London, baby!

We enjoyed a delightful long weekend in London!  Tyson's aunt, uncle, and cousins were vacationing there so we decided to join them for a few days.

Saturday morning we headed to the Portabello Street Market.  The quaint streets were lined with flowering trees and blooming flowers, and lots of people.  We enjoyed lunch just off Picadilly Circle, then headed to Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Parliament, and Buckingham Palace.  We strolled through St. James and Hyde Parks, both of which were full of daffodils, birds, and people enjoying the lovely spring weather.  Our literary stroll in London began with J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan statue.  We found it so amusing to watch the kids climbing all over the statue, telling stores about the different figures on it.  Fish n' chips were the conclusion of our first day.

Sunday morning we went to see the famous 221b Baker Street, home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional character, Sherlock Holmes.  Over the last few months, I've enjoyed reading the entire Sherlock Holmes collection and definitely wanted to see the setting of these fantastic stories.  We continued our literary journey to Kings Cross Station, where we stood on the walkway where Harry and Hagrid stood before Harry left for Hogwarts the first year, and also got our pictures taken on platform 9-3/4.  Yep, we're both Harry Potter fans, and Kings Cross was one of the highlights of our trip.  Next, we headed to the Tower of London, which has quite an interesting history.  Then we walked over London Bridge to see the Globe Theater, and then over Millennium Bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral.  We strolled through the theater district on our way to the National Gallery. 

We participated in the Monday morning rush hour on our way to Westminster Abbey.  We found a neighborhood bakery and ate our pastries in the sunshine outside Westminster Abbey before our tour.  We took the Tube numerous times each day there and were pleasantly surprised by the ease, cleanliness, and efficiently of London's subway system.  Our last stop in London was the British Museum, which has some great collections.

Our time in London was fantastic and we're already looking forward to returning there sometime.  And seeing family was thoroughly enjoyable  =)

Here's a link to all the pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/101852905683847445633/London2012?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPHsrZjF57_3dg&feat=directlink