Europe Day 3 London

This picture pretty well sums up the day - well, the first 2/3 anyhow! It was a dismal, rainy, cold and blustery day!

We left the hotel a little after 7 to get to the meeting place for the tour we had scheduled for today. Our first stop was the Tower of London. It was raining and not much fun to be outside. After waiting around for what seemed to be forever, we met our Beefeater and headed inside. The Beefeaters and their families live at the Tower complex - the kids go to school there, etc. and the place is locked down nightly at 10 pm - no one in or out. They joke that it is the safest place in London to raise teenaged daughters!

We went inside to see the Crown Jewels. They are absolutely amazing! WOW!! No pictures were allowed. It took quite a while to go through the exhibit so there really wasn't time left for anything else.

Then we got on a boat to cruise up the Thames which because of the weather was worthless other than the fact that it was warm and dry.

There was not going to be a changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace so instead of going there in the rain we went over to St. Paul Cathedral which is known as the Church of London. It was a nice church - not as impressive as Westminster Abbey. Once again no pictures allowed. When we came out the rain had stopped so the bus took us to Buckingham Palace for a photo opportunity and they were changing the guards - not the big ceremony but changing the guards none the less.

 

And the flag that was flying meant the queen was in residence.

All in all - it turned out to be an okay day in spite of the weather!

 

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Europe 2016 Day 2

This morning Lori and I slept in and took it easy - trying to recover from the flight over. We went downstairs for breakfast about 9:30. It was a buffet which was actually pretty good although the bacon was unusual - more like Canadian bacon. After breakfast we headed back out to explore. We took a cab out to Soho Square to a pharmacy there and then headed back toward the hotel on foot. One of the first things we saw was a McDonalds. We went in to get a coke and this is what we saw.

Get ready to be replaced you minimum wage earners who want $15 an hour!

We kept walking and came across this pedestrian only area with lots of shopping and restaurants and casinos - nope we didn't stop in to donate. There was a neat little park that was dedicated to Shakespeare that also had a splash park feature around Shakespeare's statue.

Then we happened upon Piccadilly Circus which is really just a traffic circle. There was a Yoda mime and a guy making a sand sculpture of a dog.

 

Next we came upon St. James's Park and Parliament Square. The Park was really pretty. Lots of pretty flowers and big trees. There is a pond in it that was dug out for King Charles II in about 1660. It has a lot of ducks and other birds. Later an island, called Duck Island was built in the lake. The island has a small cottage on it used by the caretaker.

 

When we were in Parliament Square we realized we were back where we had been yesterday with Westminster Abbey and Big Ben and Parliament right in front of us! We thought we were going to be right at Buckingham Palace but we weren't! We'll see that tomorrow. So we decided to do the tour of Westminster Abbey. It is an amazing place. No pictures were allowed of the inside. All the people buried there - it is like a history lesson! A couple more pictures - one of the cloister part of the Abbey and one of Big Ben.

 

And here is Lori in one of the iconic red phone booths that are all over.

 

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Europe 2016 Day 1

The flight over is an absolute nightmare. The plane was a good one but being up for 24 hours is hard on this old lady! I watched 3 movies - Star Wars VII - Zootopia - London Has Fallen - and played a gazillion games of solitaire!

But we are here. And our ride to the hotel was waiting for us. So all was good. We couldn't get our room but we're able to leave our luggage with them, so we headed out to do some exploring. We walked down by the Thames to Parliament and Westminster Palace. Really nice park and great statues and fascinating buildings but we were really too tired to enjoy it much. Tomorrow will be a better day. Here are a few pics from today.

Richard the Lion-hearted

The Thames River looking toward the London Eye.

Gazebo in the park by Parliament.

Took a little catnap in our room and are getting ready to eat linner or dunch - sure we will be asleep before the sun goes down tonight!

 

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