Watsons Go to London

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words.   Well, here’s 34,000 words for you, plus a few in between.

On Saturday, the Watsons did indeed go to London.  We’ve lived in the UK for a month and a half now, so it was about time we got off our duffs and visited the largest city in England.

Our first train ride in England was fairly painless.  It only lasted an hour, the carriages were well-heated (it was a bit nippy out that day), and the seats were actually rather comfortable.  The only painful part was that after arriving at King’s Cross station in London I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t purchased a parking ticket for my car.  A few frantic calls later and one of our good friends was on her way to the car park to get one for us and place it on the car before the wrong people noticed.  No tickets so far, so it looks like it might have worked.

Anyway, moving on.  I think I’ll try something new today.  Fewer words from me; more interpretation from you.  Here goes.

Waiting.  Train station.  Cold.

Destination 1: Museum of Natural History. 

Old building.  Cool architecture.  HUGE inside.

Dinosaur popa. 

Animatronics. T-Rex.  Ooooh I am sooo scared.  Most popular exhibit.  Long lines.  Lucky we saw it early.

Don’t.  Eat.  Me.

Alex.  Creepy Crawlies exhibit.  Ewww.

Dodo.  Extinct.

Big room.  Nice mural.

Blue whale to scale.  Wow!

Okay, let’s take a break from the short sentences for a bit.  The museum was enormous, amazing and FREE.  I like that.  So of course that meant it was very crowded.  Insane at times (don’t even think about seeing T-Rex after lunch.  Speaking of lunch, do not go to the restaurant in the museum – overpriced and tasteless.  Instead, go to the snack bar or the deli, which are also in the museum.  Less expensive and probably tastier too.  We didn’t get a chance to see everything in the museum because it was just too big, but who cares, it’s free!  After the museum, we walked up to Kensington/Hyde Park (which was also HUGE) and visited a couple special areas.  One was the “Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain”, which you see here.  And the other was the amazing playground, also named in Princess Diana’s honor.

Walking along the path from the fountain to the playground.  The walk itself took close to an hour (or so it seemed), but it was definitely a beautiful stroll.

Despite the signage, we still had to ask several people along the way for directions to the playground.  And when I say we, I mean Lyana.  This time, however, she didn’t have to hand gestures and sing-song to communcate.  Though, ironically, one lady she asked didn’t speak English.

Oh, I forgot.  Fewer words, more thinking by you.  Fine. 

Sitting.  Spinning.  Darth Kid in the middle.

Ship.  Overcrowded.  Who cares.  Still fun.

Katya and Mark.  Stuck?

Mom’s salad bowl.

Croutons?

Tube station.  Carriages smaller than Tokyo.  Much smaller.  Pain in my neck.  Literally.

London Eye. 

Can’t. Stop. Laughing.

London Eye.

Up close.

TTU.

Bicycle wheel?

ON London Eye.  See Big Ben?

Awesome.  Really.

Bridge.

House of Parliament.

Good-looking. 

Sunset over London.  Top of London Eye.

Bigger Big Ben.

EVERYONE LOOKING AT THE CAMERA AT THE SAME TIME!!

Feet tired.  Day over.  Go home.  Great time.  Can’t wait.  To go.  Again.

Rob