Day 3, London Sightseeing

Today we woke up to a dark, cold morning with the promise of wind and drizzle. Mum, Dad and I were up at 4:00 am eating toast and Dad editing the first post. Caitlin slept in to 8:15am when we finally woke her up. This was the first day in London without the guidance of Lisa and Ben, who are the gurus from everything from the Tube to which channel is playing Home and Away. Mum studied the Tube map and worked out our journey from Canada Waters to Westminster.

The first tourist destination today was Westminster Abbey.Unfortunately we were unable to take any pictures in the Abbey but we do have pictures of the courtyard outside which features in Harry Potter. We took a 90 min group tour with a priest who cracked a few jokes along the way. On our tour when we visited Mary, Queen of the Scots' tomb Dad's phone went off. Apparently there was a sign that said 'No phones to be turned on' but we had not seen it. So Dad quickly turned his phone off and the tour started up again. 30 seconds later Mum's phone started ringing (Mum's ringtone is "Mum, Mum pick up the phone, Muuuuum" - performed by Connor). By this stage the priest gave us a look and continued the tour. Mum ran off behind some King's tomb and turned her phone off as well and we thought that was the end but, as we were in a church, miracles happen, even though it was turned off Mum's phone went off again. The priest ignored it and kept talking and upped his volume. Fortunately, we managed to get through the rest of the tour without incident.

We walked from the Abbey to Parliament House which is practically next door. The 'Bobbys' were out in force and Parliament was closed off to the public. So we ate our lunch in the park across the road where no doubt famous people have eaten their sandwiches while watching the traffic.

After lunch we crossed the road and tried to walk along the Thames (tems) and the back of Parliament House but we were stopped by a friendly policeman who informed us that it was closed off because of a dead body. Welcome to London.

After wondering about who died, when and why. Winston met his namesake, Winston Churchill when we went to the World War II war cabinet rooms. We discovered Churchill's history, childhood and death. We learnt how much his influence affected the war in Britain's favour. This was all underground and we spent a few hours reading everything. We then were keen to go home but saw Trafalgar Square only a few metres up the road.

Again we did the tourist thing and climbed the statue, stood next to the lions and put the trip mascot in funny places.

P.S. Mum had some barney rubble (trouble) on the Tube with a few foreign young adults who were being rude and obnoxious. they wouldn't get out of the way so Mum forced the issue. Her principal's voice and stare won the day.