2012 Trip #9 - London
As you can see from all my trip posts and lack of anything else, it has been a busy month for the Tarts in Turkey. In the last 6 weeks, we have had 3 sets of visitors and 5 different trips. It has kept us busy and the blog a bit lonely of posts.
Last week, I was in London for work. After the fantastically hot weather in Turkey, I was a very happy girl to have a break from the heat. It also reminded me how nice it is to be able to communicate with someone in their language instead of hand gestures. That is certainly something you take for granted if you have never lived overseas.
Paul joined me for the weekend - it was his first time to the UK and I was excited to share with him one of my favorite cities in Europe. With this also came a bit of expectation to be the expert. What's a certain building, how do you get here, what should we do today? You want to show someone whats best in the city and gloss over some of the less enjoyable parts.
Paul had one demand for sightseeing - the big hop on hop off tourbuses. While it is easy to get around via tube in London, on a sunny day, this is a fun and easy way to get exactly where you want to go. The weather was in our favor and we got an overview of the famous sites in London: Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, Globe Theatre and more.
While we did a lot of hopping on and off that day, we didn't go into too many things.
We saw the tail end of the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. Who knew they had a band? (Don't answer that, I'm pretty sure lots of you out there knew that).
We checked out my all-time favorite church, Westminster Abbey. It's amazing and creepy to walk around and on top of all those tombs. Plus, I love Poet's Corner with the best writers are lying beneath your feet. Like I said, creepy, but amazing.
We got off at the London Tower for great views of the Tower Bridge and then hopped on a river cruise.
Paul's only other request was to visit Greenwich. As in Greenwich Standard Time. I had never thought of this before, but said hey, that sounds like fun! So we grabbed the river boat for a ride up the Thames to Greenwich. There isn't actually all that much there. Some neighborhoods, a park which will be used for the horse, errr equestrian, events for the Olympics, and the observatory. Here at the observatory is where you can see the Meridian Line, the (imaginary) line that divides the world into the Eastern and Western hemisphere.
We took a cruise back to Westminster to enjoy the beautiful views along the Thames and get me a snack so that I could stop being what I have coined as hangry (hungry + angry = hangry) and quit acting like an annoyed diva. Ironically, I did in fact eat a snickers.
To end the day, we visited a pub in Notting Hill for a pint of ale for Paul and a pint of cider for me. You gotta love a city where you can get cider on tap.
More to come soon on Day TWO of our London visit.
Last week, I was in London for work. After the fantastically hot weather in Turkey, I was a very happy girl to have a break from the heat. It also reminded me how nice it is to be able to communicate with someone in their language instead of hand gestures. That is certainly something you take for granted if you have never lived overseas.
Paul joined me for the weekend - it was his first time to the UK and I was excited to share with him one of my favorite cities in Europe. With this also came a bit of expectation to be the expert. What's a certain building, how do you get here, what should we do today? You want to show someone whats best in the city and gloss over some of the less enjoyable parts.
Paul had one demand for sightseeing - the big hop on hop off tourbuses. While it is easy to get around via tube in London, on a sunny day, this is a fun and easy way to get exactly where you want to go. The weather was in our favor and we got an overview of the famous sites in London: Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, Globe Theatre and more.
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| Hi - don't mind us, we're just some friendly tourists! |
While we did a lot of hopping on and off that day, we didn't go into too many things.
We saw the tail end of the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. Who knew they had a band? (Don't answer that, I'm pretty sure lots of you out there knew that).
 |
| Oh, hey there Queen! She just celebrated 60 years as Queen |
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| The Beefeaters |
We checked out my all-time favorite church, Westminster Abbey. It's amazing and creepy to walk around and on top of all those tombs. Plus, I love Poet's Corner with the best writers are lying beneath your feet. Like I said, creepy, but amazing.
 |
| No pictures inside, but luckily you can take pictures outside which was useful during the 30 minute wait to get inside. |
We got off at the London Tower for great views of the Tower Bridge and then hopped on a river cruise.
 |
| The Tower Bridge NOT the London Bridge. The London Bridge is a lovely concrete thing down river. |
Paul's only other request was to visit Greenwich. As in Greenwich Standard Time. I had never thought of this before, but said hey, that sounds like fun! So we grabbed the river boat for a ride up the Thames to Greenwich. There isn't actually all that much there. Some neighborhoods, a park which will be used for the horse, errr equestrian, events for the Olympics, and the observatory. Here at the observatory is where you can see the Meridian Line, the (imaginary) line that divides the world into the Eastern and Western hemisphere.
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| Yes, it was as unexciting as it seemed (sorry Paul). |
We took a cruise back to Westminster to enjoy the beautiful views along the Thames and get me a snack so that I could stop being what I have coined as hangry (hungry + angry = hangry) and quit acting like an annoyed diva. Ironically, I did in fact eat a snickers.
 |
| London Eye - favorite (unedited) picture of the trip. It takes 45 minutes to go around and it doesn't actually stop. |
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| Big Ben and Parliament - there are two parts to Parliament: House of the Lords and House of the Commons. |
To end the day, we visited a pub in Notting Hill for a pint of ale for Paul and a pint of cider for me. You gotta love a city where you can get cider on tap.
More to come soon on Day TWO of our London visit.
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