Last Full Day in London

     Our last day in London!  Well for me anyways (Hannah).   I am convinced it's the most beautiful city in the world, with pretty good weather. It was quite warm out today, hot even compared to the weather in Windsor.  To top off a great morning it turned into an even better morning because we got to go train for squash at a place called Cumberland Lawn and Tennis!! We took the tube again to an area we haven't yet visited in London. Luckily, the closest tube station wasn't exactly all that close to the club.  We had a bit of a longish walk but it was a nice way to go, we had so many nice houses to look at and many narrow streets to walk through.
     It took us a little longer to get to the squash club then it should have due to the fact that we walked right past it as we were walking down a residential street.  In our defence it blended in with the other huge houses on that road.  But anyways, we had to figure out how to go through 3 locked gates and find the squash courts.  Despite, getting there a little later than expected the Khan family (the family who we were playing with) was still not there.  For anyone who doesn't know the Khan's, they are notorious for being late.
     The beginning of training was a little rough, the courts we not like the ones back home and it was weird playing squash after such a long time off.  The last time I played squash was Christmas Eve... 6 days ago!!! It was a fun time training with Ryan, Amin and Sara and a boy that organized our courts from London.  I'd like to say I got better as time went on but that would be lying.
     Anis let us borrow his personal chauffeur to take us back to our apartment. It was super weird being driven on the wrong side of the road. That wasn't the only weird thing though, apparently, its normal to just drive up the curb onto the sidewalk with walking pedestrians and park to let passengers out of the car.  Though, from the looks of the people that were nearly run over it wasn't normal.  Now that's what I call good service.  I understand Graeme's driving so much better now. 
     Afterwards, we wanted to go on a tour of Kensington Palace but sadly there were no tickets left. So we decided it was worth it to go see Buckingham Palace during the day, and it was.  Although it was much busier when we went this time, you had to push your way to the gate. We thought maybe we could get a private tour of the Buckingham Palace by the Queen herself but sadly, she was on vacation with her family.

     Emily here.  After seeing the palace, we headed out to Camden to visit Camden Market. We spent 2 hours just walking around looking at all of the cool booths, it was more fun for Hannah, Mom, and I than it was for Ryan and Dad because it was a lot of jewelry but everyone had a great time. After seeing most of the market we decided to walk down the road a bit and went into H&M because Ryan
wanted to pick up two hoodies that are only available in the UK.  Dad also needed to pick up some sleeping pants because he somehow forgot every single pair of his at home and figured that for everyone's safety he should actually wear pants at Graeme's mom's house. After seeing all there was on the street we hopped back on the tube and got off at a station where we could go to a restaurant to get burgers and fries.

     Craig here.  Another long day.  Thanks again to Anis for organizing the squash.  Tired, hungry and craving a beer, we hit a place called Meat Liquor, (it got really good internet reviews) that was slightly off the beaten path, or more like a trip down Jack the Ripper's favourite haunting grounds, we arrived.  I have to admit the red spray paint that looked like dripping blood made me wonder but in the end the food was fantastic and the beer was cold.  Again this was another 10 hour day and we were exhausted.  Tomorrow we are off to Leeds via Train to meet up with Graeme and his family for New Year's Eve.  Pictures from today can be found here.

All that History.... and Harry Potter

       Hello everyone, and welcome back! It is day 4 of the Guthrie's trip to England and I know what you've all been thinking, "When is Emily going to write an entry?" Well, the moment you've all been waiting for has arrived, so sit back and relax while I tell you exactly how my day went down. Before I start I should tell you that, yes, the rumours are true, I was invited to the Buckingham Palace to meet with the Queen, but sadly I had to reject her because this is a family vacation and I couldn't just leave the rest of my family out in the cold (literally).
      Anyways, my day started like this, I woke to the sounds of a camera flashing and an extremely bright light going off in the room. Turns out my mom likes to take pictures of people while they sleep. You see, Hannah and I are currently sharing a bed that is smaller than a twin bed and I like to use as much space as possible so my mom woke up in the morning to find me in the middle of the bed and Hannah just barely hanging on. After my mom decided she had enough pictures she woke everyone else up and told us to get ready because we had a long day ahead of us.
     As usual, it took us about two hours to get ready due to the 15 min between showers we have to wait for hot water.  Once we finally all dressed warm for the weather, we headed out. Our first stop was Westminster Abbey and we took the tube (London Subway) to get there. Once inside the Abbey we were immediately amazed by the beautiful stained glass windows and the architecture that was done back in 1245.  Unfortunately, pictures aren't allowed.  We did an audio tour of the Abbey and learned some very cool things.  (Craig here.  Supercool cool.  Coincidentally enough, I just happened to be reading Column of Fire by Ken Follet and this book covers the Monarchy during the 1500's and fit in perfectly with this tour).  After about 2 hours in the Abby we decided to go get a typical English meal.... McDonalds!
     Once we were full enough to continue on our journey, we set off to our next stop, The Tower of London. We took the tube again and got off at the nearest station and walked to the tower. It was hard to miss considering it was a large wall surrounding four towers next to the London Bridge. And yet we still managed to miss the entrance and walk in an entire circle before seeing it. We did another audio tour in the tower and learned that it was a castle that was designed to protect King Charles I and some other Kings. When we saw about half the castle mom and Hannah said that the next thing they wanted to do was see were the crown jewels so, we walked down the where we thought the line started. Turns out the line was waaaayyyyy longer than we thought. It was actually probably fives times longer than we originally thought. Every time we thought is was the end of the line, it wasn't. But, because it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, we waited for about an hour. It went by fast because we had lots of training from the day before (see earlier post for more info). When we got inside there was another long line to see the jewels, but luckily you got to go on a moving sidewalk so everybody got a chance to see them.  The highlight of the tour wasn't the amazing crowns and endless jewels but when Dad wasn't looking where he was going and walked right into a wall.  While I didn't see it, I could hear Hannah laughing out loud from across the room. :) . (Craig here.  Yes, I ran into the wall but in fairness, it was really dark.  At the end of the tour, Emily and Mary Pat skipped out on the best part of the tour, Prison, Executions and Torture.  Kings in medieval times sure liked to behead people.)
     When we were done at the tower we headed on over to Buckingham Palace to see it in the dark.

Then we hopped back on the tube and rode it all the way to King's Cross station (the station from Harry Potter) and I got an awesome picture of me going through platform 9 and 3/4 and I also waited in the line to go into the Harry Potter store that was the coolest thing ever.
      It was almost 8:00 by the time we got back and everyone was exhausted.  Dad thought he would stop and get a pizza.  He couldn't figure out why it was so cheap.... until we saw it.  Triple that order please!  (Craig here.  MP and I were looking for some real good pub grub.  I meticulously searched the internet for a good pub in the area and found a winner.  Google mapped it and out we went.  Saw the sign and went in.  Restaurant was packed which fit my reading on Google.  Got the menu only to find out we were in the wrong restaurant.  Somehow we ended up in La Divina.  What a great mistake!  Awesome Italian restaurant with some of the best pasta we have had in a while.)
      Ok, I am exhausted and heading to bed.  Not sure what tomorrow brings.  Here is a link to all the pictures from today.

Lines, lines and more lines!

   After the thrill of being on a plane and travelling across the ocean died down, the excitement of exploring the famous city of London, England kicked in.  Eager to see the London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and many more landmarks, we set off bright and early (10:00am) to get tickets for London's on-off tour bus. 

     The weather was beautiful, at least compared to the freezing weather back home in Windsor. However, Emily requested a seat on the upper deck of the bus, but little did she know that the longer we stayed up there,  we'd get cold real fast.  But that didn't stop us from admiring all the beauty the city had to offer. There was a mixture of modern and old buildings throughout different areas of the city.  On the bus, we got to listen to the history of different buildings, interesting stories that happened in London and some pretty awful music between stops. 

     A bit into our tour we got into the more exciting, the more famous landmarks like the Buckingham Palace (which we just drove past), the Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral and the Parliament buildings. With the Parliament building comes Big Ben, and of course, just our luck, it's under construction!  All that was visible of the great clock tower I was so looking forward to seeing was the top portion. So that makes three out of three landmarks in capital cities we have visited that have been under construction when we have visited.  Ottawa... Parliament Hill.  Washington... the Washington Memorial.  And now... Big Ben.  Must be a sign that we have to come back another year.  Despite the construction it still looked pretty amazing. 

      We decided the time to get off the tour bus was when we got to the London Eye. On the sidewalk going to the Eye, there were a TON of people, and by a ton, I mean that there were so many people that everyone was smushed together and people you didn't even know were way too close for comfort.  We had even lost Ryan in the midst of the mayhem.  

      We already bought tickets to the London Eye and as we approached the Eye, it looked like there was no line at all.  Emily was more than happy to just cut through the line but that was before we figured out there was a line just to get into the line for the Eye. After a couple minutes of waiting in that line we got to the front only to be told our ticket was just a voucher for tickets and had to go in to exchange it.  After about 30 minutes of waiting in line to get the tickets, we ditched mom to go get a bite to eat.
      We walked all around looking for food but every place was totally jam packed.  We ended up all the way to Waterloo Train Station when Mom called to inform us that we couldn't get on the Eye until 4:15. So now we had 5 hungry people, split up in London with phones that barely worked (thanks Telus).            

     We ended up back on the bus to find a place to eat.  After a quick bit, we toured the rest of
London.  I now know where the rhyme "London Bridge is falling down" comes from.  Around 4:00 we made our way back to the Eye and with the sun setting (yes, sunset at 4:00 here) and our bodies half frozen, we got into a line of all lines. Yep, it took 1 1/2 hours to get on the slowest ferris wheel in the world.  Do we regret going up?  No. Do mom and dad regret not taking a separate "Champagne Experience", where it is a private pod for 2?  Probably.  But in the end, it turned out to be a good day in London.  You would think everyone was done for the day but  no, mom and dad found enough energy to leave us alone so they could go for a drink (or 2) at a pub. 

     I have come to the conclusion that London is the best city in the world, so many things to see and explore and we haven't even seen much of it.  Plans haven't been decided yet for tomorrow but we are ready for another full day tomorrow!  Pictures of today can be found here.  

Hannah Guthrie

Here We Go!

 

      It doesn't matter how prepared you think you are, you are never truly ready.  Who could have foreseen the Christmas Day mess we discovered just as we were leaving for the Scarfone Christmas party.  Ryan noticed a water spot on his ceiling.  Upon further inspection, it was huge.  As I took down the ceiling tile, water poured off of it soaking me.  Turns out the connection under the sink in the kitchen had a leak.  Great timing.  So there went my Christmas party and last minute packing.  Best I could do was Magic Wrap the connection to death and slow down the leak.  Fortunately, our buddy Mike was going to come by while we are away to fix it.  Problem 1 solved.... kind of.
     Anticipating massive lines of holiday travel, we got a good early start, leaving at 11am for our 3:30 flight.  First, we were delayed at the border by the border guard in the NEXUS lane.  When he found out we were heading to England, he had to tell us all about his trip there and all the things to do.  I think we chatted for 15 minutes at the booth.  He also couldn't believe that we were traveling over there for a squash tournament.  I am sure that made everyone behind us happy.  Second,  I-94 was incredibly slow.  There were cars in the ditch and median all over the place.  Not sure if they just happened or left over from last night still.  Finally we got to the airport.  Parked, shuttle was right there and we walked in to find......  no one???  We double-checked the date of our flights.  Correct.  Where were all the crowds?  No line checking in, no line checking bags, no line at security, no one in the terminal?????  From our house to our gate seats, 2 hours exactly.
     Exciting moment #2.  Kids wanted to settle at the gate so Mary Pat and I went to get something to eat.  While mowing down on mozzorella sticks at TGIFridays, I felt something hard in the stick.  I spit it out (I know gross) and found that hard thing was my molar that apparently shattered on that mozzo sticks.  Checked tooth with tongue, yep, it is a mess.  Jagged remains down to the root.  I can't let any air, liquid or food near it.  Great.  Not sure England is known for their dentists.
     Finally our flight is ready to go after a slight delay.  We board one of the narrowest planes I have ever been on.  We taxi forever until we discover that we are heading to the de-icer.  By the time we get in the air we are over an hour behind our scheduled takeoff.  Uneventful flight, land, bus to next terminal, time for a quick pizza and board.  Much bigger plane this time.  We took up the whole middle row.
     I warned the kids that we had to try and get some sleep because when we land it will be like getting up at 2:30am back home and starting your day.  Whether it was excitement or dad doesn't know what he is talking about, no one slept.  Emily couldn't wait to start her movie on the plane and mow down on snacks.  Me.  I slept.  More on that later.
    We landed 7:45am London time.  The line for immigration was insane.  I took us over an hour to get to the front of the line.  And what do you know?  Another chatty border guard.  This guy at least knew squash and was impressed that we were here for a tournament.  He was also from Birmingham where the tournament is being held so he gave us some ideas of things to do.  By the time we got through, our bags were just sitting next to the luggage carousal.
    Now comes the part I didn't put a lot of thought into.  How to get to our apartment from the airport.  You would think it would be simple but if you can follow this maze, you can come with us next time.

      We finally figured out the lines and transfers to take and 45 min later we got off at our station and headed outside for our 15 min walk to the apartment only to be facing problem #3.  Rain.  Cold.  We finally arrived at our apartment wet, tired and cold.
     Since no one ate much in the last 18 hours and no one wanted to go out again, I head out to the local supermarket.  Good news, they sell beer in England.  6-pack for me.  Finish buying enough groceries for a few days and head back to the apartment to find everyone out cold.  Yep, not a person awake.  I think I'll join them.
     After a solid 4 hour nap and some dinner we decided to head out to Piccadilly Circus.  Subway ride was pretty quick from our apartment, 5 min walk to station, 10 min on one train, switch, 5 on another.  Piccadilly Circus was gorgeous.  It is like the Times Square of London.  The Christmas lighting was beautiful.  We just browsed up and down the street and took in a cool Lego Store and a Christmas village where Ryan got the best looking hot chocolate and Hannah got a chocolate covered strawberry kabob also the best thing ever.
     We have our plans laid out tomorrow for an on/off tour.  Weather is supposed to be good.  Pictures of the last 30 hours can be found here.