The UK!

We went back to London at the end of our time in the UK. On our first day, we decided to go see the Tower Bridge and The Shard. We were staying with our friend Chris who lives straight north of the bridge so it was an easy walk to get there… or it should have been. All day it rained, hailed, and even snowed! We were constantly fighting against the weather but finally got there. We enjoyed walking across the bridge because we had driven across it last time so this time we got to take our time and enjoy it much more. I learned that the bridge is not raised up much anymore so now and so ships that need it raised up must give 24 hours notice so they can have staff there to do so. Once across we ducked into a covered street and got a cup of coffee to warm up. After warming up we continued across the street to the Shard. Upon entry, we found that we were quite out of place in this 5-star hotel in our wet rainjackets and jeans. One of the managers noticed us (not a surprise) and asked why we were there (again not a surprise). We told her that I had always wanted to see the lobby and she said: “oh let me take you to the other lobby”. We were quite confused by this until we got on the elevator and she used a keycard to take us up to the 33rd floor. The view was amazing and we were able to look out over the cranes and most other buildings. The craziest part was that we were only half way up! We called it a day and went back to the apartment as we were getting cold and wet.

The next morning we had a route planned out but found that it was incredibly windy and that it would not be fun to go on a trip around the city so we stayed at home and did work. In the evening we went to dinner with Chris at a local sushi place. The food was so good. We tried a little bit of everything but I liked the Salmon with Rice best.

The next morning we woke up early to go do the route we were unable to do the day before. We started by taking the train to Cleopatra’s Needle. while we had been here before we wanted to go see it again. After a brief stay there and a quick sandwich, we continued on to the playground by the London Eye. I remembered this playground from 4 years ago but sadly this time it was under “Health and Safty Repair” so I couldn’t enjoy it. Big Ben was going to be a stop but sadly we found it to be covered in scaffolding. The only part you could see was the clock face! We now walked up to Chinatown. I really liked it because it reminded me of Chinatown in San Fransisco. We wandered around a bit and got some iced teas before moving on to Hamleys toy store. We stop in every time we are near it just to see how huge it is. Our next stop was Harrods via Hyde Park. We walked through the park and stopped at a small cafe for some pork sandwiches before moving on. Once at Harrods we enjoyed walking around and seeing the absurd prices on simple things like a bag or some shoes. As we were leaving we walked around the corner and found the Ecuadorian embassy where Julian Assange was hiding. We waited around for an hour and a half hoping that we would see him taken out but no luck. There were tons of protesters and news crews all waiting to see what would happen but nothing did. We went back home cold and ready for food.