of London where we were able to see Wellington’s Arch, Green Park, Buckingham Palace, the house where Prince Charles lives, St. James’ Palace and much more. It was fun to be able to hear a little more of the history behind some of London’s most famous sites and hear some entertaining stories such as the various break-ins to Buckingham Palace. Overall, we had a really good weekend. It rained a little on Friday night when we first arrived but, other than that, it was clear and sunny the entire time…pretty unusual and spectacular for London!