london calling!!!

although we have been here just about a month, we have yet to take any weekend getaways. we decided to shoot for london because it's only about 2 hours away via car or a little over an hour by train.

we had been advised by several of joe's co-workers that the best way to london from bristol was to make the drive in, park the car at the train station just outside of london and take the train in. parking is 1# a day at the train station as opposed to 25#s at one's hotel.

worst. idea. EVER.

first of all, these people don't have 2 almost-4 year olds and they take a half day off from work so they aren't arriving in london at 1am or missing the train INTO london, the last of which is 11pm.

that being said, we made it into london and found our hotel after MUCH fumbling with the garmin, which at the most inopportune times, has this feature which auto-completes what you are typing. unfortunately, it never actually auto-completes with any place or street that you need or want at that particular moment. i must say joe did an excellent job driving while i did an excellent job at being tired and cranky. the peanuts did an excellent job of sleeping through the entire car ride into london. which is awesome until you have to wake them to get them into the hotel. oops.

all in all a good trip. we rode a double decker bus throughout the city. for my thin california blood, london was freezing and luckily, i packed everyone's down jackets, hats, scarves & gloves for this weekend jaunt.

we took the kids on the london eye, which is a giant ferris wheel with these glass encased pods that allow you get a 360 degree view of london from about 414 feet above ground. an entire rotation takes about 30 minutes, which just seems to fly by. tickets are expensive but so worth it. luckily, the kids are at an age where they are FREE. unfortunately, we are not so when dignan asked to go on it again, we sadly had to say no, the london was closing for repairs.

hitting all modes of travel on this getaway: we did air (london eye), land (double decker bus) and tackled sea by taking a ferry ride around the harbour.

we also took in some exceptional london theatre. what did we see you ask - les miz or phantom? more like scooby, as in scooby doo and the ghost pirate. yes, people when you have kids a night of london theatre means going to the hammersmith apollo and watching a british interpretation of an american cartoon from the late 60's. jinkies.

we tried out the london bus system, rode in a london taxi, and took the tube. we also discovered that dignan may be claustrophobic, a matter i will have to explore further with our pediatrician when we return home.

the kids ran around trafalgar square, which seemed empty since they shooed all the pigeons off in 1999. the last time we were here was the last hurrah for the famous trafalgar pigeons, one who thought my little toe looked like a delicious piece of corn. at least no dirty pigeon was going to nibble on my little toe this time.

the sherlock holmes pub, which has the yummiest bangers and mash EVER is even bigger and fancier than it was 10 years ago. bangers and mash being sausages, mashed taters and gravy and so good in fact, we came back the next day to have exactly the same meal.

amazingly, the texas embassy restaurant is still in business with their little tecate umbrella'd outdoor seating area. just in case you didn't know this little tidbit, the brits go crazy over armadillos, which makes me wonder if any 'dillos reside at the texas embassy.

and the london dungeon, which 10 years ago was this little attraction off the beaten path that featured a lame little 1 minute water flume ride is currently doing a brisk business and looks to have taken up the entire block with it's macabre reenactments of terrible events throughout history plus the london dungeon now boasts several rides. AND the line stretched around the friggin' block. what can i say? joe and i have have an eye for what is going to be the next big thing.