EuroTrip: Day 2-Sightseeing London

We got up around 8 this morning.. Mom to have her coffee and shower, me to run 2 miles in the park. It was absolutely gorgeous this morning! The sun was shining, the skies were blue, it was just cool enough to run well.. perfection. Once I got back, I quickly showered and then mom and I went downstairs to eat breakfast.

Breakfast is usually my favorite meal, but I don’t think that will remain true for this trip.. that buffet had watery eggs, funky sausage, and thick bacon.. and beans-that we didn’t eat lol. Thankfully there were croissants, too, and I could make a little runny scrambled egg sandwich.

We started our sightseeing adventure shortly after 10:30 and walked our butts off. We saw the Italian Fountains, The Marble Arch, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben & Parliament Square with Westminster Abbey and Palace, The London Eye along the Thames River.. and from that point we started to take advantage of the sightseeing busses all over the place.. and sat down to ride and rest our feet.

We ate a quick subway sandwich for lunch and continued over to the London Bridge and the Tower Bridge. There were so many people out and about and as the day wore on the more and more crowded it got. We took one of the buses back towards Hyde Park from the Tower Bridge area late afternoon, and got lucky enough to snag seats on the top of the double decker.

We walked through Hyde Park to Kensington Palace and then took the tour of the Palace and the Gardens. I preferred the gardens to the palace, because it didn’t really have much inside except for paper replicas in plastic boxes, set up like dollhouses in each room.. showing what it “would have” looked like instead of making real sized replicas.. I mean, some rooms had actual beds and tables and things, but not many. In the Gardens there was a statue of Princess Diana and her boys. It was beautiful.

We walked back to the hotel room from the Palace and then decided to book tickets to see Matilda, the play, at the Cambridge Theatre. We changed clothes and got a taxi to the area.. it was already 6:30pm and the show started at 7:30. The restaurants were busy and sidewalks were packed with people, so we made the sad decision to go to McDonald’s for our dinner.. yikes! I mean, it served its purpose.. it was fast and filling, and we made it to the show just in time to use the restroom, grab a drink, and take our seat!

We loved the show! It was funny and very entertaining, although musicals do get a little annoying to me at times.. haha. When we left we had to walk a little ways to a main/busy street to hail a cab. The process took a good 15-20 minutes. And then it was easy going to get back.. way less traffic than the way there, thank goodness.. because we’re both pretty exhausted. My watch says I’ve walked 15.2 miles today. Only 2 of those were from my run this morning!

We’ve mostly packed up already, because in the morning we take a cab to Kings Cross Station to take the Chunnel (a train that passes underwater through the Channel) to Paris. I’m so excited for the next leg of our trip! France, here we come!