London Day 4

This was our last full day in London.   The time went so quickly.  In the morning we took a tour of Westminster Abbey.  On our walk to Westminster Abbey we walked by the Parliament Building.  It was so beautiful with the sun shining on it.  I wish we could have caught the entire building lit by the sun.  It is a very beautiful building.

Westminster Abbey is beautiful...all of the old buildings in London are beautiful.
I believe William and Kate were married at Westminster Abbey.  It is very ornate inside.  I almost found it a little too over the top.  Most of the tour of the Abbey was telling the history of who was buried where and why with a little history of the Abbey.  I didn't realize so many well known names were buried here; a lot of royalty, of course, but a lot of other big names are buried or memorialized here.  People like Stephen Hawking, C.S. Lewis, the Bronte Sisters, Rudyard Kipling, etc.  One person who isn't buried here is Henry VIII.  He wasn't deemed worthy for burial here by one of his family members.  The Coronation Throne is on display here, too.  It wasn't anything special other than being the chair that monarchs have sat on when crowned King or Queen.

As we returned our audio equipment from our tour the employee taking our things was asking where people were from.  He took one look at me and said "American."  I was a little put out because I didn't even get a chance to speak so he could hear my accent.  Do I really scream American?!?  It must have been my bright purple windbreaker.  They must not like bright colors in England quite as much as I do.  

Map of Westminster Abbey

After Westminster Abbey we hurried to Buckingham Palace so we could watch the changing of the guard.  

Our first view of Buckingham Palace.

There were so many people waiting to see the changing of the guard.  This is much more of a procession than the guard changes we saw at Windsor Castle or Tower of London.  I think the procession is only done a few times a week though.  There is a police escort for the guard and the palace band.  I don't quite understand why the guards need a police escort since they are guards, but what do I know?

Band leaving after the guard change.

Downtown London through the trees.

Fancy gates around Buckingham.

Once the crowds dispersed a little we were able to get close 

to the front gate and take some closer pictures.

After we finished at Buckingham Palace we went to the British Museum.  Did I mention that all museums are free in London?  Anyway, our tour guide on Wednesday told us it would be a shame not to visit some of the museums, so it was a good thing it was on our schedule.  

We ate some snacks outside the museum and we watched a school group play on the lawn.  It was fun to watch the kids play.  They were playing some kind of tag game.  We watched them for a long time trying to figure out the rules.  It was freeze tag, but if the person who tagged you was tagged later then you were unfrozen.  There must have been two different teams to make it all work.  

I did hear some of the names of the kids and kids in England are really called Harry, Henry, George, etc.  In America those are more formal or a tad old fashioned, but they are "normal" in London.  The only girl name I heard was "Rose".  I don't know any boys in America called Harry, Henry, or George.  Americans tend to trendy/fad names!

 

Here were some of the highlights at the British Museum.  The Rosetta Stone, very popular.  We also saw an Easter Island bust.  Joseph really wants to go to Easter Island to see the statues, but he hasn't been able to justify the cost or face the logistics of such a long plane ride. 

We also saw some mummies!  

London Trip wrap up:

I loved our trip and it went way to quickly.  Here were my favorite things:

Favorite Castle/Palace:  Windsor Castle, although I liked the Tower of London Tour better.  

Favorite Cathedral/Abbey:  St. Paul's Cathedral.  

I can't go on a trip and not mention the food.  I hope I wasn't boring or disappointing to people, but I didn't eat "fish and chips".  It just didn't sound appealing to me.  It would be like visiting America and having chicken tenders and french fries.  I don't eat that way at home so I didn't want to eat that was in England.  I also didn't have a traditional English breakfast.  We thought about it one morning, but again, it didn't sound appealing enough to justify the cost.  So,...What did we eat?  We ate like Londoners...we grabbed food from little "on the go" cafes.  We stopped a few times at Pret A Manger which is a "fast food" restaurant but with healthier options than burgers and fries.  For breakfast Londoners rush in grab tea and toast or a breakfast sandwich and rush on to work.  There was also porridge, yogurt parfaits, pastries, etc.  We ate breakfast and lunch (sandwich and fruit) this way just about every day.  For dinner we usually got something a little more substantial.  I felt eating like this was closer to how I would eat if I were at home. I had two favorite things that I ate:  Almond croissants and yogurt parfaits.  Joseph knows I love almond croissants, so we shared a croissant every day so I could indulge in my pastries but not have to consume all of the calories by myself.  The other thing that I loved eating was the parfait.  Please don't think of a McDonald's fruit and yogurt parfait, these parfaits were so much better.  It was plain yogurt with a 5 berry compote, tasty granola and one morning it even had shaved chocolate in it.  It was just so, so yummy!  

I would love to go back to London someday, but with so many places to visit in the World, this might be my only trip to London.  It was wonderful and I'm glad I could enjoy it with Joseph!!

Our flights home were uneventful and that was welcomed because we are eager to get home.  The kids were happy to see us.  I was afraid Edie would ignore me for a time when I got back, but she didn't!!  She ran right to me and hugged me.  Lincoln and Annika had a few tantrums and some separation anxiety after we returned, but they settled down after a few days.  The kids were happy with their little souvenirs we gave them and now life is back to normal.

London Day 3

London Day 3:  Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, 

National Gallery, Concert at St. Martin in the Field

Day 3 was a really fun and really full day.  It may have been my favorite day in London.  We walked across the Tower Bridge to visit the Tower of London.  

View of Tower of London across the Thames.

Tower Bridge...it really is iconic to London.  So many things are.

I just need to say that I was freezing this day, it started out in the 40s and was in the low 50s in the afternoon.  I just brought my windbreaker with me for the day thinking I would warm up, well, I never had a chance to walk fast enough to warm up.  I was just grateful I was wearing a sweater under my jacket!

Tower of London

Map of Tower of London:

The first thing we did when we visited the Tower of London was to follow the map from the first point of interest which was the Tower Mint.  I stepped into the Mint and was greeted by a friendly employee.  He asked if we had seen the Crown Jewels, we hadn't, so he explained that the Crown Jewels get really busy really quickly but the Mint was never busy.  He suggested we visit the jewels first and come back. I appreciated him letting us know because it did get busy.  

When we walked through the building that protects the Crown Jewels it was busy, but not too bad.  We saw the jewels, but we couldn't take any pictures.  There wasn't a line so we talked on the moving sidewalk passed the jewels.  They are very elaborate and ornate.  Some of the crowns weigh roughly 5 pounds.  Could you imagine holding something on your head that weighed 5 pounds?!? After we walked passed the jewels Joseph told me we had to walk by them again because we may never seen them again.  He also said that I needed to walk by them a second time for my mom and all of my sisters...so Mom and sisters, I saw the Jewels for each of you!

The entire Monarchy/Heir logistics can be a little confusing so I asked another friendly employee to explain it to me.  I understand it better, but it is still rather confusing.  My initial question was when is the title King/Queen used and when is Prince/Princess when referring to the spouse of the monarch.

We decided to take a tour of the Tower of London grounds.  The Yeoman Warders, some of the Queen's men and women give these tours and it was very interesting and informative.  I just liked learning some of the history about the Tower of London.  The tour was probably my favorite part of the Tower of London visit.  The Tower of London is where England was ruled for the first 500 years after William of Normandy took over around 1066. 

The grassy area beyond the fence is where the moat used to be 50 feet under the current grassy area.  The castle had a problem of the moat filling with human waste and they suffered with unsanitary conditions and smells for hundreds of years before they settled on the solution...to drain the moat!  Problem solved!!  

This pictures shows some animal statues.  Some of the early monarchs enjoyed having exotic animals kept at the castle, large cats, baboons, etc.

Soldiers changing duties.

The White Tower was the main living and ruling building.  I was a little disappointed that the White Tower is now more of a museum instead of showing what the rooms would have looked like when it was in use.  It was still neat to walk through the building.

Armor for man and beast.

Look at that tiny armor that would fit a small child!

Chapel in the White Tower.  It wasn't decorative at all.  Actually, all of the Tower of London was less ornate and breath taking that most of the buildings we saw.  It's main focus and purpose was ruling and living without worrying about appearance. Survival was the name of the game back when this was Government headquarters.

View of Tower Bridge from the Castle grounds.

This is called the Bloody Tower.  Some sad events happened hear including the death/murder of two young boys, one who would have ascended to the thrown one day.

This is called Traitor's Gate where the traitors to king and country were brought in by boat.  Anne Boleyn entered the Tower of London the first time as Queen through the made castle gates and then entered through this gate shortly before she was beheaded.  

This is the other side of the Tower of London from 

Traitor's Hill where the executions took place.

This is a Roman wall that was built before William the Conqueror took over.  The original wall was built roughly to the height of the statues shoulders and then the wall was added onto by others.

Our visit to the Tower of London took all morning.  After lunch we took a bus to visit St. Paul's Cathedral and the National Gallery.

St. Paul's 

Front entrance.

Feed the birds!  This is where the bird woman in Mary

Poppins sat to feed her birds.  Tuppence a bag!

Map of St. Paul's Cathedral:

I really liked St. Paul's Cathedral.  It was beautiful.  This is where Princess Diana and Charles were married.  Sadly, we couldn't take any pictures inside.  The murals and artwork on the walls and ceiling are just incredible.  It was a brave person who painted those ceilings!!  The main part of our tour was the galleries above the Cathedral floor.  The first gallery was the whispering gallery.  Supposedly, if you whisper to someone across the gallery they can hear it.  Joseph and I didn't try it out, but we saw others doing it.  We just enjoyed sitting on this level admiring the paintings on the walls and ceiling.  

From there we climbed up to the Stone Gallery and we enjoyed the view.  The best view was the Golden Gallery view.  It was just neat to see the London cityscape with a birds eye view.  We were way up there though.  I didn't like getting too close to the edge even though there was a railing!  We decided not to go on the London Eye--big Ferris Wheel in London--because we had a better view from the Golden Gallery.

These next few pictures are from the Stone Gallery:

I'll admit it...Joseph is kind of a camera hog on 

our trips so I rarely get him to pose for pictures!

Golden Gallery View:

Do you see the difference...the clock tower in the picture above and then 

in the picture below you just see the top part of it.

You can see the London Eye on the center-right side of the picture.

Center you can see the Tower Bridge.

After St. Paul's Cathedral we went to the National Gallery.  It's the Art Museum in London.  It was very nice as art museums go, but I find them boring.  Have I said this before?  I feel very uncultured saying I don't like museums, but I just don't.  I just like to take a quick walk through the rooms to see if anything catches my fancy.  We did walk through the Rembrandt wing.  I guess he made most of his income painting portraits so most of the pictures in his wing were portraits.  I didn't think they were that great, but they were Rembrandt paintings, so what do I know?

We also saw some Van Gogh, Picasso, and Monet.  Of the three I like Monet's style the best.

In the evening we attended a concert at St. Martin in the Fields.  It was a smaller church but still very pretty. To make money it holds concerts and has a cafe in the Crypt. 

It was a small string group...two violins, 1 viola, 1 cello, 1 bass, 1 harpsichord with a guest flutist and soprano.  The music was very good, I admit I was pleasantly surprised since it was such a small group.  We sat on the church pews and I was glad when Joseph pulled out 2 pounds so we could buy two seat cushions!  

Joseph really wanted to attend this concert.  I guess the classical music station on the radio will occasionally play a piece that is recorded at this church so when Joseph saw there was a Bach, Handel and Mozart concert while we were in London it was a must for him.  

Here is a little tidbit about St. Martin in the Field.  When it was originally built it was on the outskirts of London so people referred to it as being "in the field" and the name just stuck even though it is no longer on the outskirts and is surrounded by buildings.