Merry Old London, Day 2

It seems that every day that I’m in London is set to be an early morning. Oh well, it is what it is when you try to cram all there is to see in two days into two days! Today was a group tour called – London in One Day. Believe me, it was a very full day, not helped much by the hideous traffic in the city. OH. MY. GOSH. I could not live in this city! I was lucky enough to hitch a ride from the tour company to the actually meeting place of the tour. All I had to do was get to the Paddington Hilton Hotel which was just around the corner and up the street. And thank goodness the doorman had had enough experience with group tours that he recognized my look of “is this where I’m supposed to be?” to answer my question before I asked it. Bless him.

Once the tour was underway (please, if you take a group tour in any city anywhere, please be on time!!!) we were on the bus for a couple of hours driving around the city center and getting stuck in traffic. At the rate we were moving I thought I was going to only be taking pictures from the coach (bus) window for the whole day and was already feeling disappointed, and tired. But the day got better.

We had a seasoned tour guide who knew right where to take us for the Changing of the Guard. We all thought we’d be standing in front of Buckingham Palace, like we see on TV, and watching the changing. But, as I learned, the changing of the guard process takes about an hour or so and guards are changed at two or more locations. Our guide got us a perfect spot on the street, just down the street from where the new guards would be coming up from their barracks, march past us, and head down to Buckingham. It looks like they actually came from a tunnel from the St. James Palace, where Prince Charles and Camilla live, but I can’t be sure. They did past right in front of us, so close I could touch them. But they are trained soldiers, so that would not be good. A band marches before them, and their music indicates that the changing is taking place. Happens at 11:15 a.m. except on rainy days and on other days and one just never knows. We had a beautiful, sunny day and a great changing of the guards.

This was not a part of the ceremony, so I'm not quite sure what these guys were doing.

The Guard coming out of St. James Palace at the beginning of the Changing of the Guard process

Band comes out first . . . 

. . . with the Guard behind them. Yes, we were this close to them! We could have tripped them if we wanted to!

Another set of the Guard during the Changing process

And one more group of Guard.

Some more on horses . . . not sure who they are.

Behind the trees is St. James Palace, the residence of Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla

Then our guide took us on a walk through the protected wildlife sanctuary in from of Buckingham Palace, which was serene and beautiful. By the time we walked it, we got to see another part of the changing and had a great view of Buckingham Palace and all the gorgeous flowers in front of it, and of course, thousands of tourists. A particular flag flies above the palace on days when the Queen is not in residence, and it was flying this day so she was “not home.” Later, we found out where she had been (see next blog post).

After spending a few minutes at Buckingham Palace we went back to the coach and hit the congested traffic roads again, headed towards St. Paul’s Cathedral. Along the way we got our first views of Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. I actually got better views of it later on this day.

There is a protected wildlife area that we walked through on our way to Buckingham Palace

While others were frantically searching for a sight of the Palace, I was intrigued by this duck floating on its nest.

Beautiful spring day in London.
We were really blessed because the Changing of the Guard does not happen when it rains.

There it is!

Whitehall in the distance. Whitehall was directed to be built by Cardinal Woolsey

Flowers all over the place at the Palace.

Buckingham Palace

St Paul’s Cathedral has a history of being a Catholic church, a Protestant church, a Catholic church, a Protestant church, and so on throughout the centuries of changing kings and queens and their religious convictions. We were running late on time thanks to the traffic so we didn’t have a lot of time to take pictures on the outside, and we weren’t supposed to take pictures on the inside. Oops.

St. Paul's Cathedral, London

The Wellington Monument

The mosaics are glass from Murano, Italy. Hey, I've been there!

The mosaic works were stunning.

Christopher Wren was a very famous and busy British architect, and he designed St. Paul’s Cathedral. His original design called for a dome, like the beautiful churches of Italy, but the clergy said no, and asked him to make some changes. He did so, but left the dome in the design. They again said no. Mr. Wren being ever so clever, took the dome out of the design but asked the clergy to include in the contract that he could make changes as the building began for the purpose of building the most beautiful cathedral in London. With that agreement in hand, Christopher Wren added the dome back in and thank goodness he did. What a beautiful dome ceiling. And the gallery around the dome is called the Whispering Gallery because no matter where you are on that gallery, if you whisper anyone else on the gallery can hear as plain as day what you have whispered. We didn’t get a chance to try it out because of our limited time.

The beautiful dome

Christopher Wren is buried in the basement of the cathedral, as is the famous Captain Horatio Nelson of the British Navy, and the first Duke of Wellington. I also found side-by-side tombs of two musicians, the plaque with ashes beneath it of Sir Alexander Fleming (discovered penicillin), and the tomb of who might possibly be an ancestor of mine – Mary Knight. I’ll be checking that out when I get home.

Christopher Wren's tomb

Side-by-side musician's tombs

Sir Alexander Fleming's ashes - discoverer of penicillin

The first duke of Wellington

Tomb of Admiral Horatio Nelson, British Navy

As we continued to tour around the city on the coach, I saw a double-decker bus with an advertisement for The Book of Mormon musical playing in London, the world famous London Harrods department store, the quaint red phone booths, Piccadilly Square, and just because I happened to be looking out the window at the right time in the right direction, a plaque that said Felix Mendelsohn had once stayed at that location!

What a cool little restaurant!

The infamous red British phone booth

London's Harrods Department Store

Prince Albert Memorial, Hyde Park

Queen Elizabeth & Prince Phillip 

Felix Mendelssohn once stayed here

London city traffic. This does not begin to show the chaos as it does not show the bikes, motorcycles, pedestrians, taxi cabs, and tour buses. These are just the city double decker buses. Crazy!!!

Piccadilly Square (likened to a mini Times Square)

We took a quick break stop at Trafalgar Square, which includes the National Museum and a lot of people and street artists. I grabbed a sandwich (typical London lunch – on the go) and just hung out with the crazies for a while before getting back on the bus to go to the London Tower.

Admiral Horatio Nelson Monument in Trafalgar Square

A lot of Londoners enjoying the great weather in front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square

A replica of a 2,000 year old Syrian arch that was destroyed by Isis terrorists in Syria.
This replica will be traveling around the world on display.

King George - Trafalgar Square

Looking on Trafalgar Square from the steps of the National Gallery

Street performers on the Square

Here kitty, kitty. Four large sculptures of lions sit on Trafalgar Square

We crossed over the “real” London Bridge and the bridge that everybody actually mistakes for the London Bridge but is actually the Tower Bridge. It’s a cool bridge where the actual London Bridge is just that – a bridge over the River Thames. The London Tower, which was originally one tower and a tower green, is quite a large complex has it has been added to and upon over the centuries. It’s most famous for those persons who were kept prisoner there, but it was also used as a defense in times of war and skirmishes. There was not enough time to go through the complex, but I got to see what I really wanted to see – the Crown Jewels (no pictures and I didn’t dare in such close proximity to security), the Tower Green where beheadings took place, and tombs and markers of famous people. It seems I have a real interest in graveyards, doesn’t it? Interesting.

The Tower Bridge - not London Bridge

The London Tower
It started out as one tower and over the centuries, it has been added upon

Most people who were taken up the river to the Tower of London that went through this gate (Traitor's Gate)
were never seen again.

The Tower Green where "private" beheadings took place.

A memorial on the Tower Green for those who were beheaded on the Green.
Queens Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard, and Lady Jane Grey are included.

Where the grass is now was where the moat was once.

This nice yeoman was very helpful when I had questions.

The church near the Tower Green where Anne Boleyn is buried (under the church, specifically under the left three candles), where Catherine Howard is buried (under the right three candles), and where Lady Jane Grey is buried (under the flowers).

The Crown Jewels were being guarded, at the doorway, by two of the furry-hatted guards and a whole lot of security inside the tower. The jewels are magnificent. I’ll include pictures on the internet of the things I actually got to see. The Tower Green has a nice memorial for those who were beheaded there, in the relative privacy of about 30 people versus the entire town of London, and I got to go into the church where Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Catherine Howard, and Queen Lady Jane Grey are buried. You can’t see their tombs, but the yeoman in the church was kind enough to explain to me where the graves are in the basement.

Guarding the Crown Jewels

The Sovereigns Sceptre with cross, with the Star of Africa diamond, 530.2 carats

The orb

Right: Imperial State Crown    Left: The everyday crown

Punch bowl. If you think this is a regular size punch bowl, you are so wrong.
It's about the size of a VW bug!

There were so many more crowns and sceptres and orbs and gold plates and other gold pieces of tableware. It was phenomenal and well guarded.

Because we were running so late the whole day, we were each given a ticket for a free river cruise from the Tower back to Westminster, if we so choose. I was going to take the safe way – the underground – but I thought “what the heck” and took the cruise on the River Thames. I’m so glad I did. The cruise was slow and relaxing and not too crowded. From the cruise I spotted Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre – again, because I happened to look up at the right time as no mention of it was made by anyone on the boat – and I had really great views of London’s modern cityscape (not my favorite), and some pretty good views of the London Eye, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. 

The real London Bridge. I rode over it and rode under it.

Modern London

I have no idea what this building is but I love it!

Hmmm, A pirate ship on deck.

The London Eye, Westminster Abbey, and Big Ben

The London Eye. I think I heard somebody say that it takes 40 minutes to go around once.

County Hall

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Westminster Abey and Big Ben. I did not know they were all a part of the same structure.

Very ornate Westminster Abbey

Big Ben is not leaning. This is the best picture I have of the whole thing - Big Ben and Westminster Abbey

We docked just as the sun was setting and it was a great way to end a very busy tour day. Instead of going back to Paddington before it got too dark, I decided to hop into a pub and see if I could get some good old English style fish and chips. Nope. I did order fish and chips but I’ve had better in Seattle. I was disappointed, but full. Took a short walk to an underground, figured out where I needed to go, and made it back to my flat safe and sound.