London Pt 1 -- The Sightseeing

I survived!!  I cannot tell you how hard it was to walk away from Miles knowing that I would be gone for over 5 days.  I bawled.  Grace bawled.  Miles -- I don't even think he noticed.  And all week long, you ask?  How'd he do without his mother for an entire 6 days!?  Again, I don't even think he noticed.  I don't know if I should be heartbroken or thrilled, but if he cried at all - Grace never told me.  In fact, based on all the videos Grace and Reno sent - Miles was having the time of his life!!  I'm so glad they all got to spend that time together, I know Miles already misses them so much!

And now... on to our trip!  London was GORGEOUS and we cannot wait to go back already!  We just happened to be there during the most amazingly sunny weekend they've had in forever and it was SO perfect.  Since Tony was there for work our trip ended up being the perfect mix of tourist sightseeing and relaxed pub-crawling, I really felt like we got to do it all.

First of all, for those that have never been to London -- everyone, and I mean EV-ER-Y-ONE, rides the tubes (or the Underground if you prefer).  Everyone.  Why, you might ask?  (You sure are inquisitive today.) Well, for several reasons really.  One because you can go ANYWHERE on those tubes and trains -- they run everywhere throughout the city.  (As a cool side note -- when you come off a tube and come back up to ground level you (usually) have your choice to exit from one of 6, or more, different exits.  Exit 1 will bring you up facing north on one street corner, exit 2 will bring you up facing south on another.  You can literally exit on the exact street you need facing the way you need to walk.  Maybe it's just me, but I find that really cool.)   Another reason everyone rides the tubes - the city actually charges a 10 Pound Congestion Charge per day to drive in the city, kind of like a Toll.  10 POUNDS!  Over $15 a day to drive, plus gas and all the costs that go into driving -- it literally costs so much less to take the tubes.

Tube map is your BEST friend when visiting London

Stand on the right.  People actually do it here!!

So with that in mind, definitely take your comfy flats to London.  (Comfy and cute though... everyone there is dressed so nice.) But most importantly -- comfy.  Because we walked.  And walked.  And walked.  And walked some more. (We also took the bus and river tour, but we were only on the bus for a few streets and then we had to stand on the river tour, so I'm not sure that counts... )

And here are some of my favorite pictures from our sightseeing!

On the bus ready to see the sights!

In front of Westminster and Big Ben

Holding Big Ben.  (Tony's idea :))

Walking circles around Westminster

My feet are KILLING me already

Not much to see, but aren't we cute?

On the river tour with Tower Bridge (often mistaken for London bridge)

Some cool horse head

The All Seeing Eye of Mordor (or something like that)

Cool picture by my hubby

Entrance to the Ministry of Magic

Big Ben from the river tour

The Gherkin

The Mellennium Bridge

There's a ton more pictures, but even I'm a little bored looking through these already... :)  We saw a ton of fun sights, walked and saw sights from Friday to Sunday until my feet hurt so bad that I was incredibly grumpy and we went home early and watched a movie and ordered in.

The sightseeing was a must, but tomorrow I'll post pictures of our favorite sights, pubs, shops and things we did in London!!  It was truly the best second honeymoon we could have asked for!