London Calling

Well, we survived the night. I slept terribly because of the late meal and nightmares about cooties and PayPal. We got up and tried again with PayPal. We finally tried to call them at 8:05 am and their hours are 8am-12 midnight, so we missed it by 5 minutes. SO LAME. This is causing us far more stress than we needed. We made a plan to get all the cash out that we needed for the two nights and the cleaning deposit. Dave went out and had to use both our debit and our credit card to get enough. Yuck, it was just too stressful! So, we called Carl and he sent over his assistant. She took our money and our keys, since of course we aren’t staying in this apartment another night.
Because of all the drama, we got a much later start than we had hoped going to the Tower of London. We decided to leave all the worries in the apartment and go out and enjoy the day. When we got there, the lines weren’t bad at all and we got right in. We went to the old weapons re-enactment. Dave volunteered to help with one of the demonstrations. He and 3 other men fired a Perrier (a manual trebuchet). It was fun to watch him up there.
We toured around the Tower of London for awhile. We saw the Bloody Tower, The White Tower, The Traitor’s Gate, The Medieval palace and did the Wall Walk. We were able to see the Crown jewels. They were pretty amazing, especially the Star of Africa diamond from the Royal Scepter. It is 530 carats! Amazing. We also loved the Imperial crown of India. We stopped for lunch in the New Armouries Restaurant, toured around a bit more, then decided to see some more of London since our time was so limited.
We next went to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Unfortunately, it was closed because of a private service. We were pretty darn disappointed! So, we decided to walk down to the Millennium Bridge. It was awesome! It is a cool steel suspension footbridge over the Thames river. It dropped us by Shakespeare’s Globe theater and the Tate Modern museum. We checked out the Globe for a bit, but decided not to go in since we had missed the last tour of the theater. We instead went to the Tate for awhile. It was pretty darn cool and we wished that we had more time (and energy) to enjoy it more.
We walked back over the suspension bridge to catch a bus to Westminster Abbey. I went in to a shop to buy some water, and when I came out, Dave was waving me over to St. Paul’s cathedral. For some reason, they had opened it again! And, we were let in without charge! We didn’t get to see the whole thing, but were able to see quite a bit. It was beautiful, of course! They were having a choral performance by the men’s chorus. So, Dave and Mali decided to stick around for it. The other kids and I rushed over to make sure we got in to the Abbey before it closed. I was SO nervous about separating from Dave & Mali because my cell phone did not work and we didn’t know where we were staying. I was just worried.
But! We were totally blessed, as we have been on this whole mini-adventure to London. The kids and I got to the Abbey on time, and Dave and Mali showed up just 5 minutes after us!! (we had to walk super far to our train, while they took a wrong turn and ended up on a shorter train ride!) I cannot tell you happy I was to see them walk in. :)
We LOVED the Westminster Abbey! It was truly one of the most beautiful sights we have seen. We are SO grateful we made it in before they closed. Everything we saw, we enjoyed. It was really cool to see the tombs of so many famous historical figures. Not only kings and queens, but authors as well. We didn’t know that we would find Chaucer, Lord Byron, Charles Dickens, Robert Browning, Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, Tennyson and several others. As well as Handel, Darwin and Newton. We stayed until they kicked us out. :)
We decided we should head back in the direction of “home” so that we could get settled in. We stopped at a drug store so that I could stock up on medicines we needed where I could understand them and not have to ask at a pharmacy. (finally got my benadryl – yeah! :)) I also bought this super cool curling wand that I had scene at the salon where I got my hair done. I was really excited about it until Dave informed me that I would not be able to use it at home – boo!
Not knowing where we were going to be sent or how long it would take, we stopped in at a restaurant before our next Carl encounter. I found this super yummy organic restaurant which listed several of things that looked good to me. Dillon balked at the menu, but ended up loving what he got. We all enjoyed a delicious meal and had a very nice time together.
Needless to say, I was BEYOND exhausted at this point, so tired that I was constantly on the verge of breaking out in tears. We got some groceries for breakfast and finally called Carl. He sent us over to the old apartment where we found our bags unattended in a hallway outside of the apartment. Then, he gave us very unclear directions to where we would be staying tonight. I was SO tired at this point, I just wanted to crash.
We got on the bus and had no clue where to get off. He told us at Holland Road, but there was never a stop for Holland Road. We asked the bus driver twice, and even he was a little unclear. Finally, we just got off because we saw a Hilton (one of the clues Carl had given us). We weren’t even sure if it was the right Hilton, but we were all getting worried because it was late and dark. I broke down just a bit, from utter exhaustion. And then, just as we got off the bus, we saw the missionaries!! I swear, it was a mini-miracle! I was so happy to see happy, familiar faces. We went right up and talked to them. One was from New Zealand and the other from Madrid, so we were all foreigners! They were super nice and super helpful and we had fun talking to them. They sent us off in the right direction and we found the place at last.
When we reached the apartment, there was only a queen bed and two twins, 3 beds for 5 people, and the couch did not fold out!!! Argh! So, I called Carl again, on the verge of tears, and told him the situation. We waited awhile, and then someone showed up with some bedding for the loveseat.
I cannot even tell you how excited I am to LEAVE!! We are all getting to bed FAR later than I had hoped and have to get up at 5:45 am tomorrow to start the journey home. We told the kids that it was going to be a long day, but we would give them the next two days off, if they would like. :)

\The fun actors at the Tower of London weapons demonstration

Dave volunteers to help with the Perrier

The Tower of London

The Ravens at the Tower of London. There are always 6 ravens there (and one spare) as a good omen.

St. Paul’s Cathedral

Three cute kids outside the cathedral

The Globe Theater

 The cool Millennium Bridge

Last photo taken in London. Au revoir!