England

This week I'm traveling to England. The weather is cool and crisp and sunny. I miss weather like this. We are staying in an apartment in Nottinghill. It's beautiful. The streets are clean with cute little shops all over the place. The first thing I noticed was how clean the tube (subway) is. It's very different from the NY subway system. The seats are clean, no graffiti and no bums begging for change or falling asleep in the corner. I felt very safe. So far we've seen the London Bridge, Churchill war rooms and museum and the HMS Belfast.

Churchill war rooms and museum: all sorts of artifacts saved from his childhood and during his reign as the Prime Minister. They have his clothes, guns, letters from Presidents and Kings and Queens, his cigar, his nobel peace prized book, as well as many other things, the war rooms are under the building and were kept exactly as they had been when the team lived under there during the war. You could see his room, his dining room, his wife's room, officer's rooms, huge maps on the walls, etc, it was very interesting

HMS Belfast: huge military naval ship right next to the London Bridge. You can walk through the entire thing and see the dental room, operating room, huge kitchens, butcher's room, baking room, where they fired their weapons, etc. It was the first ship to fire at Normandy, and kids can have a party/sleep over for special events.

We are using the London pass. It's cheaper to buy here than in the states. It gets you into several places free and some at a discounted rate. This includes listening devices so you can hear the extra information. Also several restaurants are at a discount with this. We also purchased a travel pass and we can use the tube as many times as we like for 6 days. I highly recommend these, it will save you some money. Renting an apartment is best because you can make your own meals and save lots of money, the restasurants are very expensive here.