London
Trip Start
Jul 05, 2008
1
11
25
Trip End
Aug 17, 2008
London,
England,
United Kingdom
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Saturday 26/7/08 - Tuesday 29/7/08
I arrived late Saturday night and found my way to the Ramada Hyde Park Hotel. In the dark, I didn't realise how central I was - only a five minute walk to Kensington Gardens and the Queensway tube station (part of the central line).
Kel, my fellow graduate from Telstra, is currently working in London and so we met up Sunday morning for a tour of London Town!
Tanya`s recommendation of the Hop-on-Hop-off tour was fantastic, we got a good overview of the city as we drove along. We saw the Marble Arch and Trafalgar Square before getting off at Buckingham Palace for a tour of the Royal Mews - aka the carriages (including the Bentleys) of the Royal family. The gold carriage was simply breathtaking. We had missed the changing of the guard, so resolving to come back tomorrow we moved on to view the Parliament Buildings (Big Ben aka St Steven`s Clock) and Westminster Abbey.
The US Embassy in London is the only one in the world where the US doesn`t own the land - they rent it from a family that owns a lot of land there from a royal grand dating back hundreds of years, the Grovner (spelling?) family.
I didnīt get a chance in two days to see the insides of most of these places, I just think Iīll have to come back later and see them properly!
Next, Kel and I took a hot and relaxing boat tour of the Thames, down to the Tower of London before posing for photos in front of Tower Bridge. We saw `Cleopatra`s Needle` which is reputed to be older than London itself!
Kel took me to the delightful "Dickens Inn" where it is said Charles Dickens was inspired by or even wrote some of his books. Now it`s a pub that serves Sunday roasts, so despite the scorching weather, we sat down to a roast with Yorkshire pudding and some ice cold cider - delicious!
Then we strolled across Tower Bridge, laughing at the story of the gentleman from the USA who bought London Bridge and transported it piece by piece to his home state before discovering it wasn`t Tower Bridge - which he had thought it was at purchase!
Now, Londeners have no idea how to deal with heat. Their tube is ventilated by opening a window at the front of the carriage, and if you don`t happen to be in the first few carriages, you don`t really benefit at all! Kel and I went to buy an iced chocolate - and the cafe had run out of ice!
After discovering for sure that there are no theatre shows in London that play on a Sunday night, Kel and I parted after having a long day.
Next morning, I returned to see the them Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace (I didn`t see either Christopher Robin or Alice). The walking tour started with Changing of the Horse Guard at the parade ground, then proceeded to St James` Palace and Wellington Barracks to see the procession as it moved towards Buckingham Palace. As the crowds were much smaller, we saw the changeover ceremony at a closeby palace and I got my photo taken with the guard - they were a different regiment to those that wear the bear skins.
I did a round of the London Eye - great views and worth doing but the queues were too long to consider doing it again! It`s also the middle of the Summer school holidays, so that probably wouldn`t have helped.
Next, I saw the Tower of London. Iīve always been fascinated by Tudor history, and this was steeped in it! The first Tower (White Tower) has existed since 1066 and more towers and defences have been added by successive monarchs. One of the Yeoman Warders (or Beefeaters) showed us around - he is the raven keeper in accordance with an old superstition that if the ravens go from the Tower of London, then the monarchy will collapse.
He showed us the Royal Entrance (they didn`t want to mix with the commoners too muc), the Traitors Gate, the Bloody Tower infamous for the murder of the two boy princes, the Tower Green and the Chapel under which Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey and her husband, and many others were buried after being beheaded as traitors.
I also saw the Crown Jewels housed in the Tower of London. The Kah-i-noor (spelling again?) is the famous large one, and the whole collection is simply stunning.
Poor Kel had an ear infection and so wasnīt able to make it to our theatre evening on Monday night, but she so kindly arranged a wonderful seat for me to see "We Will Rock You" - the Queen musical. It was utterly fantastic! Futuristic, but faithful to all the Queen music (Brian May and Ben Elton wrote it). There was a fabulous array of photographs of Queen and especially taken of and by Freddie Mercury. I was also amused that their white wine was an Australian one from SA!
I headed back home on the Tube (less hot this time as it wasn`t peak hour and crowded) and resolved just before heading off to sleep to come back to London to see some of the things I didnīt get a chance to this time round.
More soon... (and photos when a computer recognises my USB drive!)
