At the beginning of July, Lindsey and Justin made the trip across the pond! They stopped in Dublin first, then came to London and finished their trip in Paris. I was so excited to see them! You would think I would be the tour guide when guests come over, but Justin took over this role while they were here! He did some serious research and I saw and learned more about London with them than I had in the past 6 months! We were busy from first thing in the morning until dinner. Here's a list of some of the things we did: toured Westminster Abbey, The Churchill War Rooms, changing of the guards, tea at the Portrait Gallery, toured Buckingham Palace, Lindsey ran the British 10K (!), Victoria and Albert Museum, went to Harrods, walked through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral (including the 540 step walk to the top of the dome), British Museum, saw Jersey Boys and visited Olympic Park. All of that was mixed with good dinners and trips to the pub! Here are some of the photos of their visit!
(disclaimer: The weather in London is always very unpredictable. I must say it could not have been any worse while Lindsey and Justin were here. It was cold and it rained almost the entire time they were here. But they were troopers and didn't let it stop them.)
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| Standing on The Westminster Bridge by Parliament |
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| Horse Guards. (Behind this is where they are playing the beach volleyball in the Olympics) |
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| Count down to Olympics! |
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| Waiting for the Changing of the Guards |
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| More waiting |
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| He is also waiting... |
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| The band |
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| Marching in |
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| The big change |
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| Saturday was Pride Day in London. There was some excellent people watching! |
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| Tea at the Portrait Gallery |
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| Yummy tea treats |
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| The Queen's backyard |
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| Back of Buckingham Palace |
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| Wellington Arch |
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| Between the Queen's Jubilee and the Olympics, the streets of London are decorated beautifully. |
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| British 10K. Waiting on Lindsey to get to us! The weather was probably the worst this day than any other :( |
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| Go Lindsey! |
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| 25,000 runners |
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| She did it! |
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| Dates jumped in and ran 7K with her. |
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| Way to go! |
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| Victoria ad Albert Museum |
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| Harrods |
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| Kensington Palace |
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| Kensington Gardens |
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| Kensington Gardens |
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| Speakers Corner. Every Sunday there's an allotted spot at the edge of Hyde Park where anyone can go and just speak their mind. There was, of course, a lot of politics and religious debates going on. Here are Dates and Justin listening in on a debate. |
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| I felt bad that Nola was stuck inside all week, so I bought her a cupcake at the Harrods Pet Kingdom. |
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| Checking it out |
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| Olympic Park! |
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| We couldn't get too close to the stadium because security was all set up since the Olympics were starting soon. We did get a view of the area from a nearby mall. This is the stadium where the opening ceremony took place. |
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| Olympic statue thing in the middle, stadium to the right and aquatics arena to the left. |
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| We finally found Lindsey some Pimms! Cheers! |
