Category: 2022_07 London

Today was an all-day trip to Hampton Court Palace. It’s only about a 30-minute train ride from Waterloo Station but it takes us about 30 more minutes to get to Waterloo. We got to the station just in time for a train so we were at the Palace about 10 minutes before its 10:00AM opening time.

On our way we went through Wimbledon and the stop was next to Centre Court. I was able to grab a very quick shot through the train window.

The Palace is only a short 15-minute walk from the station.

The Palace is divided into 3 different sections for the 3 groups of monarchs who called it home….the Tudors, William III and the Georgians. We started in the Tudor section and, of course, Henry VIII.

It took almost 2 hours to walk through the Palace so by the time we finished we were tired and hungry. There was a nice café on the property, so we headed there for lunch. We’ve discovered that the food has very large portions, so this time we split a sandwich, a side of mac & cheese and a piece of chocolate cake. It was quite good.

After lunch we toured the massive gardens. We didn’t think Peter would be able to walk the great distance but, luckily, the had a mobility scooter we could borrow. That was the only way we could see the gardens and the famous maze.

We started in the vegetable/fruit garden where they grow food to sell. There were also some pretty flowers.

There was also a large rose garden.

Then we headed to the formal gardens planted in the Stuart (William III) reign.

After about an hour in the gardens, we decided it was to head home. It was a wonderful day and we’re so glad we made the trip out of the city.

The Thames River. The Palace is just to the left of the river.

Tomorrow is a very long day as we’re going on a Viator trip to Warwick Castle, Stratford-Upon-Avon and Oxford. Then we leave bright and early on Tuesday to pick up our rental car so I’m not sure I’ll post tomorrow evening. It depends on how tired I am and how much we have to do before we leave Tuesday.

Thanks to everyone for traveling with us and we’ll talk again soon.

Today was extra special because everything we did was new to me. While I’d seen the outside of Buckingham Palace and the Palace of Westminster, I’d never been inside. Of course, we couldn’t take pictures but I found a few online.

We started at the Queen’s Gallery where we saw the exhibit Japan: Courts and Culture. It was a very nice exhibit but we were scheduled to spend 90 minutes there (we had timed tickets for all 3 exhibitions) but we were done in less than 20 minutes as there were only about 5 small rooms. When I asked the Steward what was supposed to take so long, he told me that they allow time for reading all the cards and for reflection. I’m not sure how much reflection we were supposed to do but we ended up with a lot of time to kill before our next time slot.

Next up was the Royal Mews, which is an exhibit of Royal carriages and other vehicles. We spent almost an hour at this one. It was very cool to see the carriages we’ve seen the Royal Family use at special events.

Our last stop on our Royal Day Out was the state apartments of Buckingham Palace. As in Windsor Castle we weren’t allowed to take photos inside but here are some I found online.

Just like at Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace had a special exhibit for the Platinum Jubilee. Once again, we saw some breathtaking pieces of jewelry including this famous diadem.

Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a single gem out of out of one of these babies. Between what we saw today and at Windsor Castle, I’m totally jealous!

Even though we had timed tickets, there were hordes of people in the Palace. The route was well planned but there was no such thing as social distancing. We both had masks but it was very warm so we chose not to wear them. If we don’t get sick after this, we never will.

While waiting for our entry time to the Queen’s Gallery, I managed to get a few pictures of the front of the palace without too many people in the way.

We had a little extra time between the Mews and the State Apartments, so we caught a little bit of the Changing of the Guards. It had already started so we didn’t get anywhere near the gates, but I caught a little bit on video.

By the time we finished at the Palace and got the bus back to the Palaces of Westminster, we had just enough time for lunch at the Red Lion pub. Peter tried to play it safe with a club sandwich but it wasn’t anything like a club sandwich at home. I’ve learned the hard way not to eat “American” food overseas. He said it was good but wasn’t what he expected. I had a pub specialty…steak pie. I had the starter version which was less than half the size of the main meal pie. It was absolutely delicious!

After lunch it was on to the Palaces of Westminster which is where the Houses of Parliament meets. It’s called a Palace because until the time of Henry VIII, it was used as the royal residence.

I couldn’t find any pictures of either the House of Lords or the House of Commons online. The difference between the two rooms was obvious with the former looking like a palace with paintings, frescos and gold leaf which the latter was plain and undecorated. I guess that’s to show the difference between the appointed Lords and the elected ministers of parliament in the lower house.

I found a YouTube video from the 2021 Opening of Parliament that gives you a glimpse of the House of Lords chambers. As you can see the Queen is not wearing the heavy Imperial State Crown. Due to the pandemic the ceremony was sparsely attended. Our tour guide, David, explained this ceremony to us so it was cool to see it happen in the video. Enjoy.

On a side note. We learned quite a bit about British politics during our tour. During their general elections, the people don’t vote for the Prime Minister. They vote for their representative to the House of Commons (similar to our House of Representatives). Whichever party wins the majority of votes (in the last election it was the conservatives) gets to select the Prime Minister. The current PM, Boris Johnson, has resigned so in a couple of weeks the conservative party will select a new PM who will serve until the next general election in 2025. After that election, the majority party will select the next PM. Kind of a cool system.

The tour was a fascinating 90 minutes, and while tired, we were very glad we went. All in all, we had a terrific day.

Today was our last day sightseeing in London. Tomorrow we’re leaving the city for Hampton Court Palace. It’s supposed to be rainy all day by hopefully we can get in and out of the Palace without getting too wet.

Today we were never further than a mile from the flat and we still walked over 16,000 steps. And that was with taking the bus across Tower Bridge towards our first stop of Tower of London. Had we walked we would have added at least another 2,000 steps.

Anyway, we were first in line at the Tower but of course by the time we got in lots of people got ahead of us (we don’t walk very quickly) at the Crown Jewels exhibition. It wasn’t a problem, though, as the exhibit holds a lot of people so there was no wait to get in. A couple of hours later there was a massive “snake” line outside the building.

The Jewels are amazing but, unfortunately, we couldn’t take pictures. To follow up on yesterday’s post about the weight of the Coronation Dress and Robe, when adding the State Imperial Crown, the Orb and Staff, Elizabeth had an extra 30 pounds on her. The Beefeater at the exhibit told us that the Queen doesn’t usually wear the Crown for longer than 15 minutes because of its weight.

After the Crown Jewels we visited the Fusilier Museum.

After the museum we wandered the grounds. We skipped the Bloody Tower as it has a very narrow, spiral staircase without a handrail. Not having a handrail to drag ourselves up the stairs is a deal-breaker so we took a pass. We also skipped the White Tower and its 206 stairs. But, we saw the rest of the complex plus the pretty Chapel Royal of St. Peter and Vincula.

In several of the Towers we saw carvings done by the prisoners.

In addition to the prison, we saw the medieval palace built by Henry III his son Edward I. The Palace is made up of three towers – St. Thomas, Wakefield and Lanthorn.

Finally, we learned about the Ravens of the Tower. Their presence is said to protect the monarchy. At one time, the King ordered their destruction only to be told that if the ravens left the Tower, the White Tower would fall and a great disaster befall the Kingdom. Sensibly the King changed his mind and decreed that at least six ravens should be kept at the Tower at all times to prevent disaster. The Beefeater who told us the story said, there are currently 8 ravens. They like to have a spare just in case.

After finishing at the Tower, we headed to Tower Bridge. It was still fairly early (about noon) so the line wasn’t too long. Once again, we skipped the 206 stairs and took the lift to the top.

When we got back down the other side, we discovered that the bridge was going up in just a few minutes so we hung out to watch. It was very cool…up and down in less than 3 minutes.

We decided to head to the HMS Belfast, a WWII light cruiser that’s docked in the Thames. I thought it was part of our London Pass but it turns out it’s not. It would have cost about $60 to tour, which we didn’t mind, but we weren’t sure if Peter would be able to make it up and down the ladders, so we decided to skip it. We’ve seen the aircraft carrier, USS Midway, in San Diego as well as the Battleship Missouri in Hawaii, so didn’t feel we were missing too much.

For lunch we went to Borough Market, which is a gigantic open air-market filled with street food stalls. We’d never seen that many ethnic foods in one spot before. But it was crazy crowded and even if we had found something we wanted to eat, we would have had no place to sit so we decided to find a restaurant instead.

After lunch we walked a few blocks to Southward Cathedral but found it was closed until late afternoon due to a graduation that was taking place in the church. Since it was only about 2:30 we skipped that too, and headed for our last stop of the day…the Shard.

Our tickets for top weren’t until 4pm but since there was nowhere for us to sit while we waited the guards let us go up early. While not the Sears Tower, the view was still quite impressive. Today was the first day we’d had sun all day so it was a perfect day to visit the top.

By the time we left the Shard our feet were tired, and we were ready for a relaxing evening. It was only a 15-minute walk home, but it seemed like forever before we were in our flat.

Tomorrow we’ve got a full day at Buckingham Palace and the Palace of Westminster. We’re really looking forward to it. Have a great evening.

Today was an absolutely amazing day. We had a very pleasant one-hour train ride from Waterloo station to Windsor. The ride was so smooth that you almost couldn’t feel it move.

As we exited the train and looked to the left, we could see that amazing castle. It is right in the middle of the town. Even for us it was only 10-minute walk to the road leading to the entrance. Our London Pass got us in without standing in the ticket line so that was even better.

Here are some pictures of the grounds.

We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the Castle but here is a link to the Royal Collection Trust website which has photos of the State Apartments. They were incredible.

https://www.rct.uk/visit/windsor-castle/highlights-of-windsor-castle#/

We’re very fortunate that the special exhibit for the Platinum Jubilee was still open. We saw about a dozen of the brooches she likes to wear, the necklace and earrings she wore to the coronation (the diamonds are so big they look fake…they’re not) as well as the coronation gown and robe. It was a stunning exhibition!

One of the other cool things we saw at the Castle was the bullet that killed Lord Nelson at Trafalgar in 1805. The bullet went through the epaulet on his uniform and the gold threads are still visible on the bullet. Amazing!

After the Castle we visited St. George’s Chapel. While much smaller than St. Paul’s Cathedral or Westminster Abbey, it bigger than any chapel I’ve ever seen. This is where Harry and Meghan were married.

Inside the Chapel we saw the graves of Queen Elizabeth II family (but not Prince Philip; he’s in the Royal Vault which we didn’t see), Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, King George V and his wife Queen Mary (Elizabeth’s grandparents) plus lots more.

We spent over 3 hours touring the two building and the grounds. It was actually a little emotional. Thinking about all the history, past and current, that has taken place in that Castle since it was built by William the Conqueror in 1070 was almost overwhelming. It was well worth the train ride.

The town of Windsor is very pretty. We didn’t hang out long, just long enough to have a delicious lunch at the Carpenter’s Arms Pub before heading back to the train.

We had a delicious lunch of fish and chips.

Today was another tiring but terrific day. Still didn’t get to any of the museums Peter wants to see (British and Imperial War) but we’ll get to them eventually. Tomorrow it’s Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. These are very close to flat so we shouldn’t be walking too much. Famous last words! I’ll let you know.

Today got off to a rough start when we stood on a street corner for 90 minutes waiting for the hop on/hop off bus to show up. There were multiple busses from the other companies but the only one from our company drove past without stopping. There’s a one-day train strike so we weren’t sure what was happening with the Tube and since our feet were already tired from standing, we decided on a taxi.

We got to the Abbey about an hour later than we wanted but the line wasn’t too long and we made it just in time for the 10:30 guided tour. I’ve been to the Abbey several times but it’s the first time I did the tour and was glad we spent the extra money. The guide was very knowledgeable, and even though he threatened to charge me with treason (I asked where QE II wanted to be buried; apparently, it’s treason to refer to the death of a current monarch) we enjoyed the tour.

The Abbey got very crowded so it was virtually impossible to get pictures without a ton of people in them but I did the best I could. Enjoy.

It was after 12:30 before we finished in the Abbey so we stopped for a sandwich in St. James Park. We still had 2 things to do (Churchill War Rooms and Imperial War Museum) but knew we only had time for one. Since I’d already seen both I let Peter decide. It came as no surprise that he picked the War Rooms which was great as it was only a 5-minute walk.

I’d visited here in 2002 when I was in London with my mom but now it’s very different. The first time I was there it was a guided tour by people dressed in WWII uniforms and talking as if it were during the war (“this is where we have lunch”). It was a very cool tour and only about an hour. Now it’s a self-guided tour with audio guides. In 2005 they opened a gigantic Churchill Museum so by the time we did both, it was after 3:30. Since the War Museum closes at 5:00 and our feet were very tired, we decided to call it a day and head home. Being a military buff, Peter needs to see the Imperial War Museum, but I’ll figure out how to make it happen.

I didn’t take too many pictures in the museum as it was quite dark and I couldn’t use a flash, but here are a couple. They’re a little blurry but was the best I could do without a flash.

A relatable story about Winston Churchill. He was in New York City in 1931 and was almost killed when he was hit by a car because he looked the wrong way when crossing the street. We can totally relate to that as we’ve been looking the wrong way since we got here. In spite of the corner’s painted with reminders to “look right” it’s still just automatic to look left first.

Tomorrow we’re off to Windsor. We were planning to spend the day, but I think we might just visit the Castle and St. George Chapel. Maybe that will give us enough time to visit the War Museum back in London. It depends on how much walking we do in Windsor. Talk with you tomorrow.

Note to self – Don’t plan as many things in a day as you did in 2019. We’re three years older and slower.

Our poor feet wore out after only 10000 steps today so we didn’t visit a few things we thought we’d get to today but we still had a full day. We started the day by walking to London Bridge station (about 15 minutes) to get the bus to St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was only 9:30 when we arrived to it was relatively empty. It’s a beautiful church designed by Sir Christopher Wren and replaced the church destroyed in the Great London Fire of 1666. We visited the main church and the crypt but took a pass on climbing the 528 steps to the dome.

After visiting the Cathedral, we picked up the Golden Tours Hop On/Hop Off bus. Both this bus and the Big Bus were included in our London Pass but this one came first so we hopped on. We were headed to Royal Albert Hall which is only about 4 miles as the crow flies but we were in a tourist bus so the route wasn’t the most direct. Also, traffic was horrible so it took over 90 minutes to get there. It was a relaxing drive, though, and we passed through several areas that we may, or may not, get back to so we’re glad we made the trip.

We got to the Royal Albert Hall just in time for the 12:30 tour and it was terrific. The Hall celebrated its 150th anniversary last year but because of the pandemic they didn’t have the celebration they had originally planned. There are over 400 performances per year, which is more than one per day.

Across the street from the Theater is the Albert Monument. It took over 10 years to construct and cost about 120,000 pounds (about 13,000,000 pounds in 2022). They spent so much on the monument they didn’t have anything left to build the theater. They raised money by selling boxes to the wealthy patrons. Each box seat was 100 pounds which, when adjusted for inflation, is just over 13,000 pounds. The boxes either had 5 or 12 seats so a family buying an entire box was investing a lot of money. For their 100 pounds, they had use of the seat for every performance for 999 years. Quite the deal!

Behind the Monument is Hyde Park. We wanted to see the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain but took a wrong turn and ended up back at the Albert Monument, which is where we started. Since we were getting tired, we decided to pass on the fountain. Maybe we’ll see it another time.

We were going to walk to Hyde Park corner where Wellington’s Arch is located but ran out of steam about half way there. We were right across the street from the Knightsbridge tube station but we would have had to transfer at least once and decided it was too much trouble. So, we jumped in a cab. With traffic, it still took over 30 minutes to get to the other side of the city so it was almost 4pm before we finally got home.

While tiring, it was a great day and we look forward to visiting Westminster Abbey, Churchill’s War Rooms and the Imperial War Museum tomorrow. That should be enough for one day.

The great news is that internet is finally up and running! Apparently there was an outage in the entire area. Hopefully it will work for the rest of our stay. The blog is so much easier to write when I can use all my fingers to type.

Have a great day everyone.

Before taking the Uber Boat to Greenwich we found an EE store and got new SIM cards for our phones. They’re good for 30 days but, unlike ones we’ve gotten in the past, we can just top these off instead of having to purchase new SIM cards. With these new cards, the only way to reach us is either by email (lynnspeaks1955@gmail.com) or WhatsApp. Our new cards are already coming in handy as the internet in the flat still isn’t working. I have a feeling I’ll be writing the blog on my phone the entire time we’re in London.

Greenwich was very nice. Our first stop was Pizza Express for lunch. My sister was here a few years ago and raved about the pizza. While not real Italian pizza it was still quite good. I could happily eat at another one during our travels. Ok Cynthia, here are your first two food pictures.

After lunch we headed to the Royal Observatory where we visited the museum and straddled the prime meridian. We went to the observatory itself but didn’t see the telescope as we choose not to climb a very narrow, windy staircase.

The pictures from the museum are on my camera not my phone so I won’t be able to upload any of them until I have a Wifi connection. Sorry.

Our final stop in Greenwich was the Cutty Sark, a Victorian age clipper ship. It’s been a museum since 1957 and was very interesting.

After taking the boat back to the Tower Bridge stop, we walked back to the flat which is a few blocks the other side of the bridge. On the way to the EE store this morning we walked across the London Bridge so this afternoon we came home over Tower Bridge.

Once home, I went out for a few groceries and to get Peter some walking sticks. He used his cane all day but was hurting his back leaning so much to one side. So I found a sporting goods store and bought a pair of the ski pole type. I’m not sure how we’re going to get them on a plane because they’re too big for the suitcase. But maybe we can tape them together and check them as a separate piece of luggage. That’s a problem for another day.

Tomorrow we planned to do a bike ride but decided against it. More than half of it was on the streets and, of course, traffic is insane. We decided we’re not stready enough on a bike to ride in the street with all that traffic so we called and cancelled. We’ll do a hop on hop off bus instead. We get a one-day pass on the Big Bus as part of our London Pass so we’ll take that one. We’ll start the day at St. Paul’s Cathedral and pick up the bus there.

After just over 20,000 steps today I’m exhausted but happy that we had a great day. Peter is already in bed but it’s only a little 8pm so I need to stay awake at least another hour. Wish me luck.

It’s about 7:30pm on Sunday and I’m desperately trying to stay awake. Peter’s been asleep for over an hour but if I go to bed too early, I’ll be awake in the middle of the night.

Our flight was quite nice. The plane was virtually empty; there couldn’t have been more than 50-60 passengers. Our section had 78 seats but there were only 9 of us so we got to spread out. I was in a row of 4 seats so manage to stretch out and get a little sleep. Peter curled up in another row.

In spite of all the horror stories we heard about Heathrow, our experience was quite the opposite. We got through immigrations and customs in about 30 minutes. There was a glitch in the car service so we had to wait about 45 minutes but that was no big deal.

We arrived at our flat around 2:30, and while small, it’s clean and comfy so I think it will fine for our 9-day stay. I’m having trouble connecting to the WiFi so I’m writing this from my phone, which is still on Verizon. The host is working on the internet so hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow.

After a quick freshen up, we headed to Trafalgar Square for dinner. It should have been a 25 minute bus ride but after 25 minutes we realized we were nowhere close. I think we got on the wrong bus. We found a pub on the corner and has a nice dinner there instead. We’ll save Trafalgar Square for another day. As soon as I get WiFi up and running I’ll upload the few pictures I took.

Tomorrow we’re off to Greenwich. It should be a great day.

It’s only 7:47 so I still have more time to kill. Maybe I’ll unpack the backpacks.

Night everyone.