London Day 7

Day 7:

 

Our last "free" day to visit all the places on our "bucket lists" we had not been to yet.

 

Very high on almost everyone's list? Abbey Road. How did we get there? Via double decker bus!

 

 After a short bus ride, we arrived. In the middle of a functioning, and at times, busy intersection.

 

See that little sign in the background? Abbey Road Studios baby!

 

Monkey needed his photo taken as well. Of course he also witnessed me writing my name on the bricks outside the studio. All the girls wrote something.

 

We jockeyed for position with ALL the OTHER tourists for a turn to cross the road and take the iconic photo. We got highly annoyed with the French tourists who kept retaking their photo, and stopping traffic in the process.

 

 

What amazed me the most? If you live in London, and KNOW this intersection is where tourists come to get their photo taken, why the HELL would you want to be ANYWHERE near it? We got a lot of frustrated drivers going by and laying on their horns......

 

We hopped back on the double decker bus. Next stop?

 

Westminster Abbey

 

You know. Where Charles and Diana got married. Where William and Kate got married.

 

You feel a little small standing in front of it.

 

We did not go in. The line was long, and we had many stops to make that day.

 

We visited the gift shop. I dont feel like I missed too much by not going inside. I mean, I have seen the inside on tv. What could I possibly be missing?

 

We walked through the Queen's gardens on our way to Buckingham Palace.

 

 

The Queen was home that day, so not only was the flag up and flying high, it also meant no tours.

 

So we gawked and peeked through the gates like all the other hordes of tourists there.

 

We wound our way around the back of the palace, and hopped on the Underground. Next stop?

 

Harrod's

 

 

I wish we would have more than 20 minutes in the store. As a group of 9 it was really hard to stick together AND look at all the awesome-ness that is this store.

 

Next time? I will plan an entire day there!

 

We walked around the block to the world's largest toy store. Hamley's.

 

We let the girls wander through the store so they all got a chance to see what they wanted to see.

 

I made a beeline for the Lego's. They did not have ANY mini-fig's (damnit) however I settled for a photo op with a life size Queen made of Lego's.

 

 

Per a suggestion from a friend, we headed off to the London equivalent of a Walmart and Forever 21 fusion.

 

PRIMARK

 

We had about 30 minutes in this store and not ONE of the girls left without some kind of awesome treasure. We could have spent HOURS in there.......

 

We hopped the Underground again to visit Camden Town. Lots of street vendors for food, an entire street of souvenir shopping.

 

We were so exhausted, and it was late by the time we got there, that we just grabbed a bite to eat, hit a shop or two, and hopped back on the Underground.

 

The next day we had to get up SUPER early, because we are Paris bound!