First day in London

We left Bishkek at 3:30 am and arrived in London at 9:55, having transited Istanbul at about 7 in the morning. We had a full day ahead of us....get some cash, get a sim card, check into the hotel and then find some food and do some touristy stuff before getting some sleep that night.

We got our first withdrawal of English pounds and I have to say, I love the color purple...what a way to be greeted!

Coming out of the underground, we found the TARDIS at Earl's Court. Sissi was thrilled!

We walked to our hotel, the Ambassadors, located between Earl's Court and Gloucester Road underground stations.

Here we are! Ready to drop off some luggage.

The church right next to our hotel, St. Jude's.

The underground station that we found ourselves using each and every day, since we usually wanted to head east, into town.

A fun set of decorations to look at as we waited for our train to arrive.

Riding the train into town.

Our first stop was to see the Churchill War Rooms.

We made it!

The audio guide here was excellent, with plenty of extra information that kept all of us jetlagged people engaged.

The "weather" sign to let people know how things were going up on the surface during the days of the Blitz.

A very interesting timeline of Churchill's life awaited us about halfway through seeing the war rooms.

The original door from 10 Downing Street.

Looking into some of the different rooms, for typing, sending messages, sleeping, etc.

Maps and pins are still set up as they were left at the end of the war.

Churchill's bedroom in the underground war rooms.

Our second stop of the day was to be Westminster Abbey. The website had talked about Wednesday Lates, where you can go in after hours and take a tour, but, because it was the week before Christmas there was a Caroling Service and so we couldn't go in.

We walked over to see the scaffold-encased Big Ben. Maybe in a few years we can come back and take another look.

On the bridge, by Parliament.

Looking across town.

And at the big Ferris wheel.

Since it was only about 4pm and we knew if we went back to the hotel we would just go to sleep, we took a walk by Buckingham Palace and into Hyde Park to see the largest Christmas market in London, "Winter Wonderland." On our way we saw the Princess Diana Memorial Walk.

And we got to see the Queen's home.

The Victoria Memorial.

Yummy bratwurst with cheese sauce and fried onions on top at Winter Wonderland.

Eating Bavarian pretzels.

We love German food! Does it show?!

We walked around, but didn't really see anything we had to buy...it is after all the first day of our trip. But, Sissi was tempted to buy an ugly Christmas sweater!