London: Family Visit I

Like I said in the previous post, my sister (Grace) and nephew (Kyle) came to visit me in London. I couldn't wait for them to get here. It was a bit nerve wrecking because they just got their UK visa a week before they left. The processing time was 15 business days and they could only process visa in Bangkok but the biometric was done in Jakarta. I was so relieved when Grace told me that they got their visa approved when I was at the airport waiting to take off to Edinburgh.

I was going to let them sleep in a little bit but my sister got up around 6AM. We were ready to go by 8AM. I already bought some tickets to the places that we were going to go. The first stop was London Eye. The earliest we could pick up the ticket was 10AM. Since we had plenty of time, we walked from my flat. It was a nice walk. We walked through Hyde Park, Green Park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament.

Green Park. Kyle doesn't smile in any pictures. Quite annoying but these are boy's teenage years, I guess.

In front of Wellington Arch

Big Ben

While in London, must have a picture with a double decker in the background.

London Eye from Westminster Bridge

The line at London Eye wasn't too bad. We had a perfect weather. I told Grace, don't be fooled. London isn't normally this nice.

Buckingham Palace

Queen Victoria statue

This is my favorite picture of us in London

The Parliament from London Eye

Shard in the background

London bridges from the top

 After London Eye, we crossed Westminster Bridge again to go to Winston Churchill War Rooms. Of course, we had to take more pictures of the parliament and Big Ben.

 

 Churchill War Room was very cool. They still kept the meeting rooms where many of important decisions during WWII were made. Churchill's bedroom, other staff's bedrooms, kitchen, bathrooms were preserved well. I wish we spent more time there because there were tons of information about his life and the war time line but we had to eat lunch and catch the cruise ferry that was already booked in advance. 

Cruising on Thames

London Bridge

Tower of London was the next and final stop. We got there an hour and a half before it closed. The line to see the crown jewels was super long. The sign says it would take 45 minutes to queue, so we skipped it and went to other towers and buildings that didn't have lines. I was disappointed because the crown jewels were the highlight of the tower.I went to Tower of London before but I just realized that I didn't go to many of the places there. 15 minutes before it closes, we walked down and passed the crown jewels, and this time, there was nobody on the line and it was still opened. We got in!

One of the nine ravens at the tower

We got back to the flat around 6PM. I think we were all so wiped out after a day full of walking. They left for Paris the next morning and I went to work. I got the flat ready for visitors number 2 that came the following night. Read the next post!