For Easter long weekend we decided to take a trip to London. We had a few reasons, the kids hadn't seen London on any of our trips (the first London trip we went alone, we then skirted London when we went to Scotland and Wales) but, more importantly, we were off to see a Fall Out Boy Concert.
We'd wanted to see Fall Out Boy when they toured Sweden, Denmark or even Germany, however the tour sold out quickly, so we'd expected to miss it. When we were in Tromso for Christmas, Cameron saw an ad for a concert at the O2 in London with tickets available. We booked quickly and then planned the rest of a holiday around it.
In hindsight, Easter long weekend probably wasnt the best time to visit London - the weather was still typical London winter - overcast and rainy - and there were ridiculous crowds.
We arrived at London Gatwick at about 10:30am Friday morning, but the passport and security line took over an hour to get through. We then caught the Gatwick express train into Kings Cross Station. The cost of the train was a surprise - almost £70 one way (about $150), we then changed to the underground train and finally an overground train to arrive at Palmers Green where we were staying at the Lodge Rd Apartments. The company were great, allowing us to check in early and the rooms were comfortable and spacious.
After dumping our bags, we headed back out to check some shops for rugby boots and some clothes. We had pies and sausage rolls for dinner (we had been missing pastries in Sweden), and prepared for a big day on Saturday.
We'd booked the Merlin card that let us have access to 5 attractions - Sea Life, London Dungeon, London Eye, Shrek's Adventure and Madam Tussaud's - as it was cheaper than entry to them separately. Our plan was to do the London Dungeon, Eye and Tussaud's with the other two being optional.
Saturday morning we started by heading in to Westminster. Westminster houses Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament). Our destination was the South Bank of the Thames were the London Eye and London Dungeon were.
Unfortunately Big Ben was undergoing some serious renovations and was covered in scaffolding:
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| Big Ben is under there somewhere... |
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| Westminster Palace |
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| Westminster Palace had it's share of scaffolding too... |
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| Westminster Abbey |
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| Statue on the North Bank at Westminster Bridge |
The London Dungeon was our first stop. We'd been to the York Dungeon when we were in England the last time, and the kids were keen to see the London Dungeon:
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| London Dungeon Entrance |
The Dungeon is set up as a mild horror walk through London's history with a few rides and shows. It first opened in 1976 as a wax exhibition but changed in the late 1980s to a walk-through show. It changed again in 1992 when it was bought my Merlin Entertainments and focuses more on horror and humour instead of history. It moved location in 2013 to the South Bank. It now has 18 shows, 20 actors and 3 rides.
The London Dungeon had the following parts:
To start with we had a trip to Traitor's Gate to be hanged as traitors (1536). This consisted of some live actors and then the "Tyrant Boat Ride", which was a water ride through scenes of London towards Traitor's Gate and were told by Henry VIII that we were to be hanged. The ride was often dark, with the sounds of rats as we passed through the sewers, and ended with a backwards drop.
We then heard about the Guy Fawkes Gunpowder plot, visited a torture chamber, a plague house and plague doctor, escaped the Fire of London, visited Sweeny Todd the murderous barber, Mrs Lovett's pie shop, Mitre Square (to meet Mary Jane Kelly, who was one of Jack the Ripper's victims), saw Jack the Ripper in a tavern, visited a Courtroom, and then visited the final ride - a drop ride called the Descent.
It was good fun, but didn't feel as scary as the York Dungeon.
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| Cameron made a new friend |
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| Cam's joy at beheading us was pretty scary though... |
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| Alana is the only one who doesn't seem too phased by the Great Fire of London - in fact with that look on her face I thinbk we can tell who started it... |
After the Dungeon, we joined the line for the London Eye. The London Eye was built for New Years 1999 and was originally planned to be a temporary structure. It ended up being so popular it was upgraded and retained as a permanent feature.
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| View of the London Eye from the North Bank |
The line for the London Eye were crazy - even with a booked time we ended up waiting for about an hour in multiple lines before we finally got on:
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| Part of the line |
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| This is the first segment of the line - it stretches down to the wooden building and the back around |
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| View from the base of the Eye |
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| One of the capsules |
Here's a selection of photos from our ride:
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| Whitehall Court and Charing Cross Station |
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| Charing Cross Station |
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| Westminster Palace |
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| Looking North along the Thames |
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| Whitehall Court |
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| Panoramic view looking South - Westminster Bridge, Westminster Palace |
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| Big Ben |
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| Westminster Palace |
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| Looking North - Lambeth bridge, Millbank Tower and MI5 Headquaters (on the right) |
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| Ministry of Defence |
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| Looking East |
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| Looking West - Ministry of Defence & Whitehall Court |
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| South - Big Ben & Westminster Abbey |
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| Top of County Hall |
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| Boys and ther view South |
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| East - The Shell Centre (foreground) and the Shard (distance) |
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| Kris looking over Westminster |
After the London Eye, we grabbed lunch in an extremely busy McDonald's on the South bank and then caught the Thames River Bus towards the O2, to get ready for the concert - here's a few of the sights along the way:
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| HMS Belfast (Town Class Light Cruiser) and the Tower Bridge |
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| Tower Bridge |
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| City Hall |
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| Tower of London |
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| Traitor's Gate at the Tower of London |
We had a little time before the concert, so we got off a stop early and checked out the Cutty Sark and the London Observatory.
The Cutty Sark is a clipper that was built in 1869 and served as a tea clipper to China and then a wool trader to Australia once the Suez Canal was opened. The name Cutty Sark comes from the nickname of Nannie Dee in Robert Burn's poem Tam o'Shanter. A Sark is a linen skirt, or a undergarment and cutty is slang for clothing that was far too short.
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| Cutty Sark |
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| Bow of the Cutty Sark |
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| Old Royal Naval College |
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| Gates of the Old Royal Naval College |
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| No itinerant Ice Cream Sales! |
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| Statue of William IV "The Sailor King" |
Our next stop was the Greenwich Royal Observatory, which houses the Prime Meridian - the line where all timezones and longitude lines originate.
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| Royal Observatory |
The red ball that can be seen in the middle of the shot is a time-ball that rises at 5 minutes to 1pm every day and then drops at 1pm. It was one of the original ways for synchronizing clocks, particularly for maritime vessels at sea.
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| Royal Observatory |
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| Details of the Time Ball and Clock |
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| The
Galvano-Magnetic Clock that holds Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as well as
the Public Standards of Length for foot, yard and inch. |
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| Cameron proving he has big feet - against the standard one foot measure |
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| Inner workings of the clock (old - it now uses a precise crystal timer) |
Inside the Observatory, our first stop was the remaining part of William Herschel's Telescope - This was built in 1789 for Herschel, the discoverer of Uranus:
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| Herschel's Telescope |
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| Part of Herschel's Telescope |
Outside the observatory we found the Dolphin Sundial - designed in 1977, the gap between the dolphin's tails indicates the time:
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| Dolphin Sundial |
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| Dolphin Sundial |
Over the years there were many locations for the meridian line, before the Prime Meridian was located. Edmund Halley (the discoverer of Halley's Comet) identified the location of one of the earlier ones:
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| Halley's Meridian Line |
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| Halley's Meridian Line |
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| Cam at Halley's Meridian Line |
We posed for several photos at the Prime Meridian - the location of the 0 longitude line and site of the GMT time where all timezones originate from:
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| Tomas on the Prime Meridian |
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| Cameron on the Prime Meridian |
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| Alana on the Prime Meridian |
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| Prime Meridian |
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| Markers for Canberra and Sydney |
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| Meridian Marker |
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| Looking out over the O2 from the Observatory |
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| Observatory and the Time Ball |
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| View of the Naval Academy |
We then toured through Flamsteed House, the home of the astronomers who served at the Observatory:
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| Clock faces in the Octagonal Room |
Our next stop was the O2 for the Fall Out Boy M.A.N.I.A concert:
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| The O2 |
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| Lining up to go in |
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| Fall Out Boy |
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| The kids (and us) loved the concert - especially Cameron |
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| Lights from all the mobile phones |
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| Save Rock and Roll |
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| Playing on rising platforms |
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| Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump |
We had a late night home and a slower start to Easter Sunday. After the kids got their Easter Eggs, we headed to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.
The lines were massive and, while we enjoyed the museum, it was very crowded, which made it hard to really enjoy the exhibits:
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| Part of the line |
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| Alana with Emma Watson |
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| Cameron with David and Victoria Beckham |
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| The crowd in the Party Area |
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| Tom with ET |
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| Cam with ET |
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| Tom and Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games) |
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| Cam meets James Bond (Daniel Craig) |
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| Dame Judi Dench |
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| Shrek |
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| Tinkerbell |
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| Cam and Steven Spielberg |
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| Youtubers - Zoella (Zoe Sugg) and Alfie Deyes |
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| Cam and Usain Bolt |
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| Tom and Usain Bolt |
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| Cam came third to Olympic Marathon runner Mo Farah CBE |
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| Tom and Cristiano Ronaldo. |
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| Cam with England's World Cup winning captain Bobby Moore OBE (1966) |
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| Cam posing with Ronaldo |
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| The boys with Pelé |
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| Sachin Tandulkar |
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| Lewis Hamilton (F1 Champion Driver) |
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| Muhammad Ali |
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| Johnny Wilkinson (England Rugby) |
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| Henry VIII and a pile of children that he killed |
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| The boys with Queen Victoria |
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| The Royals |
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| Kris with Mary, Queen of Scots |
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| The boys and Einstein |
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| The kids with One Direction |
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| Tomas with Michael Jackson |
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| Freddy Mercury |
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| The kids in the UK Voice |
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| Alana wasn't impressed with the singers |
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| Tomas was contemplative |
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| Cameron was focussed |
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| The Beatles |
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| Winston Churchill |
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| Tomas and Obama |
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| Donald Trump |
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| Cam with Sherlock Holmes |
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| Exhibition on Madame Tussaud |
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| Demonstration of painting the models |
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| Example of a model framework |
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| Half painted demonstration model |
We then took a ride through the Spirit of London - unfortunately it had a brief stop and we were stuck outside the Dickins exhibit listening to the following on repeat:
'What!' said the master at length, in a faint voice.
'Please, sir,' replied Oliver, 'I want some more.'
'Hahahahahaha'
and we were watched over by the scary Queen Victoria:
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| Scary Queen Victoria |
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| Dickins |
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| Spirit of London |
The next section was the Marvel Super Heroes Section:
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| Spidermen |
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| Wolverine |
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| Hulk captured Tomas |
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| Iron Man |
The final section was Cam's favourite - Star Wars:
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| Stormtrooper |
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| Cam and Anakin on Mustafa |
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| Master Yoda's Protector |
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| The boys with Yoda |
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| Tom picks Yoda's ears |
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| Tom take on Vader |
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| Nooooooooo! |
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| Princess Leia and Jabba |
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| Kids with Leia and Jabba |
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| Salacious Crumb |
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| Cam shot first |
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| Cam gets caught in a lightsaber duel |
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| Scheming with Palpatine |
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| The kids with Rey and BB8 |
Our next stop was the Shrek Experience. We weren't allowed to take photos in the ride, but here's a few of our shots:
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| Outside the Shrek Experience |
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| Us with Shrek |
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| Shrek approved of the beard |
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| The boys went for a flight with the Penguins of Madagascar |
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| Tom met a baby dragon |
After Shrek we headed home for the night.
Easter Monday was our final day, so we cleaned up and then caught the train the King's Cross station to check in our luggage - It wasn't cheap - £37 (about $70) to check the three bags - so we could explore London before catching our late fight back.
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| Alana outside of the Platform 9 3/4 Shop at King's Cross Station |
We headed out to Buckingham Palace:
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| Buckingham Palace |
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| Gates of the Palace |
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| The Victoria Memorial |
After the Palace we headed to Oxford Road to check out some more shops and then collected our bags and caught our flight back to Copenhagen. We arrived home about 1am Monday night, so it was a rough day at work the next day. A great trip, but pretty exhausting with lots of walking and crowds.
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| The People's Monarch Mural - Gatwick Airport |
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