Rainy Day in London Town

It was a typical English summer day - lots of rain. We had a traditional English breakfast to start the day. I think the kids appreciated everything but the baked beans.

We caught a coach and went into the city to pick up our guide Alan. He was awesome! Such a fun personality and so full of interesting information. He kept calling the kids silly names like poppit, and pumpkin, He taught us that it's the bell that's called Big Ben, and that bell is inside the Queen Elizabeth Tower. Big Ben was forged at the same foundry as our Liberty Bell.  He walked us through St. James Park to get a good view of Buckingham Palace, which was blocked off today from the mains streets for a birthday party for the Queen (patron's lunch). Then we saw the Australian building which was used as Gringotts Bank in Harry Potter. Our final stop was St. Paul's Cathedral which has the second largest dome in Europe. We toured both the city of Westminster and the City of London. The kids listened pretty well as we drove around and learned about the city.





Next stop was Tower Hill where the kids were set loose to find lunch. Then tickets into the Tower of London. There was no formal tour but the kids were instructed that the best plan was to catch a tour from the Yeoman Warders. Most ignored the advice and ran around on their own. Then it was free time until dinner. Some of your kids are serious shoppers!




Finally, Rudi arranged for anyone interested to get a ticket to the London Eye. This huge Ferris wheel provides and amazing 360* views of the city. It was a great experience but we've started to see a problem. Many of our travelers are missing out on the opportunities of the trip. Running off to shop instead of touring the Tower and spending the entire trip around the London Eye looking down at a phone screen. Please remind your kids that they need to make the most of all the great things are here to see.  Thanks!

Exactly how much of London are they seeing?

Now to the rumors... Yes, there were two fire alarms last night, one at 11pm and one at 1am. No it wasn't a fire. They each lasted about 30 seconds and then stopped. There was a glitch in the system and it has been repaired (hopefully). To make it worse someone in our group received a report that there had been an explosion in London. That caused a bit of unnecessary panic. No bombs! There was an apartment building fire outside of London at 1pm (10 & 12 hours before our alarms) and someone in the area reported they might have heard an explosion making the fire officials think it may have been a gas or oil fire. Only the top floors of the building were damaged, 50 people evacuated and 3 to hospital with smoke inhalation. Everything is well. No worries!