London: Day 2

On to day two!

It started off nicely with a little bread, butter and tea provided by our lovely landlord Nina. I learned 3 things from this. 1. English butter is very good and not kept in the refrigerator. 2. I like electric tea kettles and would have one if I drank more tea than I do. 3. English bread is better than American bread also.

Dad had to get some pounds from the ATM before we started our day.


Then we walked by some little shops on our way to...


The train station...


Does dad look official or what?!? He's got his paper and is waiting on the train.


And what's on the front page? The Paralympics! I am honestly glad now that the US didn't get the 2012 bid for Chicago. Should I have said that? Probably not. But I just don't think the Americans would have supported the Paralympics like the British are. The whole country is SO into the games. All the events are nearly full. The crowds are so friendly and cheer for the athletes. There is even 24 hour televised coverage of the events! It is great!


We headed over to the O2 Arena (North Grenwich) to watch MA play ball.


This is the huge arena where the British have their big concerts and where the gymnastics competition was held during the olympics.


The US won this game agains Mexico by a lot but I forgot exactly how much. We finally got to visit with MA after the game. We ate really good stir fry from the vendors and chatted for just a bit before she had to go back to the Village.


After the sports in the morning we headed to see Greenwich! I really appreciate how forward thinking the architecture is here. Even if it's not the most "beautiful" all the time, at least they are doing something new and exciting rather than trying to replicate something old... Cause how in the world can they re-do the old they've got?


Mom and Dad on a double decker bus!


Me on the top deck...


One more...




We went on a tour of the Cutty Sark, the fastest clipper ship of it's day. I'll do a separate post on that for you later. :) dad was SO happy to see this. He already knew all about it.


Here I am in the city.


We then walked up what felt to be like the tallest hill EVER to get to the Royal Observatory.


Then we walked through Greenwich Park and saw some horses from the equestrian events that were being held at this location. They had dirt paths all through the park for the horses to ride.



Once at the Royal Observatory we stood in the worlds longest, slowest line to see...


The Meridian Line! Here I am standing in both the Eastern and Western hemispheres!


Then we went through the observatory and museum. This is the octagon room that housed the telescopes...


Huge windows for observation.


We saw SO many amazing clocks... Many of the most important clocks in the world too!


This man, John Harrison, made many of them.





Beautiful views over the London skyline...


And on the way down, a Bentley.


And a beautiful church.


That was open.


Benjamin Waught house. Founder of the National Society for the Preservation of Cruelty to Children. Dad was impressed. :-)


On to the Greenwich Market!


Yum!!!


We saw "Louisiana Sausage" which had nothing to do with Louisiana.


It was really beautiful!


There were tons of crafts and antiques and food and sweets and drinks.


Then we ate in a little pub that had "A Great Menu".


My bottled still water... In a real glass bottle.


And maybe not "Great", but a very good carved ham sandwich with lettuce mustard and tomato chutney.


We walked to the train through a neat little neighborhood.


Ready to ride again!



Into London Bridge Station. I just can't help but think of all the millions of people who have gone through these stations... Men going to war... Coming home... Just interesting to me to think of it.


We walked around for a bit and saw the Southwark Cathedral and it's Herb garden.


The Cathedral is the oldest Gothic cathedral in London.


At London Bridge.



On London Bridge at sunset.


Me.


Mom and Dad.


We stumbled upon The Monument.


Designed by Sir Christopher Wren to commemorate the great fire of London.





Back to the Kings Cross station where we catch our train back to Winchmore Hill.


We had a little time till our train left so we bought some pastry.


Ready to go home...


And a nice evening of watching Paralympic coverage while eating chocolate cake.


The end for day 2.

London Day 1

So I'm IN LONDON... ENGLAND... Watching my SISTER compete in the PARALYMPICS!!!! Ummmm... How brilliant! To put it in Like the British. :)

So here is a play by play of day 1 for you! And I do mean play by play. This trip is being very well documented, indeed.

The day started off with breakfast at the hotel in Little Rock with Jonathan and then being picked up by my parents and heading downtown for a little walk and lunch before our long trip.

Mom and Dad at the river.

Mom and Me at the riverwalk. I had not been there since the summer I worked in LR and we all went to a concert at fireworks on the river the night after Jonathan proposed to me. (another story for another post)


We ate at the Flying Fish. A Milford family favorite.


Then we flew to Chicago. We flew United, the official Olympic airline of the US Olympic team.


We ate one last American meal in the Airport... Doesn't get more American than Chili's.


The tunnel to our terminal was really really fabulous.


Seeing all of the Olympic signage was exciting.


Here we are in the smallest seats ever. Glad we were family cause it was super close quarters for the next 8 hours.


Knee room...


So after we landed, went to the US headquarters, picked up our (free) tickets to all the events and (free) tube and bus passes (can you say wonderful!) we went to the Paralympic Venues (which are the exact same as the Olympic).


We're here!


We saw the Queens Yacht on our way in.


We grabbed a sandwich and headed over to the basketball arena.


And watched the US vs Germany game. After a super close, back and forth game we lost by 2. Boo. We waved to MA and headed to collect our bags at the US offices and headed out to Winchmore Hill.


We passed by the Olympic Stadium on our way.


We found our little house (I will post much more later on this) and walked around the town Green (like a square but triangular and just a grassy space) till we found a pub we thought looked good. And we sat down and ate!


House made hummus and fresh bread and olives (that even I liked)


And a burger and chips that were really really good, actually.


Then we walked home in the cold. It is cold. In august. It is wonderful.

Then I took a long hot shower and crashed into a storybook bed in a storybook room in a storybook house (that was built in 1587).


It was a long long looooong day. It Started with breakfast with Jonathan in Arkansas and ended with dinner in England after a lot in-between. What an eventful day! Stay tuned for (many) details from day 2!