The Streets of London

The day after Matt's parents' arrival in Germany, we set out on a whirlwind tour of London. Based on what we'd heard about hotels in London, we decided to stay outside of the city center. Our hotel was right next to a tube stop, so it worked out wonderfully. After checking into our hotel on Friday afternoon/early evening, we were off to Westminster Pier. This is literally the first view we were met with after arising from the underground tube: Big Ben, in all of its glory!



















From there, we walked by Parliament (shown below and located directly behind or next to Big Ben, depending on where you're standing) and Westminster Abbey (one block over) in search of pub food.














Since it was a Friday night, all of the pubs seemed to be full of imbibing locals, but we finally found Cask Pub & Kitchen, that had an open table for four. One guy was trying to fill the roles of bartender and wait staff for the entire place, so service was a bit slow, but the food was actually pretty darn good (and I was able to try some beer from the brewery we visited in Brugge, Belgium). I would say this was our most authentic pub experience of the trip.

We were up bright and early the next morning for breakfast at our hotel (fruit, yogurt, cereal, cheese, croissants, toast and other pastries, as well as juice, tea and coffee). Our first stop was the Vistor's Centre near Piccadilly Circus to pick up some discounted tickets for the Tower of London. Next, we walked to Trafalgar Square, where we were able to visit the National Gallery.

Trafalgar Square














National Gallery














Thankfully, many of the museums in London are free, so we felt like we could spend as little or as much time as we wanted in each of them. As such, we stayed at the National Gallery for less than an hour and stuck to the 18th- to early 20th-century paintings. These are some of our favorites:

Van Gogh's Sunflowers

Monet's Water-Lily Pond













From the National Gallery, we walked down White Hall Street, past the British "White House" (#10 Downing Street, home of the British Prime Minister), to Westminster Abbey.We weren't able to take pictures inside, but this is the place where Royal coronations take place and many famous writers and scientists are entombed (Chaucer, Kipling Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, and many others).

Signature red telephone booth and black taxi cab

Matt, Ashley, Diane and Harold on the South Bank

Later in the afternoon, we headed to Portobello Road Market, where we walked around aimlessly before stumbling upon a vendor selling printer's blocks and type cases from the 1930s and 40s. It took us 20+ minutes to sort through hundreds of blocks to find the letters of our last name that we liked best, but it was well worth it to have this unique souvenir from London.With ink-covered hands, we walked around Notting Hill for a bit before having dinner at Black and Blue Steakhouse, a "Rick Rec," that did not disappoint!

On Sunday morning, we visited the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, the former underground headquarters of the British government during WWII. We unintentionally skipped the Churchill Museum portion, but the War Rooms were quite interesting. They included meeting rooms filled with maps and telephones as well as sleeping quarters for staff members, Churchill, and his wife.

The gift shop had a handful of British public advertisements from 1939 to 1945, like the one below: From the museum, we walked through St. James's park on the way to Buckingham Palace.

After the summer season, the formal procession of changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace  takes place only every other day, so Sunday at 11:30 AM was our only chance to witness this fanfare. We started at Wellington Barracks where replacement guards line up for review and inspection.

The on-duty guards at St. James's Palace (red uniforms) and their band were the first to start marching toward Buckingham Palace and were joined by the Wellington Barracks guards (navy uniforms) and their band a few minutes later.

We couldn't actually see the changing of the guard because of the crowds, but Matt was able to get some pictures through the fence.

After the crowds began to disperse, we were able to get some close up pictures by the gate.

Following lunch near the Palace, we headed back to Westminster Pier for a Thames River cruise to the Tower Pier. It was a nice way to see the many bridges and buildings along the Thames. Although London Bridge has been made famous by the nursery rhyme, it is actually fairly unimpressive...

The Millennium Bridge (shown below) originally opened in 2000, but closed 2 days later because it was swaying so badly in the wind! It reopened in 2002.

And finally, one of the most impressive bridges, if not sights, in London: Tower Bridge 

After the cruise, we went to the Tower of London, which is really more of a complex, rather than a tower, as the name implies. This place has a pretty ugly history as a prison/execution site of rebels, but also houses the beautiful crown jewels, including the Imperial State Crown, scepter, and orb used in Royal coronations.

Next, we walked to St. Paul's Cathedral, the church where Charles and Diana were married. Since it was a Sunday, the cathedral was closed for services, but we were able to sit and listen to the tail end of a free organ concert while taking in some interior views.

On Monday morning, we started our day by riding the London Eye, a ferris wheel built by British Airways and originally leased to the city for 5 years, which has recently been extended to 25 years. The ride took about 30 minutes and we were able to see pretty great views of the city from 450 feet in the air.

On the London Eye  

View of Parliament and Big Ben from the top

Next, we visited the British Library (free admission) that is filled with historical documents, like the Magna Carta, Gutenberg's Bible, Lewis Caroll's Alice's Adventures Under Ground (what we now know as Alice in Wonderland), and several handwritten Beatles lyrics.

The British Museum is also free and filled with Greek, Assyrian, and Egyptian artwork.  

 The Great Court

One of the main highlights of the museum is the Rosetta Stone (provided the link to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphics, circa 196 BC)...

Me want some Gum, Gum.

This horse was huge and had the original bronze bridle...

I think these marble statues are from the Parthenon in Greece. Having been to the Parthenon, it would have been nice to see them in their original environment; however, in reference to Greek artifacts displayed here, the British museum states that "they were rescued from the ruins of Acropolis and have since been preserved from modern atmospheric pollution." How convenient! We just had to laugh at the language on this informational plaque.

On our final night in London, we went to "We Will Rock You," a rock musical based on the music of Queen. We loved it! This gilded statue of Freddie Mercury stands outside the Dominion Theatre, where this show has been playing for 8 years. 

Such an intimate venue to see this kind of show...we thought our seats would be really far from the stage, but the whole theatre was pretty small. We knew the music would be good, but the show was hilarious!

After the show, we took our final taxi cab ride of the trip and headed back to the hotel. The next morning, we took the tube to Heathrow Airport and flew back to Frankfurt. We saw as much as possible on this length of a trip and we were all pretty tired from our intense touring. Happy to have seen it with you, Mom and Dad / Harold and Diane!