Boulder to London

My sister Jenny and niece Angie landed in London on Friday to spend a week in the UK exploring the sites. We have already done a lot and still have a ton more to see. It’s been fun doing a bunch of the tourist stuff that we never seem to get motivated to do when it’s just Melisse and I. Here’s a quick re-cap of the trip so far…

Friday - Land at Heathrow around noon, race out to Islington to drop off bags, change clothes, shower and eat. Taxi arrives at 16:00 to take us to Waterloo for 17:00 train to Portsmouth. We got on the train and were lucky enough to get a seat at one of the 4-person tables for the ride down. Arrive in Portsmouth around 18:30, catch the Gosport Ferry to the other side where we are to meet Alistair and Helen and pick up the boat. Get checked in on boat, have a few pints at the pub and enjoy dinner before calling it a day. A very long day given that they probably left their home in Spokane around noon the day before.

Saturday - up around 8:00 to get some breakfast and figure out if we can actually sail this boat. We motor out of the marina around 9:00 and get the sails up shortly after. The wind was pretty quiet at first so we motor sail for a ways before getting some great wind in the afternoon as we head past Cowes on our way up to Yarmouth. We arrived in Yarmouth around 15:30 and rafted up in the line of 31′ yachts. The marina was absolutely packed, but we managed to tie up without incident. We drank a few beers on the deck and then caught the water taxi over to land for dinner at Salty’s. Overall a great day!

Sunday - People (us included) were getting a bit anxious about getting going in the morning to make sure we weren’t “punching the tide” all the way back to Gosport. We were able to get the yacht out of the marina without too much trouble (no hiding that we were novices though) and made our way back up the Solent. We caught some great wind around Cowes and decided to sail up to Langstone Harbour for a break and some lunch and then made our way back to Gosport to return the boat and start the return trip of Ferry, Train and Taxi back to Islington. I can’t believe how lucky we were to have great weather all weekend!

Monday - A bit of a slow start since this was Jenny and Angie’s first time to really relax on land. We got out around noon and took the tube over to King’s Cross to see platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter before catching a bus over to Oxford Circus to visit Hamleys Toy Store. We cruised around Soho and found a cool little pub to take a rest and grab a pint and a snack. Once rested, we grabbed the Central Line over to St. Paul’s Cathedral, walked over the Millennium bridge and took a brief tour of the Tate Modern before it closed. Everyone was pretty exhausted at this point so we returned home, had some dinner and planned the events for the rest of the week.

Tuesday - Up pretty early to head over to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. We got there around 10:15 which was perfect as we were able to secure a great viewing location. The ceremony lasted about 40 minutes and is definitely worth seeing. We then took a leisurely stroll through St. James Park, down through the Horse’s Guard Parade and down to Trafalgar Square. We had a few hours before our scheduled ‘flight’ on the London Eye, so we ducked into Westminster Abbey for an audio guided tour of that remarkable location. We finished up the day at the London Eye, a walk down the river and a bus ride back to Islington.

Wednesday - We’re just getting going now, but we’re off to Regent’s park to see the Zoo. Weather looks like it is getting cooler than previous days, but hopefully it will hold!