Day 26: London Day 2

Day two of London started with a hop-on-hop-off double decker bus tour of the city.  If I could do this over again, I would have done this the first day we arrived, as it's a great way to get a survey of the entire city before you start digging into the sights--it also helps you understand what you want to see.  There are two types of bus tours: one with a live guide, and another with a recorded guide. We tried both as we hopped off and back on again.  Don't bother with the recorded tour. The live guy was night and day better than the recorded deal. Not even close.

The boys atop the double-decker tour bus.

The bus takes you past all the sites including one of London's most iconic, its Parliament building, while a live guide with typically british dry-humor informs and amuses you.

At the end of our tour we took a small jaunt on the Thames (which comes with the tour) to Westminster Abbey, where we spent the next three hours.  In terms of sights, this was the highlight of my London stay, and this is perhaps my favorite cathedral that we've seen, which is saying something because St. Peters is so over-the-top and grand.  St. Peters was built to make you feel small with its massive wide open spaces.  Such spaces don't exist in Westminster. In fact, it's much smaller than it appears on TV, and every square inch of it is consumed by monuments and tombs of just about everyone you can imagine: from Charles Darwin (yes, Darwin, that guy that many Christians regard as the anti-christ) to Isaac Newton, to Tennyson, to Ben Johnson, to Lord Byron to Handel (German composer who spent much of his life in England), to numerous kings, queens, etc.

Emma and I in front of Westminster Abbey

Daphne in the Westminster cloister

Big kids sans Jeffrey in front of Westminster

This place just seemed so human to me, and seemed to celebrate so eloquently how God is glorified not just by Popes but by scientists, poets, composers and a few kings. That, of course, is pure reformation and renaissance-theology. The audio-guide that is included with one's tour of Westminster Abbey (not typical, as most museums charge you can 6 pounds or euros for such a thing) was well done, and made that whole experience that much more interesting.

To cap the day we went paid a visit to King's Cross station.  Harry Potter fans will recognize that as the site of the Platform 9-3/4, the magical portal through which wizard pass to catch the Hogwarts Express.  The station has taken full advantage of Harry Potter mania, having created a Platform 9-3/4, complete with luggage carrier embedded halfway into the brick wall.  Close by is a high-priced gift shop selling anything from expensive post cards to chocolate frogs to authentic-looking wands to replicas of the sorcerer's stone.  For any serious Harry Potter fans (which my girls are), this is an obligatory (and fun) stop on any visit to London.

The longer we were in London, the more fun we had trying to speak in English accents.  Seriously, you can't help it.  None of us would speak that way to an englishman, but we constantly do so to each other. We can't help it:  it's so much fun. Really, we're jealous because England's English just sounds so much cooler than ours.  In addition to the accent, we love throwing in words that the English use in ways that we don't, such as brilliant, lovely, rubbish, mate, and host of others.  Speaking of which, cheerio.