Here is a great day to start the day: the little dude. Look how happy he is
As we mentioned we were no longer going to try and take a car everywhere. We bought our travelcard and began our journey. We visited the Royal Naval College in Greenwich. We couldn’t find the direct route to it so instead of walking we hired a car (Lyft or Uber, can’t remember which) to take us the rest of the way. We then took many photos and after finishing up we looked at a map and noticed we wanted to be on the other side. There happened to be a ferry that took you right where we wanted to be.
The photo below of the Columns is from when we were at the college. It also included a collage of different transports we took (boat/bus) with a couple of cute kiddos and smiling faces.
Below you will find another couple of photos from the college, and the pretty photo looking up is another from the site. Fun fact: We keep visiting while things are under construction. Our purpose to visit the college was to see the “Painted Hall” and see what it looks like here. At the time it was closed and you couldn’t see anything. It was fantastic to visit the parts we could see.
Also, there are some random photos of myself and Arabella walking the streets. We were going towards St. Paul’s Cathedral. We arrived at 4:02 pm, which was fantastic because they closed at 4 pm.
So what should we do now? Let’s get dinner. We found a Pizza Hut close by and decided with our long days it would be quick and easy. Arabella liked it, that much is for sure. There are times the girl is super cute and just enjoying everything. She is still little though and has her moments when those big emotions come out. We were on the bus to Trafalgar Square and she was done (see photo below) with any more photos.
After a slight meltdown, we pushed forward. London at night, during Christmas time, is magical. It couldn’t feel much more like Christmas to be honest- the day before at the Princess Diana memorial it started to snow lightly.
There was some event going on at Trafalgar Square. We had no idea what it was. We ended up getting into a discussion with some of the police who were friendly enough and asked us if we voted for him. Who? The mayor of London (Sadiq Khan). At least now we knew why there was such a crowd. He was there to help light the giant menorah lit up for Chanukah, the Jewish festival of lights, in Trafalgar Square. We responded to them that no, we didn’t – we were from America.
Police: “Oh, I’m sorry, you guys have Donald Trump, I was hoping Hilary Clinton would win”
Us: “Ugh, yes please don’t remind me, we did NOT vote for him- I wanted her to win too.”
Police: “I feel bad for you – truly”
Little did they know what they were in for, less than 2 years later they would get a little Donald Trump the second known as Boris Johnson. Anyway, politics aside…
We stuck around long enough to hear him (the mayor of London) say “Okay everyone, let’s take a photo” and we crammed together with everyone to get in on it (photo below) and while I can’t tell you WHERE we are, I can assure you that we are in it.
The rest are other photos we took along the way. I think it in a very small way shows the feel of the city at that time.
I remember getting on the tube and getting an Evening Standard newspaper. I started to feel like a Londoner, at least in my head I lived as that for a minute. Not sure if we still have that paper somewhere or not… I hope we do.
By the time we got back to our hotel.. we may have been a little tired and ready for bed.
just Pray
note: this post was published on 08/08/22 but moved the publish date back to the middle of December 2017 to keep chronological order.
