Monday, September 20, 2010

London Bus Tour

If you ever go to London, I highly recommend taking a bus tour. It was excellent! They have tons of buses running so you can get off any time to look at things, then just get back on the next bus that comes. It was a great way to see EVERYTHING, then later you can just go back to the things you want to spend more time at. We all had a great time, the boys especially loved sitting on the top of the open air double decker bus. Here are a few of the things we saw.....
we started the day in Trafalgar Square, which was named for the large statue of Admiral Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar.

the famous lions.... which we found out they used dogs as models.... so besides the face they actually look more like dogs. apparently they began by using a dead lion as their model, but it decomposed to quickly so they finished up using a dog... idiots!

enjoying the ride!
you don't see a smile that big very often!
sooooo happy to be with daddy again
my mom, she took most of the pictures since i was busy wrestling kids, and making sure they didn't jump off the bus :)
Parliament

Big Ben (which is just the name of the huge 13 ton bell inside, not the rest of the clock or the tower itself)
St. Paul's Cathedral
one of the oldest wooden structures from the time of Shakespeare
The Supreme Court of England and Wales... opened by Queen Victoria in 1882!

Westminster Abbey

The Marble Arch (which used to be the main entrance at Buckingham Palace, but was moved when they extended the palace.... although some tour guides will tell you they moved it because the Queen's Carriage didn't fit through it!)
The Victoria Memorial- Queen Victoria, the longest reigning monarch in British history, the longest reigning female monarch in the world. She is very fascinating... I've been reading a lot about her, she was incredible!
us in front of Buckingham Palace

tired legs

tired boy...
We had a great day, and saw so much. London is so rich with history, it's amazing how OLD things are, you just don't see that in the States. So, to my sister, whom I endlessly make fun of for choosing HISTORY as a college major... I now see why you did. (now, i'm not saying it was the smartest decision of your life, but I understand it now :)

6 comments:

Vashti said...

AAAhhh! Love it! I really want to go there someday. Interesting bit about the lion statue and using dogs as models! Keep the post coming, I LOVE it!

Pa said...

It does my soul good to see your family back together.
I see jonathan hasn't bought into the whole scarf thing yet...tell him to get with it.Tell the boys I love them every day.Keep telling us your story.

Evelyn said...

Wow, you must be having a blast! Are you adjusting to all the differences? Love the pictures!

Peter and Lesha said...

you are so lucky, that is amazing and I so love seeing all of it:) so glad you are having fun and getting to be with Jonathan again. so nice that your mom is still there

Elizabeth C said...

These are great pictures, thank you for "taking" me along on your tour. It was fun to read about too. They have a movie out, called "The Young Victoria" I believe, and it was very good, I highly recommend it, if you haven't seen it yet. :)

Analisa-creator of hairblingzcutethings said...

i loved the doing a bus tour when i went years ago...our bus even ran into a car, oops! love all your pics.