There’s a reason why I keep alluding to our unpreparedness for school and then refusing to talk about it. We’ll talk about school in a bit. But not now. Now we’re going to talk about the time we had company exploring the city with us. The best company.

We started the day off with a big breakfast for Jack and a bigger one for me. I’ve discovered that I eat more for breakfast than he does > >.

The train station is located quite close to our place, so after we were done we set out to meet some friends who had flown over from Canada. We went from Chadwell Heath Station (top left) to Liverpool Street (bottom left) and then switched trains, finally arriving at Charing Cross (right side) where we were due to meet.

‘Course, meeting in a different city doesn’t always work out so by the time we actually met up, our first group decision was to find a pub with some decent food. We ordered lamb sliders, ploughmen’s boards and, of course, fish and chips, so by the time we were actually ready to go adventuring the men were ready for a nap. Mind you, they had had no rest on the plane so they were really just running on adrenaline.

The sights were grand. We ran around Trafalgar Square, seeing the lions and the blue rooster, but even after when we decided to set off in a general direction what really impressed us was the general architecture of the flats on the streets. Rows of apartments and monuments everywhere, and towering stone buildings looming up all over. Man-made peaks reaching to the skies ignored the pressed crowds and the only path to fresh air was to duck through empty streets off the beeping road.

A monument to a fallen Indian regiment in the service of the British Army.

This is my favourite picture.

Can you see the London Eye? Because it sees you.

We made a point of stopping by as many points of interest as we could. Within the hour we had seen the London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey (although not the inside of it but the nearby vicarage and living quarters), Buckingham Palace (again, only the outside) and St. James Park. The architecture in London is amazing. What I loved best was the clash of the present and past: the brick houses and the flashy autos; the ornate cathedrals and palaces and the automated gates surrounding. Seeing the London Eye and Big Ben was plain fun, probably because they’re easily recognizable symbols of London and standing at the foot of either structure makes me excited. Standing in front of Westminster Abbey, however, was a breathtaking, jaw-dropping experience. The cathedral soared upwards and there really is no other word for it but grand. I’ve never thought of a building as grand before, really, but that’s because the tall buildings in my home are all offices. The Calgary Tower is perhaps the one tall non-business-focused structure I know but even that cement tube has never inspired such feelings of awe.

The London Eye across the River Thames.

Big, big Ben. Apparently UK permanent residents can visit the inside, but that means not us =/.

Gorgeous Westminster Abbey in the afternoon.

Seriously. Cathedrals of ages past are so awe-inspiring.

The gates of Buckingham Palace. People were crowded around like you wouldn’t believe.

Statue at the fountain by Buckingham Palace. I’m glad Weeping Angels aren’t real – they’d overrun London in no time.

One more lovely shot of the London Eye from underneath.

This is a swan I met at St. James Park. I gave him a filter for funsies.

A shot in St. James Park across the water.

There was so much to see that time passed by quite quickly. Very soon we found ourselves strolling down Oxford Street and then all the way into Soho to find food (but we ordered enough for a food review, so I’ll update with that in its own post). By the time we finished the boys were exhausted (remember all the adrenaline they were running on) so we didn’t hang around much longer, but called the day a success so we could all go home to sleep.

More London later.