UK, Day 6 - St. Paul's Cathedral, All's Well That Ends Well

We got up early Tuesday and headed back to London. I had originally planned to leave Cardiff at 8, and get back to London about 11. Max said we should leave earlier, so we got out of there at about 6:30. I'm glad he did, because we hit some major traffic in London. We also got stuck in lanes that made us turn the wrong way several times. We did take a wrong tun and ended up driving by Nelson's Column, which we wouldn't have otherwise seen.

Nelson's Column

We also didn't know exactly where the parking was for the hotel. When I made the hotel reservation, I had made sure there was parking nearby, but I failed to write down the address of the parking lot. I had looked at the map, and it looked like it was right across the street, so I didn't think we'd have any trouble finding it. I was mistaken.

We finally found the hotel, and I hopped out to ask where the nearest parking was while Max circled the block. I had to wait in line. The people in front of me were not only checking in, but they also needed the front desk to arrange an airport shuttle for them on Saturday, and they needed to leave their bags at the desk. I waited. And waited. I finally got to the front, and the lady couldn't figure out what I was asking for. I guess not a whole lot of people bring their cars. She pointed me in the right direction, I went back outside, and waited for Max to complete his circle. It was further away than it had looked on the map, but it wasn't horrible. We checked in and took our stuff up to the room. (I have since looked online, and the parking structure that looked to be across the street is not the one to which she directed us. So, I may have been right on having a closer parking structure. I'm not sure why she told us the other one. Maybe it was easier to get to from the side of the street we were on)

It was, by now, lunchtime (thank goodness Max had said we should leave early), so we had lunch in the cafe in the hotel. Then, we took off. I had the next three days all planned out. We had a two day London Pass, so I wanted to do all of the things on the list that were included in the pass on the first two days. The third day would be for things not on the pass. I had written down which stations to take to where, which lines in which direction, everything. Today was going to be Westminster Abbey, The Royal Mews, the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens, and, if we had time, Kensington Palace.

We got to the Abbey. There were two lines, one for cash and one for credit cards. We went to the front and asked about the London Passes (some places had line cutting privileges with the passes). The guy at the door said that we still had to wait in line, and even though the credit card line was shorter, it took longer. Either way, it was about a 3 hour wait. I knew that Max wasn't up for a line like that, and if we did stay, that would blow the whole day. I cried a little. But, we just decided to do Wednesday's stuff today. So, we headed to St. Paul's Cathedral. I really just wanted to see it because it was where Charles & Diana got married. There aren't any pictures allowed, so mine were rather crappy. I did get this one, though. If you look at pictures of Charles & Diana's wedding, you'll recognize it.

We went down to the crypt to see the big three buried there - Nelson, Wellington, and Christopher Wren. Other than that, though, there wasn't a whole lot I wanted to see, so it was a short trip. We then headed over to the other side of the river, where we went to The London Bridge Experience. It was fun, though Max & Em thought it smelled bad. They take you through the history of the London Bridge from Roman through Victorian times. The actors were pretty darn funny, and it was quite entertaining. We did not go to it's companion attraction, The London Tombs. Em was pretty freaked out about it, so we opted out.

Next on the list was The Globe. We walked along the Thames down to The Globe. Along the way, we saw The Golden Hinde, a full-sized replica of Sir Francis Drake's ship. It was much smaller than we had expected. After another few minutes, we found The Globe. Unfortunately, tours are only in the mornings in the summer, because they have matinees there during the afternoon. So, we didn't get to go on our tour. I was pretty upset, but nothing we could do. Since we had some time, we decided to go to Ben Franklin's house & St. Martin in the Fields church. They were both on the list of things that Em needed to see for her patches. Unfortunately, we missed the last tour of Ben's place by 15 minutes. But, we saw his door.

At St. Martin in the Fields, we were supposed to find where King Kamehameha was buried. But, the staff said that none of the graves were marked, so we just counted it as done.

By then, Em was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I was cranky because so many of my plans had fallen through, Max was cranky that I was cranky, and Em just couldn't take it. Normally, we would have gone back to the hotel at that point, but we had tickets for All's Well That Ends Well at The Globe that night. So, we needed to calm her down. We had a coupon for the Rainforest Cafe, so we headed there for dinner. She felt better after that.

Then, it was time for the play. The first thing we did was go to the gift shop. We still had like an hour until the play started. Em picked out an awesome hat and a few pins to put on it. We picked up our tickets at the will call window, and got our program and seat cushions from the vendor guy. As we waited for the doors to open, we noticed it was more than a little chilly. So, Em & I got rental blankets, as well. Max thought we were a bit goofy, but we didn't want to be cold.

The play was awesome. We were on the third story, right in the front, so we could lean over the balcony and rest our heads and arms on the railing. Em & I had read the "Beautiful Stories From Shakespeare" version before we left home, so we knew about what was going on, though the  kids version leaves out quite a bit of the detail. The only bad bit was that there was somebody in the row behind us that kept sniffling. Not little sniffles. Great big snot sucking sniffles. So gross. Luckily, they left at intermission. They spoke another language, and I don't think they were able to enjoy the play. We enjoyed it even more after that. I'm glad we got the blankets, because by the end, all three of us were snuggled under the two blankets we got. It was freezing. It's quite a walk back to the tube from there, most of it along the Thames, and my teeth were literally chatting the whole time we were by the river. We got back to the hotel without incident and went to bed.

Emma says - St Paul's was pretty, but we didn't stay for very long. The crypt was refreshingly cold. The London Bridge Experience was really funny, but since I was really spooked at the beginning, I couldn't enjoy it all the way. It is now dubbed "The Smelly Tunnel," because it took the rest of the day to get the smell out of our noses. Mom was not happy that so many of her plans weren't able to happen, and it took the Rainforest Cafe to calm me down. I got a goodie bag & blackcurrent juice, woo hoo! The play was so gorgeous and cool. It was really awesome, and they had some great actors. It was really cold, though. We got hot chocolate at intermission. My hat! I got the best hat in the entire universe! From then on, I started getting pins at every place we went to put on my hat.

Max says - The people working at the London Bridge Experience were extraordinary. I enjoyed the play a lot. It wasn't one of the more common comedies, and I hadn't seen it since high school.