Family in London

My family left today to go back home (sad face).  We had to wake up at 4 am so that they could get the taxi to bring them to Heathrow.  The stupid taxi guy called me at least four times before we finally got outside.  He wanted to know my post code, that he was here, that he was still here, and then that he wasn’t sure that he was at the right place.  Once they were out there, and we said our goodbyes, and I had ran back inside to grab my sister’s phone that she had left in my room, they sat in the driveway for five minutes before my sister stuck her head out and asked what terminal they were going to.  After I told them, they finally left.

Thursday

Picked up my family at the airport, we hung out at a pub after everyone took a two hour nap. We went to a pub for lunch after Dad and Nana took a nap, when I asked for a beer however, I was told that my drivers license wasn’t a valid ID. 

Now, let me explain something to you, I’ve been buying alcohol with my drivers license everywhere I go in this country, including that pub.  When I said this, the woman said, “Oh, well this has been going on for a long time.  So someone wasn’t doing their job. It might be a fake.”  First, who goes to ANOTHER COUNTRY with their father and grandmother and brings a FAKE ID? How stupid do I look? Why would I whip out a fake ID with my father around to buy alcohol. 

She then said, “You should just carry your passport around.  That’s what the English do.”  Oh yes, okay lady, thank you, I shall start carrying around my passport while living in another country that has a $800 visa in it! Great idea!

Later that night, we walked down the road to go to a different pub,and I got served no problem.  Didn’t even get asked for ID. 

Friday

Woke up early to go on walking tour of London in the afternoon.  We started out wandering London over by the Jubilee Bridges in hopes of seeing my favourite street artist (the guy who makes the wire picture frames).  Unfortunately, we didn’t see him.  We walked down the banks of the Thames heading towards Parliament then met up with our walking tour which ended up where we had started our day.  Ate a yummy dinner at the Hung, Drawn and Quartered over by the Tower of London.  Went home and went to bed. Great times!

Saturday

We woke up early this morning so we could go to Bruges.  The bus ride there was fun, we played Trivia Pursuit and talked.  Once there, I took a wrong turn getting into the old part of the city so we wandered around for a while trying to find what I wanted to show them.  Finally found it just as we were about to leave.

We ate lunch at a strange little place where they had two waiters and were very busy.  They brought my sister the wrong food.  When they realized their mistake, they basically brought her plate back to the kitchen, off of which she had been eating French fries and brought it back out again two seconds later and gave it to the guy at the next table.  We started laughing and he said something in Danish to the waiter who then took it away again and brought it back sans fries and brought him out a new plate of fries.  So gross.  Then, we got the wrong bill so we tipped him only 4 euros. 

At one point we lost grandma which was funny once we found her.  Thankfully, she just stayed at the intersection thinking we would find her and we did.  Bruges was great, everyone loved it and it’s so pretty.

Sunday

We woke up early to go to Portobello Market over at Portobello Road.  Unfortunately, once we got there, we realized that they didn’t have it that day! So sad! We wandered along the shops by the road and had a good time anyways.  We also ate lunch at Picadilly and then hung out at Regent's Park.

 

Monday

Monday, we attempted to go to Buckingham Palace but they were all sold out for tickets till Sunday! So we scrapped that idea and took a few more pictures of Buckingham and then took the tube to Covent Garden to go for a bit of shopping and then go on our second walking tour which was the tour of the Old City.

The tour was very cool! Where as our first tour was in the city of Westminster, the Old City tour was a tour of the city of London.  We got to see stuff in Temple, found out that the dragon in the middle of Fleet Street is where the old gates to the city used to be. 

There were also two island churches on Fleet Street. Named as such because the road had to be go around them when the widened it up.  Funny story about the first church, they were doing reconstruction when they found a crypt with all of these bodies in them.  Because there was no way for the gases in the bodies to go out, when they broke down this wall, all the poisonous gases were released and they had to actually shut down Fleet Street so that the gases could clear the area.  It was shut down for THREE weeks! That’s a long time!

There was a great fire in London that happened on September 2nd and continued through the 6th.  It burnt down pretty much the whole of the city of London.  It started at a baker’s house.  The mayor of London was awakened the first night of the fire to see if they should tear down the houses around the baker’s house therefore cutting off the fire’s supply of fuel.  He said, “A woman’s piss could put this fire out.”  And then went back to bed.  Four days later, they finally tore down a huge number of houses and the fire died down.  Only 4 deaths were on the record, which sounds good until you realize that the only deaths worth recording at the time, were those of the nobles and “important” people.  Hundreds lost their homes and everything they owned.

To commemorate the Great Fire of London, there was a huge monument put up that is so tall, if you were to lay it down, it would reach the place where the fire started.

Temple Church was another stop on our tour.  Here, we learned that because of the rise to fame due to the Da Vinci Code, this church had been damaged by over eager tourists trying to find some shred of truth to the fictional book.  We also learned that the statue just outside the Temple Church was used against the Knights Templars by the King of France in the 1300’s when he didn’t want to pay back the debts he owed them. 

He said that the fact that two men were riding the same horse meant everyone in the Knights Templar were gay…how could you not see that proof?!

My favourite stop was the Tower of London of course. I’ve been three times since I moved here. I’ll go more into the Tower later, but I just want to share this with you.  It was said that from the time it was built, almost two thousand people went in and only 120 of those died.  However, when they were doing renovations, they found hundreds of bodies on the grounds!

Marker of London Gates

Temple Church

The Monument for the Fire of London

Tower of London(!)

For Tuesday through Thursday, see Germany post that will be up tomorrow :)

Friday

We managed to cram in a lot on Friday! We did a tour of the Tower of London, and we went to St. Pauls. 
Here are some cool Tower of London facts we learned:

In 1671, Colonel Thomas Blood attempted to steal the crown jewels from the tower.  They stabbed the old guard and then Blood crushed the Imperial State Crown and hid it under his cloak, the second started to saw the Sceptre in half, and their friend Robert Perot stuck the Orb down his breeches.  Just as they were about to get away with it, the guard’s son returned unexpectedly and raised the alarm after not having been in London for ten years.  Blood was arrested, but ‘the merry monarch’, Charles II, pardoned Blood and gave him a pension!

36 Yeoman Warders, dressed in Tudor uniforms and known as "Beefeaters" guard the Tower of London. They give tours every half hour and are great!

Legend says that if the Tower's celebrated colony of ravens ever leave the Tower, the kingdom will fall.  To prevent this, their wings are clipped not that it would matter because they are so well fed, they are too fat to fly long distances!

Animals given to various monarchs were kept in the Lion Tower until 1834. They had their own zoo going! They had a lion which you could go see for free if you brought it a cat or a dog to eat! They also had at various times, a polar bear, an elephant, kangaroos, sheep, snakes,  baboons and llamas.

Three of King Henry VII’s queens are buried in the Tower chapel. 

When we were done with the Tower, we went to St. Pauls.  Since we didn’t have a lot of time, the family decided they wanted to climb the 528 steps up to the very top of the cathedral's dome.  This was so fun and gave such good views! 

We then headed home, made dinner and went to the pub for pub club.  Always good fun. 

Then they left. :(