Joseph and I went to London for 4 days and it was wonderful! I have always wanted to visit London/England and now I have! It was wonderful, amazing, fantastic, and what dreams are made of! Joseph really is the best tour guide a woman could desire. He thoroughly researches each activity and is a genius when it comes to public transportation, which I find confusing!
Our trip started off a little rocky...my suitcase broke in the Syracuse airport just after we made it through security. We couldn't find a reasonably priced suitcase so we just crammed all of my things into Joseph's suitcase and our mostly empty personal items. Tight fit, but fit it did. Then we sat on the run way in Syracuse for 45 minutes which caused us to miss our connecting flight in Chicago to London. Thankfully, we were put on a flight just 2 hours later. On our flight to London there was a medical emergency, a man was suffering from chest pains, shortness of breath, and he was unresponsive for a bit. With no MDs on the plane Joseph did what he could, but without knowing the man's medical history he couldn't really be of much help. Joseph thought the man was having a heart attack. The man and his wife didn't speak much English and the wife was so distraught that she could only communicate in her native language. After we landed we made it to our hotel after figuring out the train system. It took about an hour to get to the hotel from the airport.
We stayed in a nice hotel with a great view of Big Ben and the Parliament building. We were 2 blocks from the London Eye seen in the picture below.
Big Ben is undergoing renovations so it was covered in scaffolding.
If you want to see Big Ben in all of its glory visit after 2021.
The weather was beautiful almost every day we were in London. Our first day was the best with temperatures near 70. Big Ben and the Parliament buildings in the back ground. We walked over Westminster Bridge every day.
Here is a cute little English cottage in Hyde park. It was built in 1885.
The first stop on our tour was Kensington Palace. It was beautiful and so full of history. This is where Queen Victoria was born and raised until she ascended to the throne. Princess Diana also lived here for 15 years before she died. Currently William and Kate and their children as well as Harry and Meghan live in a wing of the Palace. Obviously, the public doesn't get to tour their private quarters.
Map of Kensington Palace Tour:
Round lake is outside of Kensington Palace and it has a lot of swans in it. I guess in England the Monarchy owns all of the swans, dolphins, deer and stags.
There is a beautiful garden at Kensington. This arched walkway covers two sides of the garden. This "sunken" garden was a favorite of Diana's.
Inside the palace it was so ornate and detailed. The murals were beautiful. In Kensington there were the King and Queen State Rooms, a Princess Diana fashion display with dresses that she wore, and then a Queen Victoria display.
I believe this was the King's gallery.
Fun little miniatures. I had no idea that miniatures varied so much in
size. They were very detailed for such small portraits.
This is the room where Victoria was born. Fun fact...she and Joseph share a birthday!
Prince Albert and Queen Victoria had such a love match. They had 10 children and were so in love. Victoria and Albert both loved music and would compose music for each other. Albert also loved to design jewelry for Victoria. In the Victoria suites there was a display of some of her jewelry. This emerald and diamond setting was one of the sets that Albert designed for Victoria.
Italian Fountain in Hyde Park.
Fall trees in Hyde Park.
We mainly took this picture to show Kimball that we saw a Rolls Royce!
Piccadilly Circus! It's the London version of Times Square.
Red Phone Booth! These were all over!
I loved the architecture of the older buildings. There are plenty of modern skyscrapers, but these buildings really make the city!!
Our day concluded at "Her Majesty's Theater" for a performance of The Phantom of the Opera. We had never seen Phantom before and we loved it!! I already loved the music and seeing the production on stage was amazing! It was a very long day but we were captivated enough to stay awake!
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