I've gotten behind a few days with my blogging! We've been busy!

Last week we spent Wednesday 'till early Monday morning in London. We had a great time there and are glad that we went. It is such a busy city, though. The place that we stayed at was less than fantastic. It was hard to know when I was booking it online that it wasn't in the best area! One morning on our walk to the train, a guy asked us if we had some marijuana! Uh NO! Haha. The apartment was kind of falling apart, too. Oh well, it was a place to lay our heads. :)

Thursday we visited some great iconic London places. Here's us heading into the city on the train. Train selfie :)

We started at St. Paul's Cathedral. It's another gorgeous one! No photography allowed inside again. This is the cathedral where Prince Charles and Lady Diana were married, and also more recently, Prince William and Kate were married. We spent at least 2 hours there. We listened to the audio tour, and went up to the Whispering Gallery which is way up high in the circular tower. It is WAY up there. And you have to climb stairs to get there! Then we climbed higher to the outside look-out point. Wow, we were tired! At the end of the day, Dave's step counter said that we had climbed 64 flights of stair and walked 7.8 miles!!! WHAT?! Wow!

In front of St. Paul's Cathedral

Inside of St. Paul's Cathedral - a pic off of the internet

View from the top of St. Paul's cathedral

View from the top of St. Paul's cathdral

On the Millenium Bridge in London. This is the bridge in the Harry Potter movies from when the Dementors are seen destroying London. 

Millenium Bridge

 Next, we made our way across the Millenium Bridge and over to the Shakespeare Globe Theater. This theater was actually rebuilt in the 1990s, so that's not so cool, but it's built according to the original theater plans of Shakespeare. A Canadian actor actually got the ball rolling to rebuild it!

Shakespeare's Globe Theater 

Getting ready to take the tour

In Shakespeare's Globe Theater

We walked over to the Tower of London next. It's not really "a tower", it's a fortress. We didn't realize that before. It's funny, but we got lost trying to find our way here, and while we were lost we asked a couple of local people where it is. They were embarrassed to tell us that they didn't know where it is! Interesting how many people don't go see and enjoy the wonders and history right around them. It's the same everywhere.

View of the "Tower of London" from across the river Thames. 

In the "Tower"

Where England's crown jewels are held. No inside photos aloud. They are beautiful, though. Unreal, really.

The ravens are kept here because of an old superstition that if there aren't 6 ravens here at all times, the "Tower" will crumble and England will fall. Just to make sure they're safe, they now keep 8 ravens there at all times! 

In the "Tower". The area where Mary Queen of Scots was held captive until she was beheaded.

The "White Tower" built in 1000s by William the Conqueror!

The "Tower Bridge" was our next stop. We went up into it and across the glass walkway! Scary! Yes, Janae & I were nervous. The men were fine :).

Sitting on the glass, high above the cars!
Janae 16, Tyler 18, Joshua 14

Dave & I on the glass floor.

The bridge had to be raised for a ship while we were there. Cool. But the locals were annoyed, as it caused a big traffic jam! 

We came to this painting in a walkway as we were walking around in London. When you're right by it, you can't see that it's 3D. Here in this picture you can see that it's totally awesome!

 We went to the show "Wicked" in London! I had the idea to look at what was playing while we were still at Uncle Mick and Aunt Marian's house, and we were able to get tickets. It was really awesome! I have seen it before, in Chicago, but no-one else had seen it. They loved it. I'm so glad that we went!

After the show. Dave, Michelle, Joshua, Janae, Tyler

It was a full and fabulous day!