Sanders Go Sightseeing: London, England (Hop-On/Hop-Off Tour)

Although London is super easy to navigate via the Tube, I was running my first half marathon the next day and I refused to walk anymore than necessary! We purchased tickets for the Hop-On/Hop-Off bus online (60 EUR for three 48 hr. passes), printed off our tickets, and met our bus at the station first thing in the morning....

Typically, we aren't fans of these types of tours but our kids love them. They get so excited about the riding with no seat belts and the getting of their own earphones...that, and the whole they-don't-have-to-walk thing! The two day pass worked great too because my husband was able to corral the kids easily while I was at the race without much hassle....worth it!

On our list of things to see:

Westminster Abby

St. Margaret's Church

A classic red telephone box!

...we even saw a statue Abraham Lincoln!

Big Ben

St. Paul's Cathedral

The London Dungeon

Tower of London

The Yeoman Warders (aka "Beefeaters") at the Tower of London

Tower Bridge

The weather was drizzly and a little chillier than we had hoped and at this point riding on the top of the bus was no longer an option. Even though we didn't have the greatest views from the inside, we had heat! Our next stop was lunch and then the London Eye...

The views were AMAZING and it was hands-down the kid's favorite part of London! However, it was EXPENSIVE! We thought it wouldn't be that bad because we had purchased discounted general tickets online and, because of the weather, we didn't think the lines would be that bad...we were sorely mistaken! After waiting close to an hour in the rain/cold with two cranky kiddos my husband took our tickets to the nearest booth and upgraded us to Fast Track tickets (104 EUR total for 2 adults and 1 child). We still had to wait another half hour in the Fast Track line but it was way faster than the normal line. By the time we got down from our turn in the Eye the couple who we were waiting behind in the normal line had only moved a couple feet!

At this point it was late afternoon and we had to head to the O2 in Greenwich so I could pick up my race packet. We hopped on the Tube and headed to the Expo...afterwards it was dinner and bed!