Another day, another awesome adventure!
Today we couldn't sleep in until noon (like yesterday), so I had to wake the girls up.
We had to get up bright and early to hop on the metro to make our way over to the Gare du Nord train station.
Sunrise at Gare de Lyon.
We had purchased a few books of carnets, but the magnetic stripes were somehow deactivated, so we had get our tickets re-printed every time we needed to ride the metro. Luckily, we had some bilingual French speakers with us. We loved watching and listening to Ada and Kate use their French.
We're getting ready to board our train to London.
The Eurostar.
Getting hair done on the train.
Ada waiting in line with me to pick up some train chow.
Breakfast of champions. Chocolate muffins for the girls (like usual).
We arrived at St. Pancras International train station in London.
It was just across the street from King's Cross, so we stopped by Platform 9 3/4 (the queue for photos was dreadfully long), but we did pick up some Bertie Bott's in the adjacent Harry Potter store.
Taking the escalator up from the Tube.
This photo is a bit out of order, but it was just after our arrival in London.
Our first stop was at the Tower of London.
This was a good place to make a wish - Traitors' Gate.
Lots of wild animals.
We went straightaway to see the crown jewels, which are officially priceless. There was a big selection of crowns, scepters, swords, robes and other royal regalia and vestments. The girls seemed to really enjoy looking at the jewelry.
The next stop were the Royal Amouries in the White Tower. The girls were most interested in the toilets.
Our first view of the amazing tower bridge.
Al and Lyla in the White Tower.
Kate with the dragon.
Resting our legs.
We made our way up onto the wall of the fortress.
Off the to right is the line for the Crown Jewels. We were lucky to have visited before there was a line.
Trying to get Lyla to smile.
She finally smiles, but this time Kate isn't smiling.
Lyla.
Kate, Lyla, the Tower Bridge and a rubbish bin.
Ada was imprisoned.
Then Kate.
The Tower Bridge.
On the banks of the Thames at the Tower of London.
By this time we were ready for lunch. I went for the traditional fish and chips (I don't like fish, but how could I stop myself?), everybody else had hamburgers or cheese sandwiches.
One last selfie at the Tower of London.
We jumped back on the Underground and made our way over to the Westminster Tube stop. Our first view of Big Ben.
Big Ben and a double decker.
Family photo with Big Ben.
We walked over to Westminster Abbey. We had very little time, but we really wanted to go in.
No pictures inside the church, but we snuck one here in the back courtyard.
Westminster Abbey. Built in 1066!
We walked from Westminster Abbey to the Victoria Apollo Theater. We had tickets to the Wicked matinee.
Our seats weren't great, but because this was the girls first real show, there were no complaints.
Wicked.
Caramel nibbles and Giant buttons.
The Apollo Victoria Theatre!
After the show we walked to Buckingham Palace to admire the redcoats.
They would not let us in.
Buckingham Palace.
The Victoria Memorial.
The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk.
One last look back at the palace.
Lyla probably had tired feet. We had walked a lot.
We grabbed some ice cream in St. James's Park as we were walking back to Westminster station.
Ice cream, the red phone booth and Big Ben. How cool is that!?
Big Ben.
Messy ice cream faces. It must have been good.
The London Eye. We would have liked to have gone for a ride, but time was short.
Lyla.
Riding the tube back to St. Pancras International.
Riding the travolator up to the train platform.
On the Eurostar. Back through the Chunnel (under the English Channel) and on to Paris. The train ride was about 2 hours, 15 minutes with a top speed of 186 mph (300 kph).
Today was a long day. We didn't even arrive back to Paris until almost 11:30 PM. Poor Lyla was exhausted.
We took the metro back to our hotel and then got all packed up for another early morning train ride. Tomorrow we hop a train to Barcelona.
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