Laughter in the rain in London - UPDATED 9/2 About This Page:

[luvnwdwgal]

Thanks for the update Cheryl!

[loobyoxlip]

Thanks for another installment.

[chezp]

Firstly an apology - I've only just realised that I ended up with the same title for this trip report as the Boston PP meet. I didn't pinch it honestly guys



Laughter in the rain in London – part three: messing about in the River!



We headed to the South of the River and waited patiently by the MI6 building – the home of Britain’s intelligence service – to cross and head into the Thames for the second part of our tour.





The headquarters of MI6 – you might recognise the shot from the river from the James Bond film, “The World Is Not Enough”, it was the bombing at this building, which led to the beginning chase sequence along the River Thames



It was fascinating to see that we had to swap drivers at this point, as there was one guy who did the land part of the tour, while the other guy did the River part of the tour. We went on the Liverpool Duck Tour about four years ago and it the same driver the whole way round, but I guess they’ve got different requirements for the River Thames, as it’s still a pretty busy waterway.



I will admit that I was expecting more of a splashdown and was quite disappointed at how calmly we eased ourselves into the Thames, especially as I was ready with the camera to capture the wave that should’ve come over the front of the Duck. Very disappointing.



It took us quite a while to head towards the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament, as there was quite a strong current running the other way. I just love river rides and the Duck tour combines that with a land tour, so it’s great fun.





Jane and Taylor on the water in the Duck



The London Eye and County Hall





My favourite building in the whole world – the Houses of Parliament



By the time we made it up to the Houses of Parliament, they just left the engine idling, turned us around and let us drift back down towards MI6. Because the current was so strong, that didn’t take long and as we drifted along, the rain started to come down a bit heavier again, but we had been so lucky to stay dry during the majority of this tour. As we headed back downstream, we saw another Duck tour heading the other way up the Thames – and I’m glad we did, as this was the only shot I managed to get of one. They look pretty cool in the water!





Another Duck in action



The apartments next to MI6 – imagine the security clearance you’d need to live there!



When we got back on dry land, there wasn’t much more to see on our way back to the London Eye, although I did finally manage to snag a photo of Lambeth Palace – the home of the Archbishop’s Palace. It dates from the 14th century, I think Matt said, which I didn’t realise.





Lambeth Palace with the obligatory London bus in front of it!



We were back at our starting point by about 11.30 and I can thoroughly recommend this tour. At an hour and a half long, it covers a lot of the major attractions in London and gives you a good idea of where things are in London, so it’s a great way of finding your bearings. It’s also a unique way to travel around. Matt was a great guy and really brought the whole tour to life and I’m glad we did it.



After a quick restroom break back at the London Eye (and here I must praise their disabled toilets. Don’t forget I was on my crutch and the restrooms were downstairs, so I opted for the disabled ones, as going down and back up a flight of stairs wouldn’t have done my ankle a lot of good and the facilities were excellent), we headed off towards Waterloo to go and check out a skateboarding shop for Taylor. The rain was still coming down, but not as heavily as earlier. However, we all needed umbrellas / our hoods on our sweatshirts up and let’s just say I was glad I was wearing my contact lenses, as I wouldn’t have been able to see anything through my glasses.



I was impressed with the way Taylor navigated us past Waterloo station and the Old Vic theatre down to the skateboarding shop. Whatever directions he’d got, he’d obviously done a great job of memorising. I certainly wasn’t in familiar territory, so I doubt I could’ve helped out much. It was really interesting walking there, as we got to go through the South Bank area, which is now full of arts complexes. For us though, we will always remember the way it was ten years ago, full of vagrants sleeping rough. It really wasn’t an area you wanted to go near, but full credit to the authorities – they recognised the problem and have done a lot to regenerate the area and now it’s apparently Europe’s biggest arts complex. Taylor was pretty quick in the shop, but it still gave me a chance to sit down and rest my ankle and then we headed back towards Waterloo station, where we caught the underground.



On the walk back to the station, we were chatting about what Jane and Taylor had done and hadn’t and I was shocked to hear that they hadn’t visited Covent Garden, one of the London’s markets, which is now an area of trendy and unusual shops, so I suggested we head there. There was an ulterior motive for me, as I was starting to get hungry and I knew there were plenty of places to eat around there.



Next: introducing more Americans to English chocolate

[Colexis Mom]

Great report Cheryl Love the pictures! How horrible that it's pouring rain, but sounds like you are making the best of it

Can't wait for more

[karmic]

Great report, Cheryl! I loved the description of the Duck Tour. My family and I just did the Boston tour last Thursday and really enjoyed it. We had only one driver but he explained that he needed 4 different licenses to drive the duck including 1 maritime license.

[luvnwdwgal]

Great update and pics Cheryl! Onward to the chocolate!

[GoofyMom]

That Duck tour sounds like something I'd really enjoy. And I've learned to much from your pictures -- I didn't know the British Houses of Parliament were right on the water like that! Looking forward to hearing about the chocolate! (mmmm, European chocolate )

[DopeyGirl]

Beautiful pictures, Cheryl!!! (even in the rain!!! ) Sounds like the Duck tour was lots of fun and informative!!! Enjoying the mini-report so far!!!

As if you didn't have my full attention before, now you mention CHOCOLATE?!?!?! Bring it on . . .

[chezp]

Laughter in the rain in London – part four: introducing more Americans to English chocolate



On the way there, Mark came up with a great plan – head to Pizza Hut, as on Monday – Friday, they do an eat as much as you can pizza, pasta and salad buffet for just over £5 ($8.75). It sounded perfect, but when we came out of the tube station, the obligatory visit to the Disney Store came first, as it was only just round the corner. I’ve got to say I’m glad we went in there. We’ve found nothing we like in our local DS recently, in fact their selection of merchandise has been verging on appalling – over priced and not great quality, so we weren’t expecting a lot here, but we were pleasantly surprised. I managed to get a new denim Eeyore T-shirt, very good quality, stitched on design and only £12 ($21). The T-shirts I’d seen a couple of weeks earlier had iron-on designs for the same price.



Even better was to come – we spotted the Pooh beanies and they seemed to be London exclusives. Let’s just say that we hadn’t seen Pooh as a Beefeater or a policeman before, so we grabbed a couple of each, figuring they’d either make good presents for our niece, who collects Pooh beanies, or we’d see if we could sell them on e-bay. After all, every penny goes towards our forthcoming Disney vacation! By the time we’d finished in there, I was glad of our 10% DVC discount – it does come in useful!



We headed over to Pizza Hut and were told there’d be about a 5 – 10 minute wait, which we were happy with and in all honesty, we were seated in probably less than five minutes. After filling up, we were off again to show Jane and Taylor some of the shops in Covent Garden. It’s been beautifully renovated and features market stalls, as well as a range of high street shops and more unique speciality shops. We stopped to get a couple of photos on the way – of course!





Taylor, Jane and I at Covent Garden



Some more shots of Covent Garden



One of our stops had to be Thornton’s, one of the ultimate chocolate shops in England and somewhere that every American we meet seems to love. Jane was no exception. Earlier on, Mark had given her and Taylor a bar of Cadbury’s chocolate and both were impressed, especially when they learnt it was something cheap and available everywhere. They kept telling us it was better than American chocolate – something of course which we already know. Within seconds of her going in there, her eyes had lit up and by the time I’d bought my favourite variety pack of chocolate, she had two or three bags of chocolates in her hands, supposedly presents for friends and family at home, but she wasn’t convinced they’d make it home in one piece and thought she might have to attack them on the flight back instead.



Our next stop was a souvenir stop, after I jokingly suggested that she needed a Union Flag umbrella and Jane readily agreed, surprising me! The shop was full of all sorts of goodies and we bought a couple of things in there for American friends as well, but ironically Jane nearly left without getting her umbrella, she was so impressed by the selection of other British and London merchandise in there. Luckily Mark reminded her on the way out… just as well we had him with us.



As we left, I suggested walking over to Leicester Square to catch the tube, instead of going from Covent Garden. At Covent Garden, you have to catch a lift down to the platform, as it’s so far underground and if you have to wait a little while for the lift, it’s often easier to do the walk, as the two stations are very close together, so we set off. I kept nearly going the wrong way, but fortunately Mark kept pointing me back in the right direction.



By the time we got there, the sky was still pretty dark and threatening, but at least it wasn’t raining any longer. It just looked as if it would at any moment. I grabbed a couple of photos of the place where most of the UK’s film premieres occur and from looking at them, it doesn’t look anything special, but it does look better in the sun or at night!





Leicester Square



Now here is where both Mark and I completely failed to find the Leicester Square tube station. My mind became a complete blank as to where it was, despite the fact I’ve used it plenty of times before and we couldn’t see a sign for it, so we just kept walking. And really it’s just as well we did, as we found ourselves in Piccadilly Circus – somewhere else Jane hadn’t made it to yet, so it all worked out well. She told me that she’d been planning to get down there earlier in the week, but they just hadn’t made it. It really is worth a quick look and I’m glad she got to see it.





Piccadilly Circus



Then, having finally found a tube station, we jumped on to the tube and headed for South Kensington to visit the Natural History Museum. Now the last time I was here was on a school trip when I was about seven or eight and my parents lived near London. Mark had never been here before. The two things that I remembered from my visit were the dinosaur skeleton in the entrance hall and the massive blue whale and I was determined to see both of those, although I had already admitted to Mark that my ankle wasn’t doing at all well and I wasn’t sure how far I could manage to go. We agreed that we’d do those two things and, if necessary, we’d have to say goodbye to Jane and Taylor at the Museum and leave them to see anything else they wanted. It wasn’t what I wanted, but I didn’t want to push it too far with the my ankle.



If only I had know how far we would have to walk from the tube station to the Natural History Museum! We followed the signs and ended up in a pedestrian tunnel, which seemed to go on for miles and miles. I know it didn’t, but that’s what it felt like to me. What also drove me nuts was all the people coming the other way who took up all the available space. I felt like salmon swimming against the tide and apart from the four of us, there were very few other people heading for the museums, but lots of people coming the other way, so we did have to fight our way through people and some people had no respect for a crutch. Amazing how you can use it though to make a space and force people out of the way – I learnt that trick quickly!



Next: going back in time at the Natural History Museum

[Colexis Mom]

Great update and pictures Cheryl

Can't wait for more And I do hope you're able to spend some time in the museum (and the ankle holds out)!

[LizardCop]

Great Update...[img]http://smileys.*************.com/cat/4/4_1_10v.gif[/img]

[img]http://smileys.*************.com/cat/23/23_30_114.gif[/img] for the nice pictures...


Hope the [img]http://smileys.*************.com/cat/12/12_6_11.gif[/img] holds up...

[2princessmom]

Thanks for the great update and wonderful pictures!!! I am so wanting to come back home! I really believe that I must have been born in England! I really miss London and England! I just love your pictures!

[GoofyMom]

Ok, you're not going to believe this, but I had Cadbury chocolate for breakfast this morning! Really! (uh, chocolate can be a breakfast food, right? )

I am really enjoying reading about your day. There seems to be a theme where Mark saves the day -- first the coins and finding Jane & Taylor, now Pizza Hut's all you can eat buffet, the umbrella reminder and keeping you on the path to the station.

Can't wait to read more!

[luvnwdwgal]

Looking forward to more Cheryl!

[Annabel]

I've just caught up with your report Cheryl, it sounds like you had a great day. I love spending time in London and once we've moved, I'll be showing Andy round - he's never seen the sights of London before! I love the idea of the London Duck tour, it sounds wonderful. I sure hope the weather improved for you guys. Great photos too. Don't keep us in suspense too long

Annabel