London Day One

So we are now off to London. We had reservations to stay in a hotel there for two nights. Originally we were just going to drive the rental car into the city and park and leave it there. Later though we learned that there were Congestion Charges that applied and then on top of that we would have to pay to park it there overnight. So this led us to leave the rental at Ann's house and head in by train. Wyland enjoyed the ride.

When we first arrived we went straight to the hotel to drop off our luggage. Mum's cousin David (who is also my Godfather) volunteered to come into the city for the day to visit with us and show us around. While we were waiting for David at the hotel we decided to have a cup of coffee, they had a Starbucks in the lobby. So there we were sat amongst all the business people and I had pulled the top off of my coffee cup because it was REALLY hot. Next thing I know Wyland has grabbed the tip of my cup and completely knocked it over. There was coffee EVERYwhere. Including my mum's shoe as well as the seat to Wyland's stroller!! Fortunately nobody was burned. But it did mean that Wyland had to sit on a plastic bag in his stroller the rest of the day.

Our first stop when David arrived was for a meal at a rather fancy pub called The Swan. This pub was right next door to Shakespeare's Globe. A beautiful circular theater.

My yummy organic beer

What a cute Starbucks!

Shakespeare's Globe David and Wyland
We swung by the Tate Modern Museum
This is the Millennium Bridge w/ St. Pauls Cathedral in the background.

So then this is where it gets more interesting. We were staying on the outskirts of London. After David dropped us back to our hotel we thought that this would be our only opportunity to go and find the Hard Rock Cafe. We checked out the map and could see that it wasn't very far from an underground station and neither was our hotel. So I decided to forgo the stroller and opt for the Peanut Sling. I figured since we were just going to dinner and back it would make it easier to not have to maneuver the stroller up and down stairs. So we went and had ourselves a nice dinner and a couple of margaritas. After we ate we went next door to the store and made our purchases. We then headed to the underground station. When we got there there was a sign that said they had closed it for repairs. Well that certainly posed a problem for us. All they had was a dry erase board with a couple arrows saying this way for next station. Well of course once you're up on the streets it's really hard to tell where the next one might be. By this time it was after 11pm, dark and really a rather densely populated area. We walked .. and walked and walked. We asked a couple people who pointed us in a couple wrong directions. Eventually we found our way all the way back to Victoria Station. It made me nervous walking the streets of London so late just the three of us, not to mention Wyland was now asleep and the sling was KILLING my back. Finally around midnight we made it back to our hotel. What a nightmare!! Not to mention the very next day the underground subway workers were threatening to go on strike for 48 hours (basically the remainder of our barely begun trip)!