Day 10 - Tuesday, December 2

On Tuesday morning we tried to go a little earlier into London so we would have some more time. Unfortunately as my parents were driving us to the train there was a huge traffic jam and we missed the earlier train that we were trying to catch. It is more expensive to travel on the trains between 6 - 9 am because of rush hour. We were trying to catch the 9:14 train but didn't make it until the 10:14 train. Considering it takes 45 minutes to get to London and it is getting dark by 4:00 that doesn't leave much time. This day was meant to be interesting from the start!

Ben and Emma in front of Buckingham Palace. Right when we got to Victoria station we headed out by foot to Buckingham Palace. It was only a few blocks. It is a beautiful building and the place where the Queen of England lives today.

After Buckingham Palace we walked to Westminster Abbey. It is such a beautiful and old church. Parts of this church were built in the 11th century as well. There are a lot of members of the royal family that are buried here. This is also where they hold the coronations for the Kings and Queens of England. Pictures aren't allowed in side but the architecture is just amazing and the ceilings so high. It is still in use today and they were holding a service while we were walking through. While we were inside it started to pour and I got nervous about keeping Emma dry. By the time we left it was just sprinkling and it stopped with in a few minutes.

The houses of Parliament are next door so we walked past there and over to Big Ben. It was fun to see the Christmas trees every where (another bonus for traveling at this time of year)!

Ben & Big Ben. It is hard to get a picture at a close range of this amazing building. Once again - amazing architecture!

Our next stop was St. Paul's Cathedral. This cathedral has the second largest dome after the St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The best part of this cathedral is the observing deck at the top. The bad part is you have to walk up all 350 steps to see it. 260 steps up is the whispering gallery and you have a nice view of the inside of the cathedral from this area. The ceilings are amazing.

After climbing all the way to the top there is a nice view. This picture shows the London Eye. From this perspective you can see how big this ferris wheel is.

These are the billboards and advertisements at Piccadilly Circus. I imagine this to be like New York City's Time Square. Granted I have never been to Time Square but I imagine it to be a little like this. Supposedly this was the first place to have neon advertisements. We then tried to make it to Kensington Palace. Like I said earlier everything closes early in the winter and this palace was no exception. We showed up at 4:10 and the last admittance was 4:00. Very disappointing. The gardens were very beautiful and we did see a helicopter land and take off from the gardens. Makes you wonder who was on it!

When we got back to Victoria Station (after waiting at the bus stop for 30 minutes) our train was delayed (once again it costs more to ride the train between 4 - 7 pm). We were hoping to catch the 7:24 train but the train was delayed and was about 25 minutes late. It was just one of those days where things just didn't fall into place. Oh well, we had fun anyway!