London part 1

FYI: THERE ARE MULTIPLE LONDON POSTS that will be posted as I can get them finished. This is only the beginning of much more to come!


After living in Holland for almost a year and a half, we finally made our much anticipated trip to London for the Easter holiday. We spent three full days walking around the city, visiting the popular tourists locations, as well as just taking time out to relax in the warm 80 plus degree weather. We couldn't have asked for better weather and were fortunate enough to only encounter rain for an hour and a half on Saturday. We found accommodations at a Holiday Inn Express outside of London, in the town of Greenwich. London's famous "underground" (or subway for those of you who aren't familiar with it) was a quick 10 minute walk from our hotel and with a daily pass for both of us, we were able to hop on and off the underground each day, helping us to zoom about the city. Ella received raving reviews while we traveled using the underground, as well as when we were walking down the street. We must have had a dozen people just stop and compliment us on how beautiful she is. I think she loved the attention and the trip. Her eyes were wide open and taking in everything she could. She is our little traveler! She was wonderful the entire trip and never got fussy. She was full of giggles and smiles as you will see from some pictures here. More pictures of her in London are posted on her baby website.

Once we arrived in the UK, driving on the highway (in the opposite direction) was not as intimidating as we had expected. That all changed once we got into the small towns. It was a very different experience. Traffic circles, know as round-abouts in Europe are everywhere! We have finally gotten use to manuvering around them pretty quickly here in Holland. It was very scary while Doug was driving in the roundabouts in the UK. Instead of entering them and driving to the RIGHT to go around the circle (like we would in Holland), you entered the circle to the left and went in a counterclockwise direction. IT WAS SOOOO WEIRD and scary with the other cars zooming around it. Our new driving experience didn't end there. We learned that the traffic lights have a very unique setting to them:


The red and yellow lights together mean that the light is now going to turn green!

And now onto the sites of London:



A look at transportation; loved all the old cars they use as a taxi, and of course the famous red buses.




Already decorated for the royal wedding (a week in advance)


EVERY crosswalk had this painted on it for the tourists.

Look carefully and you can see the directions on the other side of the crosswalk too!

Of course we had to make a stop at Hamley's Toy Store. Hamley's is one of the largest toy shops in the world and is 250 years old. With the store being this old, we expected it to have older toys, but it was very modern, and reminded us of an extra large Toys-r-Us. This London store has seven floors covering 54,000 square feet all devoted to playthings, with different categories of toys on each floor. Here we bought Ella a Paddington Bear London storybook. Of course we went to the LEGO floor too.



For all the Harry Potter Fans: it does exist!!





The end of a perfect first day......we were walking down the street discussing where to eat, when all of a sudden I happened to turn and we were standing right next to PIZZA HUT!!!