First Week in London

Yep, first week. In London! I have waited so long for this. When the Husband and I were first discussing this crazy idea of travelling I made a list of Cities That I Wanted to Spend An Extended Amount Of Time In. Most of them are European, yes, but not all. However, London was at the top of the list. Sixteen years ago the Brother and I spent three crazy (and oh so hot…temps in the 90s) days here. While I reveled in all that we managed to see I knew there was so much more that we didn’t see. And I wanted the time to just wander the streets of the different areas of London. And that time is now 😁

The weather has been exceptional which has been an utter gift. Of course, we arrived at the start of half term, so all the kids were out of school. Plus the first Monday was a Bank Holiday. And the people of the UK seem to be taking advantage of the low number of tourists to get out and see their historical sites, so places were a bit more crowded than we expected. Not that I can blame them!

I can say that we are doing our best not to waste time here. We head out first thing in the morning, getting back to our flat just in time for the Husband to begin work. No problem hitting our 10,000 steps – and last Sunday was 20,000 steps. Other than good exercise this walking is making me realize that the knee replacement is not as far off in the future as I wanted it to be. Ewwww. But, I am in England so I shall do as the English do and soldier on! Stiff upper lip and all that. Whatevs.

On to the photos then! What did we do…hop on hop off bus on Sunday to remember exactly where everything is located. Went to the Tower of London on Monday (since it was a holiday we had all day to wander!) and had our COVID tests (negative!). Tuesday was spent at the British Museum. Wednesday was devoted to various errands (how boring, but I was REALLY glad to get my nails done). Thursday we went to Kensington Palace, Friday was a historical walking tour. Yikes!! And there is so much more on my list to be done!!

First off, some scenes from around town:

Travel to a new country only to have at least one of the main tourist sites encased in scaffolding…Big Ben needed a bit of attention. The scaffolding is due to come off at the end of this year.

Cleopatra’s Needle. Which is totally and utterly wrong as this obelisk has ZERO to do with Cleopatra. Sigh. But it is from Egypt and it is ancient.

Ice cream truck in St James’s Park. The motto on the door is my life slogan – ice cream makes U happy

Mind the gap between the platform and the train. And some gaps are bigger than this.

There are four pillars, one at each corner of Trafalgar Square. three have permanent statues on them. The fourth one changes fairly regularly. Here is the current display.

I found this highly entertaining. But they are the fastest of the water transports!

And then there was the Tower…

The London Eye. Probably won’t get to this. But it’s cool to look at!

Monday saw us at the Tower of London. I do love this place and it was fun to take the Husband through the various significant events that occurred at the Tower. Even though I know it doesn’t look exactly as it did in 1554, standing at Traitor’s Gate and picturing a terrified Princess Elizabeth being imprisoned at the Tower by her sister, Queen Mary, strikes a deep emotional chord in me. With the Yeoman Warders (Beefeaters) not giving tours (sad! They are so entertaining) I was concerned that we would not have access to St Peter ad Vincula church – I worried in vain as we were able to go in 😁 Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard and Lady Jane Grey are buried under the altar there. And, happily, my method for getting to the Royal Jewels still worked…I’m not telling, but we had it to ourselves…

Entrance to the Jewel House – after we came out

Wire mesh monkeys to invoke memory of the royal menagerie

Anne Boleyn is under the small basket of flowers on the left side of the altar

Many royal prisoners were kept in these houses.

The private chapel in the White Tower – the oldest part of the Tower

I loved this – it’s entirely carved out of wood

Anyone else hear the song Battle of New Orleans when they see this? “We fired our canons til the barrel melted down so we grabbed an alligator and we poured another round…”

Well, geez, this is turning into a really long post…Tuesday we spent the morning at the British Museum. This was a very different experience than my previous trip with the COVID precautions in place.

Oh man…now there’s something you see in any art history book!

The Egyptian rooms are rather extensive😁

On the floor of the Great Hall. I cut it off, but this was said by Tennyson.

Did you see the movie The Dig on Netflix? This the helmet from the Sutton Hoo excavation.

And this is a recreation of what it had looked like

I was on the fence on whether we would go tour Kensington Palace or not. It’s super close to our flat but I was iffy on it. Then I found out about an exhibition that was opening the day we were thinking of going and that decided it.

Storybook view of the gardens at Kensington Palace

This is the room that Queen Victoria was born in

A biography that was written about Queen Victoria – with her comments handwritten in the margins. She did not like the book.

And this is what helped me to make the decision to go to Kensington Palace. For the first time in 25 years, the wedding dress of Diana, Princess of Wales was on display. The wedding that I got up to watch in the middle of the night. I can’t imagine how her sons feel to see this dress.

The walking tour was fascinating, but the weather was abysmal. Although we can’t complain as that has been the only rainy day we have had! This park is lovely…and is a cemetery underneath, And it’s the only photo we took.

I shall end by stating that we walked 76,492 steps this week. And still put in our work hours!!

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