July 7, 2018
Today was not the best day. We had to leave Birmingham and drive to London. The drive took about 2 hours. Once we got to London it took another hour to find our hotel because there was a gay pride parade and the city was packed. We did get to drive past St Regents Park and St Paul's Cathedral so that was cool.
When we thought we found the hotel Ian parked the car and the rest of us took the luggage. It turns out that was NOT our hotel - our hotel was a little further. It was literally right by the London Eye. We left our luggage and got in the car to take it to return it. Here is where the real nightmare began. Ian was the hero of the day - trying to navigate the streets of London. The rental car return was supposed to be right near St Pancreas Train station. Welp, we couldn't find it. We literally drove in circles. I finally called and miracles of miracles - the call went through!! It turns out the rental return was in a parking garage near the station. Which we never would have found! We turned in the car and then decided to walk back to our hotel.
Below is a picture of the front of St Pancreas Train Station - which is right across from Kings Cross Station.
It took us a while to get from the station to our hotel. It was about a 3 mile walk but it was hot and hard to navigate. We did get to see some of London which was cool. We stopped and had lunch. Max and Evan had Argentinian steak sandwiches. Ian, Ben and I had eclectic food - chicken tacos, bao buns and chicken thighs. It was pretty tasty. Everyone told us the food in England was bad but we didn't experience that at all.
When we finally got to the hotel we were tired, hot and sweaty. We rested for a while then Max, Evan and I went exploring a bit. I bought Evan an ice cream and Max a pineapple ginger popsicle. We walked down the Thames then over a bridge towards Parliment and Westminster Abbey. We passed Big Ben but sadly it is under construction.
Westminster Abbey was amazingly beautiful. It made me sad that we didn't get a chance to go inside. I want to go back to London and actually explore and see more.
Evan and Max in front of Westminster.
I loved the statues on the side of the Abbey. They all had different names - Justice, Mercy, Hope..I can't remember them all.
On the way back to the hotel I bought Max a Manchester City hat. He was pretty happy about that.
Then we tried to get Subway to eat but they were out of bread. We ended up going to a noodle place next door. It was really good. Back at the hotel we hung out watching the Croatia vs Russia soccer game. Xander and Shayna had arrived at the hotel earlier. Shayna had her own room which I think she was happy about. Although it was a stressful day, it still was awesome because we got to see London and be together.
