Thursday, 5 April 2018

We are ready for our day in London.
Riding the train from Lingfield Station
to Victory Station

Nanette's 43rd Birthday and she is celebrating it here with us. It is so nice to have family around. We spent the day in London with the Graviets. We decided to buy the London Pass and found out we lost money on it. It was the spring break for all of England and all the students must of been in London. Upon arriving in London, we bought theatre tickets at Lester Square for 'Aladdin' for Nanette, Jeff, Roman and Clark's birthday which is all in April. (I was the outsider on birthdays.) We tried to go to the War Rooms and found the line to long and the London Pass did not get us in front of the line like we thought. It was a beautiful warm and clear day so we took a boat ride on the Thames. The guide was funny and very informative and pointed out the places of interest. We got to see so many sights along the way. We visited the Tower of London. (check out the history) We enjoyed our visit and it was time for lunch. We stopped at a food court and Nanette, Roman and Clark had KFC and Jeff and I had a chicken wrap from another small shop in the court. Energised and ready to see more sights. We went back to the War Rooms and still could not get in. At 3:45 pm we saw the Punishment and Retiring of Duty Ceremony. Pretty amazing! They will spend up to 5 hours a day polishing their boots and getting their uniforms ready for a 10 minute show.

Riding the Tube

Boat ride up the Thames

We took a the tube (Subway) to Hyde Park and saw the Hyde Park Church, visitor centre and mission office. Nanette and Jeff were very kind to spend time there with us. We rode the tube to Lester Square and found a great little pub to eat dinner. The dining was upstairs from the ground level pub. It was surprising how fast we got our food and how tasty it was. Nanette did a wonderful job in getting us to where we needed to go on the tube. It was so crowded on one trip in the tube that we know how sardines feel in a can. We had great seats at the theatre for 'Aladdin' We sat in the middle of the row in the balcony. We loved 'Aladdin'! We heard new music that was written for the musical amazing costumes and set. I would love to see it again! We made all our connections and to the train station in Victory before the last train left. Roman fell asleep on my shoulder. We were checking our steps and I had over 22,000 steps and Nanette had over 19,000 steps. Close to 10 miles of walking today. We all slept well.