London for a Day

When you think of visiting England one of the things that you think of it London. We debated about where do we take mom/grandma for one special outing. We were debating between the Lake District and London. The Lake District is beautiful with hills to hike and beauty all around plus it has been two years since we were there. London, well that is all the famous sights that everyone knows and loves. In the end we decided to take the train to London for the day.

We took a relatively early train. There is a direct train that has just a few stops and in about two hours you are in London.

Seeing the telephone booths as we came up from the Underground, we just had to get a photo.

We started our day at Trafalgar Square. Here is one of the lions at the base of Nelson's Column. (History lesson coming son and we will meet Nelson and understand this a bit more.)

From Trafalgar Square you can look and see Big Ben. If you are in London, you need to see Big Ben.

We introduced my mom to Pret. We first discovered Pret when we lived in Taiwan and visited Hong Kong. Then we enjoyed it when we lived in Hong Kong. J liked it so much he had it again for dinner.

We started walking towards Big Ben/Westminster Abbey.

We toured Westminster Abbey. There is so much in there to see. I am thankful for my homeschool teaching as I am a bit more knowledgable of the people buried there or the memorials.

Miss K did a children's page and then received a chocolate coin at the end.

We then began walking towards Buckingham Palace. We had gotten tickets for a tour of the State Rooms. This is open for a few months in the summer. We had time until the tour so we walked around the front of Buckingham Palace.

Miss K was excited to see the Palace and where the Queen lives.

My mom and I did get a few photos of us together. I am so glad that she was able to come and visit us.

This is the back of the Palace. We couldn't take photos inside. My mom was smart and bought a guide book so she has all the photo there. There was a special display as Queen Elizabeth is now the longest reigning monarch. That was a series of photos of her life. We walked through the different rooms. I enjoyed the portrait gallery and seeing two Benjamin West paintings. To think that we used to drive past the meeting house where he went each week on our way to Target and then to be in London looking at paintings he did.

We walked through the ballroom which was set up for a state dinner. There were displays which showed all the work that went into a state dinner. We wash our dishes the same as Buckingham Palace -- by hand. Of course, they have dishes from Queen Victoria's time and we just have some dishes from Ikea.

The tour is definitely worth it. Since then I have talked to people that didn't know you could tour it. I am glad that we did it. We had a late in the day tour and it was nice as we didn't feel that it was crowded.

I enjoyed walking through the gift shop and seeing all the things that you could buy. I bought a "Royal Maid" and "Royal Chef".

We made our way back to the train station and got dinner in the station before our train home. It was a long day but I am glad that we were able to show mom/grandma bits of London.

Beth