London, England

On our trip to London we took a form of transportation that I thought was a bit interesting. We took a Chunnel train. This particular train went under the ground below water level! The waterway we went under was the English Channel. It was about a three-hour ride over all and when the train went under the long tunnels at 180 MPH my ears went off like sirens (popping). I could see out side the train and it would have been pitch black under the tunnel had we not had lights inside the train.

When we got to our Apartment we got directions to an expensive pub down the street called "The Only Running Footman". We rented a movie and fell asleep soundly.

The next day we went out to find the hop-on, hop-off historical bus tour. As we were waiting for the bus to arrive, President Bush and his three hundred security people drove by. Ian waved to the president and we could see threw the bulletproof glass that he waved back. The bus finally arrived and we took a drive around town as the commentator gave us some of the history of London. When we drove by one of the buildings, (in Piccadilly circus) we marveled in aw because this building had Television screens on it that were at least 100 ft. long showing commercials. It is here that we decided to get off and look around the town. My mom stopped in a few shops like the Nike store looking for clothes and my dad looking for shoes. We then took the remainder of the tour. During the rest of the tour we also went on the London Bridge and Tower Bridge.

After the bus tour we went to Herod's department store where we shopped for things, got food and went home.

The next day we went to Madam Tussaud's. Madam Tussaud's is a wax museum displaying all kinds of things. In the museum we saw celebrities such as Brad Pitt and Sean Connery. We saw sports stars such as Tiger Woods or Sugar Ray Leonard. Then, we went into the dungeons and witnessed things like hangings, beheadings, and saw famous murderers and victims of murder. It was really scary! After the wax museum we rested up and ate lunch at the hotel and then we headed down the London eye, which is like an enormous Ferris wheel where from the top you can see all of London. On the way over we walked through a small tunnel containing awesome graffiti art and we got a few pictures so check it out when you're done reading this. When we got to the London eye we were stunned at how big it was! From the top even Steven's tower looked pretty small!

The day following we went to another WWII museum but inside this one also had a Ian Fleming (writer of James… James Bond) exhibit. We quickly rushed through the WWII part to get to the James Bond Exhibit. In the James Bond piece they had all the posters from the movies and they even made a model of his car and displayed the Jetpack he used in "From Russia With Love". The newest piece they had was the shirt that he war to the casino in "Casino Royal". It was sort of a short exhibit but it was pretty cool. After that we went to Westminster Abbey -the church of kings and queens. At this church kings and queens are crowned. We watched an example on a screen, of the basic crowning process. After this we went into the jewel rooms containing the crowns and the jewelry of the kings and queens. It was amazing! We could not believe that one item could contain so many jewels. It made Bill Gates look poor! That night we went to the play "Lord of the Rings" which was a lot of fun and had great effects.

The next day we went to the Winston Churchill war room museum. At this museum they gave examples of the lives of different ranks of soldiers. For example it showed us the room of Winston Churchill. He had nice leather furniture plus a very comfortable and soft looking bed…Whereas everyone else had a cot and some wooden furniture. It was not a very emotional thing though.

The following day we went to the Tower of London and saw things like the place where Anne Boleyn was beheaded and the tower that Sir Walter Raliegh was held in. Also in one of the towers we got to vote on whether from evidence we thought that Richard the III was the one who killed two young princes (his nephews) in order to take over the thrown.

Outside we saw guards marching around with the big fluffy hats on and Ravens squawking at tourists as they walked by. The ravens are professionally kept & housed at the tower of London. There is a superstition tha if the ravens leave the tower of London, no more Kings will rule over England. Ravens have been kept at the tower for hundreds of years.

That night we saw another play called Spamalot. It was a comedy play about a king trying to assemble an army of knights and find the holy grail.

The next day, we drove down to the home of the Bartlett family in Surrey, England. As you probably know Cam and his family moved to London last year so we went to visit them. We stayed for two nights and here is what we did…

The first day we arrived we went to a little pub where we could play on an enormous field and then go eat when the food came. It was great. The next day we went to the Lake where we walked around it and went back to the house. Next we went to Hampton Court, which was a palace owned by Thomas Woolsey (nobleman in Henry the 8ths court) It also has a hedge maze, which was the best part!

After that we came home and had a Barbeque with all kinds of fun. Squirt gun fights in the pool, baseball on the field, and tasty burgers inside! The next day we woke up tired and sore all over. Almost as soon as we got up my family was headed out and that was the end of our stay with the Bartletts.