Yesterday was pretty uneventful. We decided to take a break and sleep in a bit as we are pretty exhausted. We ate a late breakfast at our Edinburgh B&B, packed up, said goodbye to Shaun (our host), and then took a bus to the train station. We were ready to go with plenty of time to make it to our train but then the credit card machine wasn't working properly which took some time to figure out which caused us to barely miss our bus so had to wait for a later one (which was also running late), then traffic was horrible, and we had to practically run off our bus into the station. We then went to a ticket kiosk to collect our pre-paid tickets but the card reader wasn't reading our card correctly EITHER...so we ran around trying to get our tickets. We finally got our tickets and made it to the train with about 5 minutes to spare. What we thought was going to be a relaxing morning turned out to be a bit stressful.
The train ride was about 4.5 hours so we watched "The Help" on the iPad...great movie!...and tried to snooze a little before arriving in London. We arrived around 6, ate at a nearby pizza place, and then took the tube to our bed and breakfast. Our hosts here seem very nice! The house is a bit older and we are sleeping in twin beds but can't complain!
This morning, we ate a full English breakfast which was different from the Scottish breakfast. For those of you who know Matt, you'll smile at the thought of him having to eat a stewed tomato as part of his meal. Ha...I enjoyed watching that. Along with the tomato, it consists of eggs, bacon, sausage, and apples.
After breakfast, we rode the tube into town, walked around trying to orient ourselves, and ended up finding Westminster Abbey first! We jumped in line to tour the Abbey right away. I told Matt this was like my Disneyland...seriously, I think I have a small obsession with royalty. I know that my Grandma White will smile while reading this because she understands my thoughts exactly! So Granny, I of course walked everywhere that Kate walked at her wedding and thought of you :) I could only take photos of the outside of the Abbey but being inside where so many kings and queens have been sworn in, had their funerals, and had been married was surreal. It's hard to grasp that you are standing amongst that much history. We then walked past Big Ben & the Parliament buildings, and the London eye. After lunch, we walked to Buckingham Palace which was also surreal. Again, Granny, I thought of you and how I was wishing you were here with me. I know you'd appreciate it as much as I did! I stalked Prince Harry at Clarence House and then we toured the Queen's Gallery in Buckingham Palace. The exhibit is an extraordinary display of two men's expeditions to the South Pole back in the early 1900's. The photos were presented to King Henry (I think) so they are part of the Royal Collection now. I was a little bummed that the Royal Mews (all of the Royal carriages and cars) is closed until the end of January as well as the State Rooms in the Palace...but oh well!
We ended the evening reading in Starbucks and warming ourselves up for about 2 hours and just got done eating some phad thai at a Thai restaurant near our home. That's about it for the past few days! Happy almost New Year's!
No comments:
Post a Comment