My England Adventure: Part Three

On Monday, we went to the City!

It’s funny to me.  Being from the States, where everything’s new, the “suburbs” are the much newer parts of town that you live in that have sprung up around the city.  They don’t call it “suburbs” here, they call it “the Village,” because they were little villages that were around and then the city finally grew to absorb them.  Cori and Scott live in a village called Warlingham, whose church has been here since 1209.

All that to say it takes about 45 minutes by train to get into London (real train, not subway).

Cori and I in front of the Marble Arch.  Note the AWESOME HAIR! 

On Monday, there was a “Tube Strike.”  Meaning that the subway was not running.  So, I got a walking tour of the city.  I have no idea what they were striking for, but the idea of a strike like that is always so exciting to me (Tube workers to London: Suckers!  See how you get around without us!).  I estimate that we walked 6 miles.  With shopping bags.  And Scott had a baby on his back the whole time.

The really cool thing was, I got to see EVERYTHING.

We had plans to shop.  I wanted to hit up H&M, find one of those plaid vests for Arthur (and was told to look at Harrod’s.  An excuse to go to Harrod’s?  Um, Ok!), and see the prints (fabric) at Liberty.  We were also hoping to make it to Portobello Road.  That’s it.  It took ALL DAY.  We didn’t make it to Portobello Rd.  I didn’t find a plaid vest.  But I did some major damage at H&M. 

The fabulous window dressings!  

Meantime, I saw:  Hyde Park (which had a sort-of English-equivalent-to-Redneck looking Christmas Carnival going on), Piccadilly Circus, Houses of Parliament, Carnaby Street, the Marble Arch, Big Ben and the Eye of London, Buckingham Palace, and, fabulous Christmas decorations and window dressings.

It was a mad dash to make it to the train in time to get home, we were practically jogging.  I swear, it was like I had every trigger for an anxiety attack in a five-minute span.  When we finally collapsed on seats on the train (phew!  Made it in time for seats!) we were so stoked that we didn’t look up from visiting and almost missed our stop.  None of this is my fault.  I can’t be expected to be paying attention to what stops they are, I never ride the train.  I will say though, I did have the window seat, and I suppose I should have been paying SOME attention.

Stay tuned for more.  Next up:  SNOW!  (And that’s about it!  It’s been snowing for days!)