Busy Bees - London, United Kingdom
London, United Kingdom
Where I stayed
Premier Inn London St Marys at Hill
What I did
Greenwich London
Greenwich Market London
Imperial War Museum London
National Portrait Gallery London
Tower of London
Westminster Abbey London
Whitehall London
This morning Mum, Dad, and I woke up to the dark morning sky (again) to wait for Stella to finally wake up! Mum and I rushed outside to get some breakfast from Tescos express ready to scoff down so we can get started on our daily adventures.
After breakfast we all hopped on a bus to the Imperial War Museum. On the first floor we visited the new First World War exhibition. On that level, I was most interested on how good your eyesight needed to be, how wide you needed to be around your chest (34 inches) and how well your teeth looked while you were saying something, and how tall you were, these were all things you had to have to join the army. I read that in the eye testing if they caught you squinting you wouldn't be able to join. If you were less than 34cm in width around your chest you wouldn't be able to join the army (our measurements were; Mum: 27, Molly: 24, Stella: 25 and Dad: 36) In the 'tooth test' you had to repeat the phrase "Who Comes There" in a loud voice so everyone could hear you. I also found it interesting that during the war Britain made a replica of a tree that stood in full view of the Germans. In the middle of the fake tree it was made out of iron and on the outside it was made out of sheet metal that was painted to look like the real tree. The metal stopped the soldiers from getting shot by the Germans if they ever found out they were there, but luckily they never found out they were spying on them! YAAAAAY...
After the Imperial War Museum we went to Westminster Abbey and saw the Houses of Pariament and heard Big Ben chiming! We then went to Whitehall to find the secret entranceto the Ministry of Magic and later returned to the National Portrait Gallery to see famous pieces by Vincent Van Gough and Monet.
In Leicester Square we did some shopping and on the way to the bus stop we encountered some...STORMTROOPERS!!! They were there taking photographs with people to celebrate the premiere of Star Wars that was held in the exact location the previous night,we felt a neccesity to take a picture with them. Unfortunately the Rebel Alliance was there too,they seemed a little peeved that no one wanted a photo taken with them.
A short while after, we met Simon and his fianceé Jemima to have a quick dinner and then...an eerie Jack the Ripper tour. We got to visit all of the murder sites and the guide told us of all the conspiracies surrounding the cases, before returning to the hotel for a good sleep.
On Friday, we woke up to another warm day it had been 17.7 degrees in Scotland at 5am!! with the intention of visiting the Tower of London. Upon our arrival, we joined a tour group led by the entertaining Billy the Beafeater, who showed us around the tower and all of it's various monuments. Next, we traveled to see the Crown Jewels, which were surprisingly underwhelming...Mum thought that they would be shinier.
We then trekked to a local Tesco's to buy some sandwiches and afterwards walked back to the bus stop to go to see our final Banksy..."Choose your weapon" before heading to the train station to catch our train to Welling.
At Welling, we were met by Leander who has been friends with Mum since they were 4 years old. We spent the night at her home with her family, Barry, Lauren (Mum's god-daughter), Robyn and Ella.
The next day we woke quite late in the morning to have our breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs and beans. Whilst watching a Christmas comedy called "Nativity", Molly Mum and I had our nails done by Leander (we all suggested that Dad have his toe nails done but both Leander and Dad were quick to refuse).
At Greenwich, Lauren, Robyn, Ella, Molly and I looked through all of the shop windows in search of something interesting to buy and the adults were eager to go to the markets and then we had our "linner" (lunch/dinner) at Frankie and Benny's.
It was fun to see the Royal Naval Colleges which were destroyed by an alien spaceship in Thor 2! They have done a great job of putting them back together.
Soon after, we walked back through the park in the pitch black although we didn't get to play on the swings we did see the laser light which shows where Greenwich Mean Time begins and got a scare when Barry jumped out of the bushes!
Then it was time to drive to the tube station and begin our journey back to Sheffield.
By Molly and Stella (Steggles) Eaton