We had only ONE day allocated to London. Yes, it's a shame, but we simply had too many places we wanted to see while in England again. This is the kids' room in the B&B where we stayed. Nice bedding, right?
So to get to London proper we had to take the train from about 30 min away. We stayed out of central part of London because we had a rental car and it was just easier to do that with Wimbledon and driving later.
After a train ride, we ended up at Victoria station.
We were reminded once again how fun taking the Tube is in London.
The kids felt like they knew exactly what to do--take more selfies together!
We started out our day of adventures by Tower of London...with an unedited arm in the picture because that's how we roll nowadays and have no time for editing.
We didn't have plans to go inside, but we just wanted to see it as well as get a few pictures by the Tower Bridge.
This is such a beautiful place! We have a few pictures with it in the background from the years when we lived there.
And this is a reenactment of the picture that we took when we first moved to England.
Beautiful!
Our model children trying to do the same kinds of pictures as they did 10 years prior.
And then this dude. He has a picture like that from when he was three or four:).
Katya.
Alex.
And the family with the beautiful London skyline.
Nearby, we found a serene place in the middle of hustle and bustle--Saint Dunstan medieval church.
We had never been there, so it was nice to see something new.
Thirty minutes into our London day and they were already sitting down taking a break.
The usual...
They did try to jump off together but it felt a bit too somber in that courtyard to goof around too much.
It was beautiful and all but since we were not much into shopping and most food places were still closed, it was just a nice landmark stop and nothing more.
Oh wait, it was actually featured in one of the Harry Potter movies! The scene where Hagrid escorts Harry to the Leaky Caldron was filmed here.
We ended up getting a very early lunch here at an Asian cafe. It was yummy! I am laughing at my face with cheeks puffy with food.
Please don't ask me why it's called the Sky Garden because I saw mostly people not plants;). They had food and drinks for purchase though.
Family selfie with London in the background.
We had to say hello to the Monument, of course.
And then took the tube to Westminster to visit our friend Big Ben.
Big Ben was under scaffolding in some parts but still looking gorgeous.
We got some amazing pictures!
I wonder how many millions of people take pictures with Big Ben each year...
Beautiful building connected to the Houses of Parliament.
And here is one of our favorite places in London.
To our surprise it was kind of tricky to get a picture with no other people in it. Covid restrictions for Europe had been loosened so visitors flocked to London this year.
Being creative with our phones;).
Handsome Alex in London.
Katya full of character in London.
And Mark just thinking how he doesn't remember much of this from his younger years.
Our three fantastic kids!
I love this quirky picture! It's Big Ben AND the back of Winston Churchill.
Majestic Westminster Abbey. We didn't go inside but admired it from the outside.
When we traveled in Europe a decade ago, we didn't have cell phones to take pictures, so we had fewer selfies of our family. Now it's just too easy to take them and not even pull out our big camera much.
Katya and one of the sides of Westminster Abbey.
Mark and Westminster Abbey.
Alex and a bit of Westminster Abbey.
And finally, Lyana. It took only ten takes, I am sure.
We saw Ukrainian flags all throughout London.
It was great to see their support!
We walked, and walked, and finally reached Buckingham Palace! Just as we took a few pictures, we saw that a big gray cloud was heading in our direction, which you cannot see on this picture at all!
We were in the area by all the parks, we saw these bikes, and decided to see if we can beat the storm and get to Kensington Palace area.
We had thirty minutes to get to our destination to not get charged extra.
We did try to get away from the rain...but....
It caught up with us. I mean, it really-really poured. We were still on bikes when it started raining, but then we quickly rode to Princess Diana playground and tried to wait out the storm.
We were soaked... the kids really wanted to see this ship that they all remembered from years before.
To warm up for a bit, we hopped on one of the double decker buses not really knowing where it was going.
We sat on the very front of the top level and enjoyed the ride through the busy city. That's our London hack--riding the bus to take a break and dry out your clothes.
The bus brought us to Piccadilly Circus area from where we walked to Trafalgar Square. And it was not raining anymore.
West End Kids Day Out event or something like that was happening on Trafalgar square so everything was blocked off, so we didn't spend too much time there.
Katya managed to get a brilliant picture even with all the stage equipment and barriers.
From there we walked and walked through Chinatown.
I was determined to have dinner at Neat Burger that evening--a place with cool atmosphere, vegan shakes and healthy food. Everyone was excited as I talked so much about it.
Well!!!! We walked for so long and they were CLOSED! Unexplainably and unexpectedly! Needless to say, everyone was disappointed and hungry.
So we ended up continue to walk through Leicester Square, through the Theatre District to our most traditional London place to eat...yeah....Five Guys. I cannot believe it! We have one IN our town, and we still ended up doing this. But everyone magically was so excited!
We all remembered the few times we came here while living in England. Every time we came we had to stay in the longest line ever, sometimes wrapping around the building which sounds pretty insane right now. And once, with our friends, the Ericksons, we stood in that line even when it was raining outside!:)) It always, for some reason, tasted just a little like home. And for the record, their burgers do taste better than in the states.
After dinner, it was getting pretty late, although it looked so light. We knew we had to get up at 4 am the following morning to get to Wimbledon, so we headed to our place after walking around a bit more around the West End area.
What a brilliant day in London! Again! We just love being there, exploring the new places and visiting the old ones. We will be back for sure!!!
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