A Day in London

So we took a little flight up to the UK and had a full day in London... definitely want to make another trip back because there was so much to see. But we did feel like we saw as much as we could in one day. Just would have liked to shop a little more!
We flew on RyanAir from Frankfurt. Always an adventure! Just to give you examples of their service and focus for the flight.......
-Even before the security announcements they remind us there is no smoking on the flight, then immediately pitch smokeless cigarettes that are on sale during the flight!
-The flight attendants were walking up and down the aisles selling newspapers. Jordon jokingly asks one of the FA's if they are free. His response: "come on, this is RyanAir!!" And that is an employee!
But it is a convenient way to travel around Europe so we can't complain!

We learned a lot on our London trip. The double decker tour buses are great because you can hop-on and hop-off at any site and the guide is talking the whole time telling little facts and pointing out things you wouldn't normally notice. We learned rather quickly that London is a HUGE city. The underground works great (except when major parts of it are shut down for construction as we experienced) but there are many other options to get around in London. Just wouldn't advise walking from site to site unless you realize that it may be miles and miles until you reach your destination. On a side note, we realized on the way home that we used just about every type of public transportation possible on this trip. Car, taxi, bus, plane, subway, train, and boat were all ways we traveled. Not like home where we usually only drive places we need to be! It was nice to travel to a place where they speak English, it makes reading signs a whole lot easier too. But I do have to say it was sometimes really hard to understand what they were saying still!

 Typical London city street, near our hotel in Westminster 

 Lonon Eye Ferris Wheel

 London Bridge from a boat tour 

 Houses of Parliament next to Big Ben (which is actually not the biggest clock in England)

 Big Ben

 This car is smaller than the Smart Car behind it! Only in Europe

 Justice courts where Paul McCartney and Heather Mills were divorced

 Sherlock Holmes Pub (we hopped off the bus here after the tour guide pointed it out). Best fish and chips! 

 Picadilly Circus. This is the main shopping and theater district

 This was a little walkway full of small high-end shops where parts of Harry Potter movies were filmed. We hopped off the bus to see it for ourselves after the tour guide told us that : )

 Pretty small bathroom, even for Europe!

 Red tour bus, we braved the cold top deck to get the best views of the city.

 Part of the bus was undercover, helpful in the rain!

 Awesome buildings

 On a bridge over the Thames River in front of the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.

 Just making a quick call!

It's true that England has the best fish & chips- we had some at the "Sherlock Holmes Restaurant" and they were absolutely delicious. The main restaurants throughout London were either authentic British pubs or little Middle Eastern cafes, definitely worth trying out. Overall, the people of London were very friendly and helpful and it is a place we would love to go back to. However, we were ready to come back to Germany, there is really nothing else like it and we appreciate living here so much! Cheerio!