London- Day 4

Today was only 9 miles of walking and most of it was spent gazing at some amazing specimens at The Natural History Museum. With over 80 million specimens, Thomas and I both felt a little overwhelmed by all that there was to see. We spent 5 hours there and truly feel like we just glazed over most of it. We likely could spend about a day in each room! Thomas enjoyed pointing out that his rock collection really isn’t that big.

The rocks and minerals room. I lost count of the cases.

A rare collection of all the colors of diamond.

We stopped off at Earl’s Court and Thomas got his picture with a TARDIS.

We came back to the hotel for about 45 minutes because I needed a 20 minute nap to recharge. All of those stairs yesterday were quite a workout.

We then went to The Shard, the tallest building in London, and were able to see the city from above after the sunset. Thank goodness this one had a lift (aka elevator, for all you Americans) to the 68th floor and we only had to climb to the 72nd floor for the view from the top. It was amazing, but I’ll be honest in the fact that there was a lot more satisfaction in reaching the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral yesterday.

After The Shard, we headed for the LEGO store. They had some really cool displays and Thomas bought some treasures for “the boys” (I’m so sure).

We had dinner at Poppy’s for some traditional British fish-n-chips. The haddock was much better than the cod. Thomas drank English tea with his fish.

After dinner we went to Hamley’s— no, not a saddle shop or bar— but a SEVEN story toy store. Our kids would have been in heaven.

We finished our night off with some delicious ice cream— pistachio and wild cherry for me and chocolate coconut sundae for Thomas.

Tomorrow we plan to take a river cruise on the Thames and spend most of our day in Greenwich.

London- Day 3

Today we celebrated Thomas’ 32nd birthday! We walked about 10 miles and climbed roughly 60 flights of stairs.

Along our journey today we saw:

1. St Paul’s Cathedral- truly breathtaking. No photography is allowed inside but photos from the outside balcony gave a beautiful view of the city. 528 of our steps came from the journey to the top.

2. The Tower of London- Did you know it was once a zoo? We also saw the Crown Jewels- including a diamond over 500 carats! Again no pictures were allowed of the Crown Jewels.

Thomas and I couldn't believe people actually lived in the Tower of London. As we walked around we could see what appeared to be apartments and private residences. We learned later on a bus tour that most of the guards and Yeoman Warders families live in the Tower. 

Because the Tower of London was added to over the years, there are many different styles of buildings. It was quite amazing to see how styles changes over the years. 

3. The Tower Bridge- We stood on the glass floor 140 feet above the Thames River.

4. The Globe Theatre- Built in 1997, The Globe Theatre is a replica that stands near Shakespeare’s original theatre. Due to it being winter season, they are not performing plays in the outdoor theatre but Thomas and I both have it on our list to return in summer sometime and watch a performance from the yard (standing room only on the floor in front of the stage) for just £5.

5. The National Gallery- We saw the works of Leonardo DaVinci, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Henri Rousseau, Joseph Mallord William Turner (who’s work I loved!), and many others!

Today we also rode on an open top bus and saw a vintage double decker red bus!