The Richards in Scotland: Weekend in London

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Weekend in London

This weekend we were off to London, the capital of England and the largest metropolitan city here in the United Kingdom. This trip we flew into London-Gatwick airport, which was a smaller airport in London and was very easy to travel to and into the city. When we originally flew overseas back in October last year we flew into London-Heathrow which was such a BIG airport! I remembered it took us a long time with 3 security checks and a long bus ride to get to our connecting flight. Since Jon was going to a business meeting on Monday, we stayed at the Hilton at the Gatwick airport and took the Gatwick express train (30 min) into the city Victoria Station. It was really easy, and once we walked out of the station we got on the big "Red Bus" for a double decker bus city tour. This has become a common thing for our family. When traveling with young kids, the double decker bus has become our friend!

Here are some of the places we saw on Saturday:

Hyde Park - the largest park in London and is the Royal Park with a lake and tons of greenery

Oxford Street - tons of shopping!

Trafalgar Square

Horse Guards Parade

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament

Westminster Abbey - beautiful inside, just like the wedding! No pictures allowed though.

Buckingham Palace

St Pauls Cathedral

London Bridge

Tower Bridge

Piccadilly Circus

The Big Ben and Houses of Parliament are my favorite buildings in the UK! I could not take enough pictures, the architecture is just amazing. We were able to tour the Westminster Abbey which was very beautiful inside. It was definately the highlight of my trip since we were there a couple weeks after the Royal Wedding. It was very busy with tourists along with the whole city of London. We watched the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. We took a boat cruise on the Thames River which was beautiful. That evening we went to see The Lion King at Lyceum Theatre. It was a long day and Mommy and Daddy along with the kids were wiped out!

On Sunday we saw:

Hamleys

London Aquarium

London Eye

On Sunday Jon had a meeting around noon so I decided to take the kids into town on my own and take them to Hamleys, the most famous toy store in the world. It is the oldest and largest toy store in the UK and had 5 stories of toys!!! I knew we would be spending some time in there so I decided to let the boys see it all. We did, spent 1.5 hours in there and managed to walk out of the store with 2 small toys each. It was so fun though, Landon saw lots of airplanes that he wanted and Trent saw plenty of army trucks and action figures that he liked. After some window shopping for myself, I decided it was worth a trip back to London with some girlfriends to go shopping! I love London! We hopped back on the big Red Bus and headed to see the London Aquarium. After that, Jon met us back in town and we all rode the London Eye. It was amazing! Loved seeing the whole city from above. We went to have dinner at a nice restaurant in Leicester Square and did some walking around the area. Jon and I absolutely loved the city of London. Such a clean city I might add....It was a fun upbeat city with lots to see and do. On the next trip I would like to ride the tube more, tour the Tower of London, Maddame Toussauds and visit Harrods!