Day out in London town

Today was an Inset day, meaning the school was closed for teacher meetings, and so we all went into London for the day. We actually were a bit organised and had booked an appointment at the US Embassy so that we could get Tryfan's US passport renewed as it had expired some months ago. Because of all the restrictions and rules in life these days, we had to all be there in person at the Embassy in order to get what we needed. So anyway, I took time off work and we made a day of it.
We got up super early and caught the 06:37 train from East Grinstead, arriving into London around 07:45. We had a lovely breakfast at a cafe inside of London Victoria station and then started making our way to the US Embassy, braced for the normal aggressive tones of US security officers and bag checks and hours of waiting. First we got on a double-decker bus and were lucky to snake the front row of seats on the top deck! This is by far the best place to sit on a double-decker.

Stoked with our choice seats on the bus

 We got to the Embassy at 08:45, well ahead of our 09:30 appointment but we were not too early at all, as the people ahead of us in the line also had the 09:30 time slot. Anyway, we were very pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of the first agent we saw (still outside at this point) who checked our paperwork and confirmed our appointment. He was a long-haired, jolly chap who was making chit-chat with everyone and immediately counteracting the US security officer stance that we have come to know so well. That was a nice way to start. Eventually we got inside and spent a couple more hours waiting for the usual things, but it was nice that they had converted about 1/4 of the waiting room into a play area with cushion, puzzles, toys and books. Rhiannon gravitated towards the smallest kids in the crowd and looked after them in the "play pit", making sure the rougher and bigger kids didn't accidentally hurt the littler ones. She loves looking after the little ones!

Play area at the US Embassy, Rhiannon camouflaged in red

We got out of there at 11:30 and made a plan: we would go up to Regent Street and do some shopping, then have lunch, then take the first bus that went past us in whatever direction it was going, then see what happened next. It was going pretty well until Tryfan spit a lugie from the 2nd floor of the shop down into the escalator area and Rhodri happened to see him do it. Whoops! Don't want to get caught doing something like that again! We had lunch at a cafe and then hopped on a bus which turned out to be going in the direction of the British Museum.

Matching vests that they wore all day

The British Museum is free and has some great exhibits on Egyptians and ancient Greeks, and we spent about an hour exploring around.

Then we made our way to St. Paul's Cathedral (at Tryfan's request) before starting to make our way to London Bridge.

St. Paul's Cathedral

We walked along the Thames until we got to London Bridge, then took this photo with the Shard in the background before we crossed over the river and caught the train back to East Grinstead.

We were pretty tired of walking by the time we took this last photo, but at least then we were ready to sit on a train for a good hour. And guess what?! Our friend Emma happened to be on the same train so she came and sat with us, which made the hour fly by. And now it's the weekend with Tryfan's birthday party tomorrow! Phew! Amazing how tired one gets after a full day in the big city of London.