My title quote today comes from an officer who was giving a tourist directions. The tourist wanted to walk over a bridge and the officer said, “That’s not hard, there are bridges all over!” And he’s right, while crossing one of these bridges, I had our second quote of the day, “That isn’t blood, is it?” while pointing out an alarming amount of red… something on the bridge. Then our third quote of the day came from a man on a stoop, smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer while his friend was slowly leaking the air out of a tire of a van with a screwdriver.. our new friend said, “There’s nothing to see here, mind you’re own (expletive) business, move on!”
We arrived in London around just before noon at the Gatwick Airport. There were many excited children on the airplane who cheered when the plane took off, turned and landed.
We grabbed some lunch at the airport before catching a shuttle to a train to another train then a walk to our hotel. We arrived at 1:40 p.m. I said I was there to check-in and was told that check-in usually starts at 2 p.m. but lucky for us they had a room available…
We both were exhausted and decided to take a short nap before heading out the door to explore the city. We first walked to the Chelsea football stadium since a game was beginning soon. The crowds were huge and we got to witness the opposing team fans marching in and singing a song that didn’t say any kind things about the Chelsea team. They had a police escort too, with horses! (photos below – click to enlarge)
It is really interesting to be traveling here, it doesn’t feel as foreign/international as Germany since we don’t have the language barrier. It is really nice to be able to have a simple conversation at the cash register.
After checking out the stadium, we headed to a trail that runs along the River Thames. We walked along there for a while. There were happy little dogs running all over the place. We were thankful for the weather, it was cloudy and a little chilly – but no rain.
We then walked to the London Victoria station. This is a large train station filled with shops and restaurants. We sat and enjoyed some dinner while we planned out the rest of our day. We decided we’d stop by Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus. (Photos below – click to enlarge)
Jacob got a kick out of a sign that said no climbing on the lions at Trafalgar Square and the lions were covered in children climbing them.
From there was Piccadilly Circus, but it was dark and full of people, so too difficult to photograph. By this point we both felt like our feet were going to fall off so we headed to the train station to head back to the hotel.
We are settling in for the night. Tomorrow we are going to the Tower of London. Depending on the weather it may be a museum day. We will see…