London - Day 2

May 14, 2014 (Warning - this is a long post!)

The last day of vacation!  (I don't count the last travel day...there's generally nothing restful about that).
We took the train into London to Victoria Station.  We purchased a day pass for travel after peak morning hours which gave us access to the trains and underground.  It was a really good investment for a little more than 10 pounds per person.


The station according to K was a five minute walk to Buckingham Palace.  I really must teach her to tell time!  But it was early morning, I was well rested, and so excited to be there.

We were too late to get a good place to see the changing of the guards but we did see them marching in.

I thought it was so awesome when the horse bowed to the guards!

We took a walk through St. James Park on our way to Horse Guards Parade.  There were so many different birds and most were pretty tame.

I've sent these photos to my brother as he is the naturalist in the family.  He can identify them for me!

And then there was cute little guy! He was charming people for peanuts.

This was one of the guards at the Horse Guards Parade (the building above).  He was very stoic!

Next on the list of places was Westminster Abbey.  On the way we passed Downing Street and Big Ben too! (The London Eye is in the background)

Just as we arrived at the Abbey, the bells began to peal.  I have no idea why but it was phenomenal!

Can you imagine the man hours that went into creating the fresco above the door?

From Abbey we made our on Victoria (Street I think) to a pub where I finally got my fish and chip lunch!  Doesn't it look good? 

After a nice lunch and a great beer (sorry it was pub brew and I didn't catch the name) we made our way to St. James Underground Station and we took the tube to Kensington Palace.  I thought I'd stop in and see if Wills and Kate needed a caregiver for baby George for a couple of hours..but no one was home.

Queen Victoria

We decided to walk through Kensington Gardens to Hyde Corner. This time we knew it would be more than a five minute walk!

We spotted this spire off in the distance and went to see what it was.

 It was a statue for Albert, Queen Victoria's husband.  Seriously, he gets a bigger statue than the Queen?

This a portion of the Princess Diana's memorial fountain. It's actually a circular structure. Everyone is welcome to dip their feet in it!

By the time we reached the rose gardens I felt like this guy!
Thankfully so did J, so we decided not to continue to Hyde Corner but took the underground train to Picadilly Circus instead.

Finally, we took the underground train back to Victoria Station and walked the five minutes (NOT!) back to Buckingham Palace.

Do you suppose the Royals ever look at the window and wish the tourists would just go away?

With one last photo of the guard, my day in London was over. It was a great day, even if my feet were throbbing and all I wanted to do was sit down.  The weather was perfect, about 20C.  Finally!

 We took the train back to the Gatwick Airport where we grabbed dinner from Marks and Spencer and ate at the food court, and then it was back to the hotel to pack and get some sleep.

Our flight left London at 9:30 a.m. local time, it was a 9 hour flight to Calgary where we had a three hour layover (which turned into four) before flying home.  Why is it, the last flight is always the one that is delayed?

It was a marvelous, fantastic, incredible, amazing... insert superlative here...vacation.  It truly was a trip of a lifetime!  I hope you've enjoying sharing my memories with me.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

London-Gatwick - Day One

May 13, 2014

We flew out of Copenhagen on Tuesday morning arriving at the London-Gatwick airport shortly before lunch.  We were staying at a Premiere Inn close to the airport and K had told us it was "just across the road" from the airport.  Directly across the road, my ass!

I got some general directions from the customs officer but K was certain she knew where it was. Unfortunately the airport has increased in size since she was there last and the door she remembered no longer existed.  So after a good 30-45 minutes of walking in various directions, lugging bags and carry-ons through parkades, around buildings, past garbage bins, we finally found the right sidewalk and found the hotel.  By the time we checked in I was....a little cranky!

But after check-in and dropping our stuff off, I was ready for more adventure.  We headed back to the airport...a 10 minute walk now that we knew where we going!  We decided to take a bus to Crawley, a small town near by.  The goal was to find a local pub for a fish and chip lunch!

Well, we found a pub, one of a chain of Wetherspoon pubs, but no fish and chips as they had sold out!

I cannot imagine how old this hotel would be, but it looked in a bit of disrepair.

I spotted this sign for Ebergreens and had to follow the path. My father's name was Eber, an uncommon name.

We wandered this little narrow street, with shops on either side
and came out into a courtyard in front of a church.

We wandered about the graveyard, reading the headstones.  Some of them were illegible but many dates back until the mid-late 1800's.

On our way back through the town, we made a stop at the Post Office to purchase stamps for our postcards and then at the £ Store, where everything costs a pound (about $1.80 Cdn).  We bought some candy treats and wandered through the store.

This box caught my eye, but I didn't purchase it...I can't remember the last time I was at a fancy dress party!


Back at the airport we stopped for dinner at a Giraffe restaurant (no live giraffes and no fish and chips either).  Then it was back to the hotel for an good night's sleep because the next day we were "going to London to see the Queen!"

Tomorrow - London