Since last weekend was Easter, my daughter had about 6 days off from school. My wife had meetings in London this week, so we put the dogs in the doggie hotel and went to London for about 5 days. Tons of fun. My daughter just read Romeo and Juliet in school, and at the Globe theater they were performing a somewhat modern adaption of the play. We had to get tickets. Just way cool. The theater is inside, but no roof, so it's an "open air" type of theater. It wasn't raining, luckily.
Before we left, we bought rain jackets, because of the weather forecast. Then of course it only rained for about 1/2 of the first day.
And the London Eye! We were out on Friday night, and were just going to go look at the giant ferris wheel. But we got there and they said they were closing in 1 minute. We bought tickets on the spot and were honestly the only people on the whole thing. Not sure why they let us do that, but they did. Tickets were 45 pounds each, so it was 135 pounds for the three of us. I'm curious what it costs for that thing to go around once. They said normally to reserve an empty car is 750 pounds. It was a pretty awesome experience.
And then on Easter Sunday, we went to the service at Saint Paul's Cathedral. Normally that is 25 pounds just to get in and see the place. But because of the service, it was open to all. They said no pictures but I had to sneak a few. They even did communion for everyone, so I'm saved for another year. (I'm not even Catholic.)
It's interesting, to get into England, you scan your passport, they take a picture and you walk through. So we got off the plane, and we were in England with luggage in 25 minutes. But then on the way home, it was just my daughter and me. Customs was no problem, Global Entry makes it easy. But there was a storm in Dallas Monday night. Our plane from Houston was cancelled. We had to get a hotel room there at the airport and then got home yesterday. That was pretty stressful. They didn't cancel the flight until after a couple delays and it was 9:30pm. Some people were VERY, VERY, mad.
Anyway, it's a great city. A lot different from New York City. My daughter thought the English Londoners didn't like American tourists. I'm not sure. Wait staff in restaurants aren't very friendly, but they don't get tipped, so I can see why. I talked to a couple English people. One cashier at a store was pretty friendly. But I'm not sure what Londoners think of Americans. Not that it bothers me or anything.
We only rode the subway in the Underground twice. It was so packed with people. I just kept thinking about the shooting at the concert in Russia. With that many people so close together, and really zero escape routes. At one point the subway train stopped between stations, just for a minute, but yeah, it bothered me. It was a long minute. My wife and daughter didn't even notice. My wife was on a work call.
Here is the Globe Theater before the performance:
The Tower Bridge:
The tall building is "The Shard" and the rounded building is the city hall for London.
Going Down into the London Underground:
Underground Station for London Bridge:
On the Subway:
I got this picture from the top of one of the double decker busses:
Here's inside the ride of the "last minute.com London Eye" What an incredibly dumb name.
I thought this was funny, "drinking fountain and cattle trough combined."
Saint Paul's Cathedral.
Before we left, we bought rain jackets, because of the weather forecast. Then of course it only rained for about 1/2 of the first day.
And the London Eye! We were out on Friday night, and were just going to go look at the giant ferris wheel. But we got there and they said they were closing in 1 minute. We bought tickets on the spot and were honestly the only people on the whole thing. Not sure why they let us do that, but they did. Tickets were 45 pounds each, so it was 135 pounds for the three of us. I'm curious what it costs for that thing to go around once. They said normally to reserve an empty car is 750 pounds. It was a pretty awesome experience.
And then on Easter Sunday, we went to the service at Saint Paul's Cathedral. Normally that is 25 pounds just to get in and see the place. But because of the service, it was open to all. They said no pictures but I had to sneak a few. They even did communion for everyone, so I'm saved for another year. (I'm not even Catholic.)
It's interesting, to get into England, you scan your passport, they take a picture and you walk through. So we got off the plane, and we were in England with luggage in 25 minutes. But then on the way home, it was just my daughter and me. Customs was no problem, Global Entry makes it easy. But there was a storm in Dallas Monday night. Our plane from Houston was cancelled. We had to get a hotel room there at the airport and then got home yesterday. That was pretty stressful. They didn't cancel the flight until after a couple delays and it was 9:30pm. Some people were VERY, VERY, mad.
Anyway, it's a great city. A lot different from New York City. My daughter thought the English Londoners didn't like American tourists. I'm not sure. Wait staff in restaurants aren't very friendly, but they don't get tipped, so I can see why. I talked to a couple English people. One cashier at a store was pretty friendly. But I'm not sure what Londoners think of Americans. Not that it bothers me or anything.
We only rode the subway in the Underground twice. It was so packed with people. I just kept thinking about the shooting at the concert in Russia. With that many people so close together, and really zero escape routes. At one point the subway train stopped between stations, just for a minute, but yeah, it bothered me. It was a long minute. My wife and daughter didn't even notice. My wife was on a work call.
Here is the Globe Theater before the performance:
The Tower Bridge:
The tall building is "The Shard" and the rounded building is the city hall for London.
Going Down into the London Underground:
Underground Station for London Bridge:
On the Subway:
I got this picture from the top of one of the double decker busses:
Here's inside the ride of the "last minute.com London Eye" What an incredibly dumb name.
I thought this was funny, "drinking fountain and cattle trough combined."
Saint Paul's Cathedral.
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