Phillip and I had a great 3 day weekend! Monday was a bank holiday, which means he had the day off! Nice! We bought London 3 day passes, which give access to 55 different London locations. We had 6 that we really wanted to go to and then a list of possibilities if we had more time. We got lucky – we managed to fit in our top 6, but certainly didn’t have time for extras!!!
We started the day Saturday at St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was amazing! There are around 500 steps to get to the top section…tooooo many for me these days! There was even a sign saying not recommended for pregnant people. There was an elevator, but it was only for people with disabilities. They said pregnant people weren’t allowed on it! HUH?!? So I tried to talk Phillip into going up without me. But he had been there once before and decided against it. So we just explored the main levels for awhile and then headed to our next stop! Here is one picture of St. Paul’s Cathedral. We weren’t allowed to take pictures in St. Paul’s though. (I put pictures with each section this time so it’s easier to tell which pictures go with which place!)
Next was the Tower of London! I was amazed at this place! So many different things to see!!! We could see where prisoners were held, see the torture chambers, pick up old weapons, see the ravens, read about the wild animals that used to be kept there, see the King’s bedchamber, see the armor, and see the Crown Jewels!!! Fascinating place! I loved seeing the crowns!!! We spent most of the afternoon at the Tower of London!
Our last place for the day was the Tower Bridge. We got to take an elevator to the top!! Yay! We enjoyed walking across the bridge and checking out the amazing views. We got to stand really close to watch while the bridge opened up! You can see the walkway bridge section way above the part that opened. One of the pictures shows that pretty well. This was the quickest of our 3 adventures for the day!
Sunday, we began with the WIMBLEDON TOUR!!!! This was possibly my favorite thing in London so far! It was awesome! Phillip really enjoyed it also! Our guide was great and told several stories about the tennis players! (Like how Serena Williams is so patient with the children and always signs autographs for them!!! That story just made me like her that much more!) We got to hear about how the tournament works, how locals can que (wait in line EARLY each morning) for tickets, and how the groundskeeper takes care of the grass courts! It was really neat!!!! I liked sitting at Center Court! Hehehe! (Notice the guard in the pic at Center Court – apparently there is always someone guarding this court! Crazy!) I also loved seeing the grass tennis courts. They totally fascinate me!!! The gift shop was dangerous for me though! I saw this little T-shirt on sale and just knew that Baby Girl had to have it!!!!!! ;-)
We went to Kew Gardens Sunday afternoon and spent several hours there! The place was huge!!! There were lots of green houses, flowers, palm trees, and plants from all over the world! There were different sections to represent different parts of the world. You could seriously spend a whole day at this place! It was pretty and peaceful! I especially enjoyed the treetop walk – you had to climb 108 steps to get to the top (ok so I didn’t love that part!!!) and then got to walk along a path built in the treetops! So pretty! Kew Gardens has the world’s largest indoor plant! It is a palm tree that is 17 meters tall! It was hitting the roof of the glass house already! I’m not sure what will happen as it keeps getting bigger!!!!
We spent the whole day Monday at the London Zoo!!!! Phillip really thought the zoo would keep me, but I managed to escape! Hahaha! Seriously though, we really enjoyed the zoo! LOTS of neat exhibits to see! The first picture shows an Okapi. Its legs are striped like a zebra, but the rest of the body is a solid color. Strange! We watched a demonstration on Komodo Dragons and Galapagos tortoises! Phillip really likes Komodo Dragons! I loved the turtles! One of them weighed like 350 pounds…whoa!!!! We had fun watching the gorillas too! Fascinating creatures! We didn’t get a good picture of it, but one of them was playing around, swinging on a rope. It came right up to the glass in front of Phillip and licked the glass, then used its arm to wipe the slobbers away. It was so funny!!!
I wear a pedometer sometimes when we are out for the day. We usually average around 27,000 steps!!!! This weekend, we got to 33,000 steps one day! That’s a ton!!! We have to take a lot more breaks during our long days of sightseeing than we did in the past!!! I am a lot slower now!!! I have noticed that I get out of breath really fast, especially when walking uphill or up a ton of stairs! Phillip is great though – always patient!!!! We’re just glad we can still do things, even if I am slow these days! Baby Girl is kicking like crazy lately! It makes me giggle!!!! I can even see my belly move sometimes!!! Weird! :-)
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