See how quickly that happened, we were settled and they came! Some of our great friends from New Jersey stopped in for a weekend in London before they left to spend the week in Ireland. We had the greatest weekend, all crammed into two days.
They arrived first thing Saturday morning. After breakfast and letting them freshen up a bit, we were off for a full day in London.
Our first stop was the Tate Britain. My kids had never been to an art museum before but they enjoyed it. Suzen’s favorite paintings by John Martin are here (Plains of Heaven, Great Day of his Wrath, and The Last Judgement) so it is a must-see every time she comes.
Since the Tate is really not near anything else, we decided to eat lunch and then walk up the riverfront to see some sites until we couldn’t go any further. We had a great view from Lambeth Bridge.
Big Ben, River Thames, London Eye
Perhaps the best part of being with friends to tour, is that you can get yourselves in more pictures.
Chris and me in front of Houses of Parliament & Big Ben
The kids had a great time on our walk, making everything into a game.
We sure are glad that our kids get along so well with our friends and that our friends seem to enjoy playing with our kids.
We worked our way up to the London Eye area and decided it was time to visit the Ice Cream Van, as the line there was definitely shorter than that for the London Eye.
There were many performers and statues out for all the tourists. Hannah had brought some of her money from the tooth fairy and decided this was how she would spend it. The thought process was quite a long one as she decided which statue she would like to bring to life with her well-earned money. She finally settled on this charming person, and was more than thrilled when he came to life and invited her to stand on his stand with him.
At this point, we could have called it a day and gone home, but Emma had noticed we were half-way to the Globe Theater at this point and we had to keep going. For some reason, our map didn’t show exactly how far that would be. We seemed to walk on and on forever. We did have some interesting sites as we walked, like the skate park where there is continual spray-painting or the beach performers with their living room almost complete.
By the time we reached Shakespeare’s Globe, most of us were ready to head home, but Emma insisted we needed to go in.
We were really glad we did. It was very interesting to see the stage and hear the history of the 2nd and 3rd rebuilding.
Not sure if we would settle for the cheap seats if we ever came to a play here. They stand right down there in the center of the theater, in front of the stage and aren’t allowed umbrellas. I think we’d definitely go for paying a little more to sit in seats with a little bit over our heads!
Loved the oarsman drinking fountain towards the entrance!
After our tour, we took our walk across Millennium Bridge and headed home, very tired.
Sunday we had a great time at church and then afterward, we let our friends tour London on their own while we headed home to start on our English dinner of Roast Beef, Yorkshire Pudding, and the works. The kids counted down the hours until they came home and set them right down to play some more games.
Can you tell we have been missing our friends and family a little bit?! As much as we didn’t want it to come, Monday morning dawned and we had to say goodbye once again.
Poor Cami stood on the sidewalk, watching the car pull away, and cried real tears. The rest of us felt the same way as we moped the morning away. Although, not too long after they left, we found a treat they had left that brought our smiles back.
A little bit of American happiness . . . in the form of peanut butter candy and seasoning packets!
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