Londres

Merry Christmas! This Christmas my family flew over from the states to meet me in London.


After an accidentally-extended stay in Amsterdam due to snow delays, I finally made it over to London, where Mom, Dad, and Nancy were waiting for me.


After Mom met me at the train station and we went back to the apartment for a quick lunch, we headed right out across Hyde Park to meet Nancy at Kensington Palace. It was a beautiful day out, and there was still a little snow on the ground in the park.

After seeing the debutant exhibit and Princess Diana's dresses, we meandered through the rest of the Palace. It was all decked out for Christmas!


Just like in Paris, there were Christmas trees everywhere in London.


The next day we woke up bright and early and headed over to Saint Paul's Cathedral. We lucked out again with another beautiful day.


After walking around the ground floor, we started the climb up to the top. After 259 steps, we reached the Whispering Gallery, which runs around the interior of the dome. It gets its name from the fact that if you whisper close to the wall's edge, you can be easily heard from anywhere else around the gallery. It literally sounds like the whisperer is right next to you!


At the level of the Whispering Gallery you can also go out on a balcony, that has amazing panoramic views of London.



Then, if you climb up another couple hundred stairs (for a total of 530), you reach the Golden Gallery, which has more incredible panoramic views of London. Definitely worth the climb :)


After Saint Paul's, we headed over to the Tower of London. First built by William the Conqueror a really really long time ago (around 1000 years!), it was a royal palace that was also used as a mint, place of execution, zoo, and a prison for some pretty high-profile traitors, like Guy Fawkes.

Highlights include seeing the Crown Jewels and an exhibit entitled "Henry the VIII: Dressed to Kill," which features armor and weapons of the period, including the vast collection of his own personal armor.


You also have a great view of Tower Bridge!




This picture is of an armed guard, but our tour, like all tours, was given by a "beefeater," officially known as a Yeomen Warder of Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London. All beefeaters are retired from at least 22 years of service in the Armed Forces of Commonwealth Realms, and must hold the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.



We then went up and over Tower Bridge, which also has great views of the city and Thames.


Then, we divided and conquered; either heading to the Globe Theater, and or to the National Gallery. After coming back to the apartment, we got everything ready and had Christmas Eve dinner. It was fun to try something new, but we all really missed our traditional dinner and church service with the Wilson family.



But, what would Christmas be without a Christmas . . . monster? Nancy and I reverted to our 6 and 9 year-old selves to construct this guy out of our poppers.

After dinner we hopped on a double-decker bus out to Saint Martin-in-the-Fields. The Christmas decorations were intense, and double-decker busses were everywhere!


While waiting for the midnight service to begin, we had nice views of the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square.


On Christmas we slept in late, and then had a delicious Christmas Day breakfast.


Complete with Nancy-made mochas :)


Since there are no buses on Christmas (and it was another beautiful day), we decided to walk to the Christmas Day service at Westminster Abbey. Our walk took us past the (very ugly) American Embassy.


The embassy faces a park in Grosvenor Square, where Eisenhower established a headquarters during WWII. Now there are statues of both Eisenhower and FDR in the park.





Don't worry, we didn't miss our opportunity to take the classic London Visitors' pictures.



We were pretty chilly by the time we got to Westminster Abbey.


After waiting in a line for little bit, we headed into the Abbey for the Christmas Day Evensong Service.



After we left the Christmas Day church service, the sun was already well on its way to setting. Here you can see Big Ben (fun fact, "Big Ben" is actually the name of the biggest bell in the tower) and the London Eye.


We then decided to wander down to 10 Downing Street to see where the prime minister lives. You can't actually walk down Downing Street, but these are statues on the roof of a building right near by.

The sunset was so pretty.


This building was facing the sunset, and you can see it reflected in the windows.