Tired? Who is tired?
We woke up to explore London. Our plan was to walk everywhere we needed to.
Went down to the cafe they had on site and ordered an Irish Coffee to start the day. Looked good. Tasting it I was surprised to find out that it was an alcoholic drink and didn’t taste good. They must have thought I needed a stiff drink to start my day. Arabella? Well, she fell asleep while we were getting food (see photo below).
Cold? Did someone say it was cold? Nah. We left the hotel and walked half the way we needed to when we (the wife) decided that we needed to turn around and get more layers for everyone. We trekked back and then made another mile or two walk (the same distance we had went) to get back where we left off from.
We walked up to Big Ben (Elizabeth Tower). Under construction. Not a total surprise as we noticed this already when we arrived at our hotel the day before. Thankfully I was able to hear him chime throughout the day. We hope to return one day and see the clock tower without the scaffolding surrounding it.
Walk walk walk.
We eventually broke down and got a pass to take the tube anywhere we needed to go. It was nice as it also included any bus trips too.
We visited the Princess Diana memorial (excited about the enhancements they are going to do as well) and walked to so many things. There are SO MANY PHOTOS. It is practically impossible for me to pick just a few. The ones below will have to suffice.
There was so much history that we saw. Some of the things we took photos of and then looked up to see the history later. We walked streets that were bombed during WWII, we saw new multi-billion dollar structures that were built (see the Shard) – it was a lot to take in.
Below are a few more photos. The sunset and the Shard, Tower Bridge, and a photo of Ara holding my hand while walking across.
Throw in another photo of the Shard at night, sandwiched in between a few other buildings and Christmas lights and you have our day. Or do you?!
We stayed at DoubleTree Dartford Bridge that night. Our room was on the top floor. We were tired (as we normally are at the end of our explorations). We were in our room when I noticed the smell of like an electrical burn. What?! What would that be? I peeked my head outside the room, and I could smell it stronger.
A few seconds later the fire alarm goes off. We made our way downstairs and out of the building. As it was cold they had these covers that would help keep you warm – once from the fire department. They looked like Aluminum foil. Everyone got one before we were able to. A nice older gentleman saw that we had kids and gave us his jacket. We gave it to Arabella to keep her warm. What a nice gesture. Yes, it is true what you heard – people here are really terrible.
Eventually, they cleared the place and we got back to our room. We found out that the fire was in the room next to ours. They offered to change our room but we really wanted to just go to sleep.
just Pray
note: this post was published on 08/03/22 but moved the publish date back to the middle of December 2017 to keep chronological order.
