Part IV: London

From Lille, we boarded the Eurostar to London. What a ride! My dad timed how long it took to go under the English Channel, and it was only 20 minutes.


Again, London's weather was hit and miss, but we were used to it by this point. We were only there for a few days, but I'm proud to say we got quite a bit done!

It was such a treat for me to be in an English-speaking city again after seven months! I was reading everything I could see, and thought everything was so funny.


On the first day, we strolled along the South Bank of the mighty River Thames, climbed to the top of St. Paul's cathedral, and came down just in time for our tickets to Mamma Mia! at the beautiful art deco Prince of Wales theatre. The show was very fun, the perfect end our first day in London.


At the beginning of day two we stood in the rain for two hours to watch the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. I'm glad we saw it, but I couldn't but think the whole hour-long event was a tad over the top. Afterwards we went to the British Guards museum, and later ended up at the British Museum, which contains very little of Britian's history.


It's collection includes the Rosetta Stone, friezes from the Pantheon, ancient Greek and Roman sculpture, and huge quantities of ancient Egyptian artifacts. It's fascinating, huge, and strange to think all these items ended up under the same roof.

Here's my brother Colin admiring a sarcophagus. (Colin's the one on the left.)


The third day we boarded a big red tour bus with my Grandma Partridge's cousin June, and her daughter Gill. Even they learned a thing or two about their own city on the tour. We stopped at Westminster Abbey, and the tower of London, and took a River Cruise up the Thames. Here's everyone enjoying themselves:


Last but not least, no London experience would be complete without taking the Underground


and these:


(See, I told you we did a lot.)