London... our first time!

Good Friday was indeed a good Friday for us! Easter is still celebrated here in the UK, so Friday and Monday are both federal holidays. We took advantage of the day off on Friday and drove into London, 51 miles that took us about 1:15 from drive way to parking garage... a smooth drive, would have been smoother if our GPS had been smarter about the various diversions due to road construction because of preparations for the Olympics.

Here's what we ended up doing: parking near Parliament/Big Ben, walk to Buckingham Palace, lunch at Planet Hollywood, walk past Trafalgar Square, then walk along the river back to Big Ben... in all, a 3-miles trek.

We drove on a bridge right past the iconic Tower Bridge...

Then, because of traffic diversions and a "recalculating" GPS, we ended up driving over the Tower Bridge not once, but twice! But since it has no tolls, it was actually kind of fun to drive!

We arrived the parking garage at 11:00 and had walked the kilometer past Parliament and Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard at 11:30.

Note to people who think it's cool to take pictures with your iPads... it's not. In fact, it's pretty obnoxious.

A couple of pictures after the crowd cleared out and it was time for lunch.
We walked along along St James' Park, so lovely... Tim & the girls with Tim's parents, and Big Ben in the background...

Random bagpipe marching...
After lunch we walked past Trafalgar Square and were surprised to see the density of the crowd in the square. They were waiting for a live performance of "The Passion of Jesus." We unfortunately didn't have the hour and a half to watch the free performance, would have been great I'm sure. Another notable sight at the square: the official Olympic clock counting down the days until the Olympics start... 112 days, 5 hours, 50 minutes and 5 seconds... tick, tick, tick...
We walked down to the river and then along the river back to Big Ben.

Big Ben and a double decker bus with Harry Potter advertising... does it get any more English than that??

You had to ask, didn't you? How 'bout a Jaguar in Union Jack colors?
For all the wonderful British history we saw, it was great sitting down at Planet Hollywood for some American food! Burgers, ribs, fajitas, fries (not chips!), and chips & dips! Ryann on her last day as a 3-year-old gave it a thumb's up!

One last detail from the trip, almost halfway through our day Morgan looked down at her feet and screamed in laughter... the reason? She noticed she had put on two different shoes!

Morgan's story is that before we left for London that morning she tried on each shoe to see which pair would be more comfortable for walking the day in. Looks like she was comfortable all day today!