2: London: Day 2

After landing in London, waiting for the group from California to arrive, and driving from Heathrow on the west side of London to our hotel on the east side of London, we cleaned up and headed back out on the London Underground to see Covent Garden and get some dinner. The first night's meal was fish-and-chips. Following dinner, we headed to the London Eye and the River Thames where we could see Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament at night.  After, we headed back to the hotel to finally get some sleep!

Big Ben from the London Eye 

Our second day in London started at 9:00 am with a city tour. We rode a tour bus from our hotel into the center of town through the congestion and diversions (detours). We saw many of the sights from the bus including St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. We made it to our destination at noon for the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. We then ate and caught another bus to Windsor Castle where we were scheduled for our afternoon tour. We ate chicken and rice bowls at a restaurant called Ping Pong near the Westfield Mall after making it back to London. The kids shopped in the mall a bit before heading back to the hotel on the subway.

In front of Buckingham Palace

Waiting for the changing of the guard, Buckingham Palace

Tomorrow the students will have to get up early for their train ride to Paris since our bus will leave the hotel at 5:45 am. Because of the attacks in Belgium, we are heading to the station even earlier than previously planned. EF wants to be sure we have plenty of time to get through the check-in process in case of an increase in security. Our guide, Thierry, who lives in Paris, feels confidant that we will be safe. Paris continues to have a heightened police/security presence in the aftermath of their attacks in November. At this point, everyone is looking forward to seeing the everything in Paris, tomorrow should be another busy day. There aren't any other plans at this point to change our itinerary. We will be in Paris the next two nights before heading to Tours, France on Friday.