London

Greetings from Great Britain. We’ve spent the last few days in York, but for this entry I’ll recap our 8 day stay in London! Bill and I have each been to London a couple of times, so this was our chance to show the kids some of the highlights. Our enthusiasm for the city was dampened somewhat by the crowds and the heat, but we still enjoyed ourselves overall.

We stayed in a cool studio apartment on the south side of the Thames, near the Tower Bridge. Our rentals have been getting progressively smaller and more expensive, but our balcony had a great view of the Thames and the Shard, London’s tallest building. The neighborhood had nice waterfront eateries, and old warehouses converted to condos and apartments. We always enjoyed the walk along the river.

We took advantage of many of the free museums London has to offer: the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, and Museum of London. Greenwich was probably our favorite outing…we took a boat to Greenwich, bought lunch at the Greenwich Market, an outdoor marketplace, rented a family-sized paddleboat at the park, visited the Maritime Museum, and enjoyed a fun (but crowded) playground.

Our visit to London coincided with the royal baby’s birth, so we were able to observe the 62 gun salute from the Tower of London, hear the bells ringing at Westminster Abbey, and saw (from a distance) the birth announcement placed in front of Buckingham Palace.

We didn’t partake of any traditional English food while we were there, but we had some wonderful ethnic cuisine, including Vietnamese, Thai, and Italian.

London was expensive, but it didn’t break the bank. There was free public transport for the kids, and we made good use of the many free museums and parks. We also ate many meals at home, buying provisions at the local grocery store.

To sum it all up…great city to visit, but I wouldn’t do it again in July, as it was just too crowded.