May 21, 2018 - London!!!

After a night's rest, we were ready to hit the town.  We took the subway ("Tube") into town from our apartment ("flat") near the Barons Court Tube Station and took a Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus Tour to get a good feel for the city.


The cultural differences from Italy struck us immediately.  For one thing, Heather felt comfortable wearing her salmon pink capri pants for the first time since we left Utah! They were an absolute NO GO in Italy, unless she wanted to stick out like a really sore thumb. There is a lot more "foof" in England, and a lot more "suave" in Rome (meaning that everyone in Rome wears black or gray or brown...or black, while the color palette was much expanded in London).


We got to see a lot of the city sights on the bus ride. It was really fun to get a broad view of it all, and we especially appreciated how low-stress it was to get around that way.
















For lunch, we jumped off the bus and ate near the Tower of London, anticipating that we would take the Thames River Cruise included with our bus ticket immediately after.




         All went smoothly and we got right on our boat tour, with great seats to see all of the views.










Unfortunately, Big Ben is covered in scaffolding right now for renovations, but they keep at least one clock face uncovered at all times.  We walked through Hyde Park to reach another loop of the Hop-On-Hop-Off Bus Tour.  It was a lovely walk.







We could not help but be struck by the "kept" nature of all of the parks and flowers, all beautiful and neat, the lack of graffiti, the lack of garbage on the ground, and the general tidiness of everything. It does contrast rather sharply with what we had gotten used to in Rome.


 By the time we finished this loop of the bus tour, some (meaning "all") of us were a bit beat, but it didn't stop us from doing a little bit more!


We finished the tour near the Victoria & Albert Museum, which has a little of everything in it.  We enjoyed a quick survey of what this beautiful museum has to offer.






Hannah was particularly interested in the section on fashion.  Check out the amazing hand-made, three-dimensional lace below!




There was also a beautiful exhibit on glass.




       The staircase above was built several hundred years ago.  Hannah loved the theater exhibit!




 It seemed important to visit the nearby Harrods too.  Wow, Fancy!  Some (meaning "Hannah") enjoyed it more than others.










A great first day in the city!

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