London

We are in London! We are very excited to have a few days to explore this immense city.

One of the first sights we explored was the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. It is a combined bascule and suspension bridge and we were lucky to see a boat go through.

The Big Ben was for sure a highlight for the kids to see. Myron was extremely happy the renovations were done and scaffolding had been taken away. I must say, I have seen the Big Ben before, but never this shiny and beautiful!

We had a cup of tea with the king. Well, maybe not totally with him, but on the steps close to Buckingham Palace ;)

Close to Buckingham Palace is Green Park, where we visited the Canada Memorial. It commemorates members of the Canadian Forces killed during the First and Second World Wars.

Westminster Abbey was closed the day we visited and when we came back the next day, the line was so long, we decided that it would have to wait till another visit.

During our stay in London, Myron often commented on how he recognized buildings and squares from having watched the funeral of Queen Elizabeth.

The kids really enjoyed the diversity of the city and took in all the sights with enthusiasm.

For John and me, our last visit to London was so long ago, we really enjoyed revisiting a lot of places and finding new treasures in the city.

We visited Leicester Square which is home to a lot of fun statues and a vibrant city scene, but also world's largest Lego Store. Myron had flagged it on Google Maps a long time ago already and he happily directed us by metro to this amazing store. We had a hard time getting the children out of it!

The statues in the square were all of film characters and iconic scenes. Raija had a heart to heart with Paddington Bear and a nice chat with Mr. Bean. Myron especially liked meeting Gene Kelly... a partner in crime in climbing lamp posts ;)

The second day in London, we got up early enough to get into town to see the changing of the guards. We found a perfect spot in front of St. James' Palace where we could see a detachment of the Old Guard form up in Friary Court and how they got inspected by the Captain of The King’s Guard.

As we were waiting, the Royal Mail got delivered by horse and carriage!

It was absolutely an amazing experience. They walked really closely past us!

A group of young horses and riders also joined this morning, which is usually not the case. It looked like they were training the horses for riding in parades and getting used to the music.

The contingent then marched down The Mall towards Buckingham Palace. We caught up with them quickly to watch them one more time.

Most people wait at Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards, but we had read that you will never get a close up view from there as the crowd is large.

We ended up staying for a while, watching from afar, to see everything unfold. It was a really neat experience.

Our last place to visit in London was King Cross station, where we went to Platform 9 ¾ to send the kids off to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry ;)

King's Cross is the station where students board the Hogwarts Express on Platform 9 ¾ in the Harry Potter movies. They made a really cool place where you can take pictures, right next to the Harry Potter Store, on the concours of the station.

London was fun and the weather was great! We slowly are getting closer to wrapping up our Europe travels...