A bit of a sleep in after a late night visiting on the moors. We showered and ate a couple pieces of toast and were packed and out the door by 10. Paul drove us to the train and helped get our tickets straightened away. We waited 10 minutes for the train and we were off again!
Traveling along the ocean to start was very scenic and comforting as we passed all the places we had hiked on day 1. We turned a bit west into Exeter and along the river Exe as we saw hundreds of boats moored in the river including Paul/Annes motorboat in there somewhere.
We arrived in Exeter and had to switch trains. Krista appeared to have said I have 22 minutes so went to the washroom only to have Jacob run in and yell "Dad the train is here !!" Apparently she said I had 1 or 2 minutes. Yikes.
Jumped on the train and off to London!
Some scenic spots along the way but mostly a view of trees and shrubs jammed up against the rail line.
As we rolled into London, the industrial areas were write astounding as we saw many factories and such as we entered Paddington Station from the south. We were the lady ones off our railcar as our backpacks continue to get heavier and heavier with each stop.
We were starving but knew we had to get our bearings and figure out transportation and food before heading out. We hit the information station and bought tube passes for the weekend. We grabbed some quick Burger King and headed out to the tube.
We got on at Paddington and switched trains onto the Central line and headed south to North Acton. We got off the train and our Holiday Inn was right there!!! Except it had a different name? We asked at the front desk and they said we had to walk 2 more blocks over to the 'other' Holiday Inn. Who knew?
Sure enough there it was 2 blocks away. It took a while for them to get a hide a bed couch into our room but we checked in and then downloaded passes for the hop on hop off bus with the London Eye package. We loaded our day pack and we were gone!
A quick stop at Subway for lunch and onto the tube. We got off at the Marble Arch and exchanged our Ecoupon for tickets and onto the yellow bus we got. We traveled around the city stopping at all the many different tourist stops and taking pictures. Highlights included Buckingham Palace and Parliament buildings. We passed by Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.
We decided to get off after we crossed the Westminster bridge and wall back across it to the Thames river cruise as we had free tickets to use with our bus ticket package.
The blazing sun shone in our eyes at a balmy 27 degrees as we walked back towards the Abbey and Big Ben with the thousands of tourists of every language and color from around the globe.
We walked down the stairs to the marina and onto a large river boat with several hundred others. We found a spot on the top and had a great view! I grabbed a bottle of cider for Krista and I to share and a sandwich. We went for a 20 minute ride and ended up at the Tower Bridge where we got off and walked back to the bus stop to continue our city tour.
Friday Aug 12 part 2
We walked around a bit and saw the sights before getting on the yellow bus again and headed a few stops to Trafalgar Square. There were absolutely hoards of people packed into every square cm of the place. We hopped off the bus and made the executive decision that we should go get on the London Eye for a ride in case it was too lined up through the weekend.
We grabbed a bite to eat as everyone but me was bordering on completely miserable. Some chicken strips and pizza and everyone was right in the head again.
We walked back to the river and across a bridge to the Eye. The sun had begun to set and all the lights were coming on such that the city had quite a glow about it. There was a neon pink double decker bus serving yogurt near the Eye that really got your attention.
We got to the Eye and had to trade our vouchers in for real tickets in the building beside it. What a complete gong show that was with hundreds of people clamoring to get tickets before the last trip at 930. It was 830 pm and we lined up in the queue with some girls from Texas and New Hampshire. There were two lines and ours moved exponentially quicker and soon we were in our 20 person pod slowly escalating to the sky. It was quite dark in the pod but the views continued to get better and better! After 15 minutes we were at the top and took some super videos and pictures of the city at dusk and then night. We noticed the pod beside us had a couple by themselves drinking champagne Time seems to fly and soon we were back on the ground.
We walked along the Thames for a bit before turning across the Westminster bridge towards Big Ben again. The lights illuminating it and the many buildings downtown seemed surreal for a kid from Porcupine Plain Sask...
We grabbed some muffins and stayed to watch Ben strike 10pm. It was a neat experience with the boys to be downtown London on a warm August evening.
We caught the tube back to the west side of the city and arrived at our hotel before 11. A bit of Olympics and internetting and we were soon unconscious after another busy day.
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