London, baby! November 21-22

Post 3 of 4 about our London trip.

Tuesday, November 21

Tour of Wembely Stadium.

At a "press conference."

Messi's jersey...we also saw David Beckham's too.

The white things on the field are used to simulate sunlight, to help the grass grow!

In the stadium.

This arc lights up a night and will display the winning team's colors. It's also shoots fireworks.

We also visited Selfridge’s department store. Near the store. The part of town had a lot of Christmas decorations hung above the streets.

Then we rode the London Eye. It moves one mile per hour...total rotation was about 30 minutes. It was originally built to celebrate the Millennium and caused a controversy in London. Some thought it looked too "new age" and didn't go with all the old buildings and such. So the plan was to run it for five years. Well, it became a tourist attraction and brought in lots of money...so...it still stands 15 years later!

View from the top!

Each capsule can hold about 30 people. There were only about 10 in ours.

Bird's eye view of Parliament and Big Ben.

Nighttime (or 4:30 p.m. 😂).

Wednesday, November 22

A visit to London isn't complete without a little Harry Potter. We rode the tube to the King’s Cross train station to visit Platform 9¾.

We waited in line to get our picture taken, then spent about an hour in the Harry Potter store...well, not all of us went in the store! We ended up buying three Deathly Hallows symbol keychains, a Platform 9 ¾ notepad, sign that says “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” (the phrase to activate the Marauduer's Map).

Kings Cross train station.

We tried to go to Postal Museum but the fire alarm went off while we were there. We also found out that tickets had to be bought in advance.

We walked to a neighborhood pub for lunch.

The doorknobs are in the middle of the door.

Then on to St. Paul’s Cathedral...a huge church! It was ornate (more so than Westminister Abbey). St. Paul's was where Princess Diana and Charles got married.

We climbed 257 steps to the Whispering Gallery and saw where a bomb had hit the cathedral in 1940. We walked back over to Thames on the “wibbly-wobbly bridge” – Millennium Bridge. This bridge swayed so much when built, they had to close it for two years to make it more sturdy. It was destroyed in the Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 1 movie.

Then walked to an outdoor market for dinner.

Brough's Market.