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Today was a BIG day! We left our hotel at 8am and walked around the streets of London, eventually getting back by 7.15pm. So what did we do? LOTS!<br style="color: font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="color: font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;" />First we went to London Bridge.
Only to find it was quite the disappointment with its flat architecture. The only good thing was that you could get a great view of Tower Bridge. It was so quiet in the city at that time of morning, and we were lucky to have the sun shining on us, which is a rarity in London. We walked along the north bank towards Tower Bridge. Before we crossed the famous drawbridge, we came across Tower of London - the historic castle and fortress to the royals. It wasn't open (that's how early we started our day!), but were able to get some photos from around the outskirts.
We crossed Tower Bridge and I did this cool panoramic pic of it!
But really, you will know it well by this!
We crossed the bridge, and were lucky enough to see the drawbridge in action, and capture the Gherkin building perfectly positioned and timed.
We then sat down for some morning drinks at one of the Southbank restaurants, before strolling through the back streets to find the nearest Tube station. We caught the Tube to Covent Garden. I didn't manage to get any decent pics there, as the crowds started amassing. We walked through the markets, saw plenty of street performers including people posing as gold statues, creative martial artists & gymnasts and a string quartet. We sat down for a morning cupcake, as we had organised to meet up with some friends for lunch, but that was still a couple of hours away. We walked past some of the West End theatres that were performing The Lion King, The Bodyguard (the musical) and Mamma Mia, before heading to St Pauls' church gardens where we sat around in the cottage beauty for about an hour enjoying the sunshine...
well, actually the boys indulged in some branch fencing.
We then met up with our friends who are temporary residents of London, and had a traditional pub meal of fish n chips. We walked around Covent Garden again before saying goodbye to one friend and catching the train to Notting Hill Gate to walk down Portabello Road. Such a gorgeous street with its antique market, coloured houses and a monument to George Orwell, however my phone battery and my camera battery both died by the time we got there, so unfortunately no photos. My friend took some, and promised me she would send them to me. We sat down in a Portabello Road pub for a refreshment, before saying goodbye to our beautiful friend. The Piccadilly line train that we needed to catch home had 'someone on the tracks' therefore had severe delays, so we opted to catch the bus back to our hotel... however the bus from Notting Hill had detours, so we had to walk up to Shepherds Bush (about a 40 minute walk) with very sore feet at this stage. Luckily, by the time we got there, there was only a couple of minutes wait for the bus, and that took us directly to the station where we get off to get back to the hotel. Besides the boredom of waiting in queues where my boys have a knack of play fighting a little bit too much, they are fantastic travellers, with no whinging about their sore feet or getting lost. Today was the last of our big walking days for a good week, so hopefully our feet will get to rejuvenate themselves before the next time.
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We crossed Tower Bridge and I did this cool panoramic pic of it!
But really, you will know it well by this!
We crossed the bridge, and were lucky enough to see the drawbridge in action, and capture the Gherkin building perfectly positioned and timed.
We then sat down for some morning drinks at one of the Southbank restaurants, before strolling through the back streets to find the nearest Tube station. We caught the Tube to Covent Garden. I didn't manage to get any decent pics there, as the crowds started amassing. We walked through the markets, saw plenty of street performers including people posing as gold statues, creative martial artists & gymnasts and a string quartet. We sat down for a morning cupcake, as we had organised to meet up with some friends for lunch, but that was still a couple of hours away. We walked past some of the West End theatres that were performing The Lion King, The Bodyguard (the musical) and Mamma Mia, before heading to St Pauls' church gardens where we sat around in the cottage beauty for about an hour enjoying the sunshine... 
well, actually the boys indulged in some branch fencing.
We then met up with our friends who are temporary residents of London, and had a traditional pub meal of fish n chips. We walked around Covent Garden again before saying goodbye to one friend and catching the train to Notting Hill Gate to walk down Portabello Road. Such a gorgeous street with its antique market, coloured houses and a monument to George Orwell, however my phone battery and my camera battery both died by the time we got there, so unfortunately no photos. My friend took some, and promised me she would send them to me. We sat down in a Portabello Road pub for a refreshment, before saying goodbye to our beautiful friend. The Piccadilly line train that we needed to catch home had 'someone on the tracks' therefore had severe delays, so we opted to catch the bus back to our hotel... however the bus from Notting Hill had detours, so we had to walk up to Shepherds Bush (about a 40 minute walk) with very sore feet at this stage. Luckily, by the time we got there, there was only a couple of minutes wait for the bus, and that took us directly to the station where we get off to get back to the hotel. Besides the boredom of waiting in queues where my boys have a knack of play fighting a little bit too much, they are fantastic travellers, with no whinging about their sore feet or getting lost. Today was the last of our big walking days for a good week, so hopefully our feet will get to rejuvenate themselves before the next time.
