Listed as one of the ten most beautiful cities in Europe, London truly was gorgeous. It is so diverse and there is something to take a picture of everywhere you look!
We set out to see it on the morning of Thursday, May 5th. After a nice breakfast at our hotel, we walked and walked to find the Hop On, Hop Off bus stop. We got a bit lost. It was a rough start. It was one of two mornings on the trip that my back was excruciatingly painful (the other was later at Liverpool.) That was a rough, long walk. But once the ibuprofen kicked in, things improved, and we had a very nice day in London Town.
This day was one of the most challenging of all to blog. Between Ken and I, we took 211 pictures on that one day. I counted. (I didn't post them all, you will be glad to know!) That was after deleting the scrubs. Trying to merge his pictures with mine in a good order was a tremendous challenge. They may not be in perfect order, but here are the pictures from our second day in London.
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| A fruit stand on the street on our morning march! |
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| I loved this window display in a music store. |
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| All Souls Church in the distance |
Our first goal was the Tower of London. From there, we took a cruise on the Thames River. That was really pleasant and fun.
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| Tower of London |
It took a long time to get there on the bus, and we took a lot of not-so-great pictures on the way. Here is a smattering of those as well as some pictures from our pedestrian touring that day. I don't know how they got SO mixed up. I tried to sort them but gave up. I hope it doesn't matter. Please enjoy London!
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| I think this is a great picture with Big Ben in the background. |
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| London is full of people. This taken from a bridge shows our first glimpse of the London Eye. |
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| The Royal Court of Justice in London |
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| St. Paul's Cathedral |
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| St. Paul's Cathedral |
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| St. Paul's Cathedral- one of my two London regrets is that we didn't get to go inside this cathedral. |
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| Monument to the Great Fire of London |
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| The Shard |
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| Tower of London |
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| The Shard in the background |
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| Great picture of the Tower Bridge |
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| Ada and Don |
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| Tower of London |
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| Passing a ferry that was a twin to the one we were on. |
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| Tower of London |
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| We hoped it wasn't "falling down" while we were under there. |
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| We got off the ferry at Pickford's Wharf. |
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Our guide on this Thames tour was really good. He told the story of the opening of this Footbridge. I couldn't remember all of the details, so googled it. This is what I found out:
"The London Millennium Footbridge is located across the Thames River in Central London. Upon opening June 10, 2000, the bridge experienced pedestrian-induced lateral vibration. Observations on the day of opening and studies of video footage revealed up to 50 mm of lateral movement of the south span and 70 mm of the center span." |
That baby was rocking! They had to close the bridge after that first day and make some adjustments before it could reopen.
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| The new London Bridge |
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| The London Eye |
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| County Hall |
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| Big Ben |
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| Tower Bridge |
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| The Shard |
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| The Gherkin |
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| Cleopatra's Needle: one of two twin needles donated by Egypt. The other is in New York City. |
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| National Liberal Club |
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| The Famous Eye of London |
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| County Hall |
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| Westminster Bridge. Take me out of it and this is a great shot. |
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| Yes! Like that! Isn't that a cool picture? |
It was very crowded when we got off the ferry. We walked by Big Ben, the Tower of London, Westminster Palace, and walked to Westminster Abbey and the park out front of there.
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| Palace of Westminster |
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| Palace of Westminster |
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| In the park in front of Westminster abbey are statues of great men, including Winston Churchill. I wish I had got pictures of more of them. Ha! Just what I need: more pictures! |
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| Walkway leading to the entrance of Westminster Abbey |
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| Westminster Abbey is the other place I remembered from my visit fifty years ago. As a little Idaho girl, I was overwhelmed with how old and enormous it was. And the thought of all those people buried there was amazing to me. All these years, I have wanted to take Ken there to see it. I was thrilled to go inside this magnificent edifice. |
Ken and I both took a lot of pictures of Westminster Abbey
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| The stained-glass windows throughout were beautiful. |
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| Tomb of the Unknown Soldier |
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| We had earphones on which to listen to the self-guided tour. |
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| You may recognize this as where William and Katherine were married. Queen Elizabeth and Philip were also married here. This also was the site of Diana's funeral. |
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| The choir seats |
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| The altar |
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| That ceiling is incredibly beautiful |
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| So many famous people are buried in Westminster Abbey |
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| I think they called this Poet's Corner |
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| William Blake |
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In the hall at Westminster Abbey
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The Coronation chair. It probably won't be too long before we see this used in the coronation of Charles. It has been used for coronations for centuries.
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| Because it is behind glass, it is difficult to get a good picture. |
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An honor for Franklin D Roosevelt. They also honored him with a statue outside. The English love Roosevelt and his willingness to enter WWII.
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Courtyard of Westminster Abbey
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Such a beautiful structure
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| Walking back across the bridge to find a place to eat. |
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| Checking out the menu at a pub. I thought it was funny Don was using binoculars to try and read the tiny print. |
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| Waiting at our outdoor table at the pub. It was a cultural experience. |
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| We wanted to experience English food, so ordered English meat pies. I ordered the fisherman's pie. I really liked it. |
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| Ken ordered a meat pie and didn't care for it much. |
After our late lunch, we went back to the London Eye to catch the bus for the night tour. Following is a potpourri of pictures from that tour and some from our walking around. I cut a lot of the pictures, but there are still a lot.
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| Royal Air Force Memorial |
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| Tower Bridge |
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| Tower of London |
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Big Ben This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.
I was surprised with how beautiful Big Ben was. |
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| Westminster Cathedral |
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| Piccadilly Circus |
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| An interesting cultural phenomenon. We saw it a lot in London. In the evening hours, young adults gather at pubs. They stand outside the pubs in groups and visit as they drink. A lot of them don't drink- they just stand there and talk. I couldn't believe the sheer numbers of them. |
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| Westminster Abbey |
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| Westminster Abbey |
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| St. Paul's Cathedral "On the steps of St. Paul's" There are signs saying not to "feed the birds." I guess after seeing Mary Poppins, everyone wants to do it. |
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| St. Paul's Cathedral |
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We spent the Night Tour of London stuck in traffic. It was pretty miserable. This picture kind of sums it up. This is going onto the Tower Bridge.
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I think these pictures Ken took from the top deck of the bus of the Tower Bridge are really cool. |
| Tower Bridge |
After the night tour we were cold, tired and hungry. We walked around until we found a restaurant. The food was mediocre, but we got a late dinner and then took a taxi back to our hotel. It was a long, tiring day. But we saw a lot of wonderful things.
During that night in our hotel room, our cooler went out. I woke several times and tried to get it turned on. It just wasn't working. It was VERY hot. Early the next morning, we found the guy who fixes the coolers just outside our door. He got it going in a couple of hours. Yea!
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