On day 6 we started out with a boat trip down the River Thames. We started at the West Minister Pier and got off just past the Tower Bridge by the Tower of London. My mom and I were the first in line to get on the boat and secured great seats at the front of the boat. The trip lasted about 30-45 minutes and there was an audio guide streamed throughout the ship pointing out important landmarks along the way. After leaving the West Minster port we saw the London Eye, The Tate Modern, and Millenium Bridge. Out of the right side of the boat we could see a replica of the Globe Theater used by Shakespeare. We also passed an old WWII battle ship that is docked in the River Thames and used as a museum. We finally arrived at the Tower Bridge and made a pass under the bridge, turned around and docked at the Tower of London port. I had always thought that the Tower Bridge was the London Bridge, but in fact the London Bridge is just a cement bridge with a small marking on the side saying "London Bridge".
My mom and I walked around a part of the Tower of London, which is where many people were held captive before being beheaded by the guillotine. We decided not to do a tour of the Tower of London since it was 18 pounds/person ($26). You do get a guided tour by an authentically dressed Beef Eater, but we couldn't validate the price. This the point in the trip when a pigeon pooped on my head. Luckily, I was wearing a hat. That I would later accidentally leave on a seat in the underground (problem solved!) We then went on to Somerset house where we paid to see the permanent exhibit and a special exhibit on Picasso's paintings. My mom and I aren't huge art fans, but I figured we can't come to London and not see some famous artwork. The nice thing about Somerset house is that the rooms themselves are like pieces of art. This building is where many royal tudors lived just after the reign for Henry VIII and his successors.
After the Somerset house we ventured off to find the Temple District in the city. This area was once ruled by the Knight's Templar and has remained in the olden architecture to remember the men who once lived and ruled in this district. There are actually two silver dragons stationed at the entrance to "the city" and during the times of royal rule over England the king and queen would stop before the silver dragons and ask permission from the mayor of London to be granted entrance into the city of London.
After buying dinner at a small grocery mart around the corner from our hotel and resting for a short bit, we decided to brave Oxford Street at night for a little shopping. We didn't find too many stores that weren't high end and out of our price range, but we did pop into Hamley's. I think this could be the world's largest toy store, if not the biggest one in London. There were 5 stories jam packed with toys for all ages and toys of all kinds. The thing I liked best about Hamley's that you don't often see in a true toy store is most of the workers were set up at stations actually playing with the toys or making crafts. This not only shows the child (and the parent) what the toy can do and whether or not it's worth your money. It of course draws the kids in to watch the demonstrations and then they plead with mum and dad to pretty please buy every toy in the store, but still pretty cool.
Our last full day in London started out with a trip back to Kensington Palace and a stroll through Hyde Park. The weather seemed to be getting a little warmer so we were more open to walking around a little more today. On the south side of Hyde park we caught the #9 red double decker bus across town. It was so neat to sit at the very front of the bus and get a 180 panoramic view of the streets of London. Man can those buses get close to other cars, light poles, and pedestrians! On the red double decker bus my mom and I split a candy bar called a "double decker", seemed appropriate.
We had lunch in Chinatown and stopped into a Chinese grocery store just to look around. We then made our way over to the London Eye to redeem our tickets for a trip around the wheel. Since it was rather foggy and stormy out that day we opted to wait till night to see the city all lit up. We did however go ahead and watch the 4D movie experience of the London Eye. We decided to explore the other side of the River Thames for the afternoon just to see what all was over on that side. Not much we found out. We did see a man making some of the biggest bubbles I've ever seen and entertaining school children with his talent. I dropped a few coins in his tin so we could buy more bubble solution.
As we were walking to the Tate Modern Art Museum, we say a row of people along a fence dressed in dark drab colors and some with rather professional cameras. After striking up a conversation with a lovely man who was chocked full of info, we found out that these people were paparazzi waiting for some big name british celebs to come out of a recording studio. We didn't recognize any of the names the man listed so we decided not to stick around and wait. We did finally make it to the Tate Modern museum. We quickly found out modern art is weird. Not to judge against someone's taste in art, but after seeing a display of two pigeons nailed to a wall with arrows, we decided this is not where our time should be spent.
Once it got to be dark out we made our way back to the London Eye and got in line to board the next carriage. The trip lasted 30 minutes and we did indeed get a 360 view of London. On our way back across the West Minster Bridge we noticed what appeared to be a photo shot for some commercial or ad. It took too long for the crew to set up, so we decided to just catch the tube back to our hotel.
We woke up early the next morning to turn in our hotel key and catch the tube to St. Pancras station. It was mid journey that I decided to verify the time of our train and realized that it left 3 hours later than originally thought. Oops! So we bought some breakfast at a cafe and hunkered down till it was time to catch the train back to Lille.
I had an amazing trip with my mom and really enjoyed London! Thanks for all the great new memories mom!!
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