My Brother's First Visit to London

To say we were all excited for Dave's first visit to London would be a massive understatement. Dave had a planned business trip to Dublin and we're grateful that he was able to stop by London along the way. We only had two days though, so what do you try to squeeze in?

I picked Dave up at the airport early Saturday morning, with a couple of the kids coming along not being able to contain their excitement at their crazy Uncle's arrival. But we're Kriebels, which means there's no time to rest.

We decide to stay close to home on Saturday, meaning the obligatory visitor to our local 500 year old palace, Hampton Court, home to King Henry VIII (quite the fascinating character indeed). We took the bus, to give Dave a true London experience. Beth basically now had a 5th child to look after.

We left the kids at home and headed to our favorite pub (The Grey Horse) for dinner, where we met our other friend, John Casey, who was in town to take in some football matches. After a fantastic meal, we decide a pub in Teddington was a good idea, I mean, we're not driving after all. So off we went to The King's Head in Teddington. What more harm could another beer or three do after you've already have five or six? Plus, this was all about giving Dave a true London experience. That's what pubs are for! Home by 11:45pm!

We had a big day of walking planned in the city for Sunday, which meant an early wake up call to get my marathon training in. This also happened to be the longest run of the entire training cycle. So off I went at 5:30am for a 3 hour run. I guess that's one way to sweat out the booze.

21.5 miles later I was home and Beth had whipped up a great American breakfast. Exactly what I needed! We made out of the door by 11am, pretty good for us! A quick bus and train ride and we were up in the city.

Beth and I had laid out a walking tour, figuring we didn't really have enough time to stop and tour inside anything, yet we wanted Dave to see as many of our favorite sites as possible.

First stop, the London Eye and a great view of Parliament on an unusually sunny day for London.

Next stop, Westminster Bridge for one of the best views of Parliament and Queen Elizabeth Tower.

Our tour was taking us from Westminster Bridge to Buckingham Palace then back to Trafalgar Square for lunch.

Westminster Abbey

Goofing around at Buckingham Palace

Truly loved showing Dave our new home town

Duke of York Column on our way to a late lunch

After lunch we hopped on the tube and headed to Tower Bridge for a tour. We didn't have much time, but enough to go up inside the bridge so Dave could see some of the most spectacular views of London and learn a bit about the history of London's most iconic bridge.

The glass bottom floor makes for quite an eerie feeling.

Some post tour ice cream to keep the kids happy. Thanks Dave!!

One more dinner and just like that he was gone. It was a quick weekend and one I'll never forget. I hope he gets to come back again soon, maybe with the family??? I need more time with my brother. He's my best friend and I don't get to see him often enough. We need to fix that!