Our 3rd day in London started nice and early with a walking tour around St. James' Palace, past Buckingham Palace, and down to Kensington Palace to end with a tea. The strikes made our train in the tube late, and we were almost late for our tour! It turned out to be my favorite tour of our whole trip; I loved the commentary from the tour guide and the tea was just lovely. We made the boys dress up a little for this, and they looked so nice!
Family picture in front of St. James' Palace.
We walked down past the Palace towards the Mall in front of Buckingham Palace, and we got to see this open courtyard where some events are held. But the coolest thing we saw was this practice parade!!
We got to be right up front next to the barricade and watch the horses and soldiers go by. It was really something special. The costumes and different horses were beautiful. I believe it was some kind of parade to honor the King for an upcoming birthday or something. Our guide told us that this time of day is when they do the 'changing of the guard' which is also something we wanted to see. But this was way better!
After the parade, we walked through the gardens past Buckingham Palace. We didn't really see much of anything of the Palace, but heard a little about the history of where the kings or queens like to actually live. We walked through what is called The Green Park all the way up to the Wellington Arch.
The Arch is on the corner of Hyde Park which is where Kensington Palace is, but we hopped on a bus to take us the mile and a half down the street instead of walking.
Family picture in front of Kensington Palace and the statue of Queen Victoria (her birthplace). Also the home of Princess Diana and her statue is in the gardens. We didn't walk through the gardens here but the tea room was right next to the gardens, and we could see her statue through the little windows in the border hedges.
Having tea was on my bucket list, and this was so lovely! The boys had a great time and all drank tea. Matt had the 'champagne' of teas, and we had to buy some when we got home. The experience was absolutely so much fun, and the food was very good. I loved the dishes!
Here is another one of my favorite pictures of the trip: the boys in front of the Albert Memorial. It was farther away than it looks or we would have walked over to see it up close.
We decided to hop on the bus and go around the corner to shop at Harrods since we were in the neighborhood. It is an absolutely huge store, but what I really wanted was a coffee cup! haha, and some tea towels to take home as gifts. I bought a collection of key chains too, and missed out on finding good Christmas ornaments. Just didn't find the right one which was disappointing!
We did find a Lego floor and a whole room full of Jellycat! David had to pick up this giant bunny which is like his bunny at home. It would have needed a whole seat on the airplane! haha
The hop on hop off bus passes expired after our second day, so we decided to finish riding the loop outside of the Harrods and around that section of town.
We decided to stop at the Lego store in Piccadilly Circus when we changed bus loops. We knew we could get on the tube at this station to go back to our flat easily, so we stopped by the shop while we had time. IT was really awesome to see all the lego builds!
After the Lego store, we headed back to our flat. We were tired this day. Calvin had a bad cold this whole trip, so poor kid was taking cold medicine and using up tissues like crazy. We found some fun little souvenirs at the Lego store- I got a double decker bus and the boys all got little British men that were supposed to be special to the location. James built his guy immediately, so he got a photo shoot.
Our plan for the rest of the day was to watch the FA Cup at a local pub. But maybe our jet lag had caught up with us because none of us felt like doing that. We were worn out, so we put the game on the TV and watching it while we napped. The real live match was only a few miles away which felt a bit sad, but when I looked at ticket prices I was shocked! They cost more than our airplane tickets to London. So we settled for take out food from the corner restaurant, or maybe we went to eat there... One way or the other.
Two more bucket list things for me! Tea in London and shopping at Harrods. It was a really great day. Thankful for my boys being such lovely gentlemen and such good sports. They really didn't complain or give us a hard time; I think they had as nice a time as Matt&I did! Thank you Lord for a lovely day.
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