Day Twelve London Revisited

Photos: Top to Bottom

Queens Gate, Buckingham Palace, Gardens in front of Palace, Palace Gates, Palace Guards with Audrey, Goose in St. James Park, Whitehall Street, Lunch, Audrey shopping at Covent Gardens, London Eye, At the top of the Eye, View of Houses of Parliment, View of the Thames


Today was an Audrey Tour on steroids and the only word that comes to mind when I think of what we saw is WOW! We headed first to Westminster and Royal London. Our train in took us conveniently to Charing Cross which is only a mere mile walk to Buckingham Palace. But the walk is through St. James Park which is beautiful. Lots of flowers, a couple of large ponds and several hundred geese. We managed to catch the morning horse parade which was very colorful but unfortunately the changing of the guards is done every other day and today was not the day. We did watch the guards marching up and down in front of the palace and we were especially lucky to corner a couple of them for a picture later on in the palace garden. One of the highlights of today was our tour of Buckingham Palace. While the Queen is at Balmoral in Scotland they open the palace for tours of about fifteen rooms used by the Queen to entertain guests. There are not words in the English language which would describe these rooms. They were absolutely gorgeous. The elegance and splendor and opulence of the royals go far beyond what we do in America. I have been through our White House and while it is very beautiful in its own right it doesn’t hold a candle to Buckingham Palace. Another plus for this tour was the headset we were given that describes what we were seeing. If you wanted to spend a little extra time looking at something you could stop and start it which allowed you to take the tour at your pace. It was so well done it even had “Royal” music in the background so you almost felt like you were a guest of the Queen. The tour started at 11:15 and it was one o’clock before we said goodbye to this supreme symbol of London.

From Buckingham Palace we walked back through St. James Park and up Whitehall Street to #10 Downing street, London’s modest version of our White House. We could only take pictures from a distance as this formidable place is well protected behind huge black iron gates and guards with machine guns.

By now it was time for lunch and a very attractive café on Whitehall fit the bill perfectly.
Well refreshed we were ready to tackle Westminster Abby, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Everything in London is done on such a grand scale it really goes beyond comprehension. There is so much history to observe that it is overwhelming. Big Ben is big, it’s ornate and it’s very humbling when you stand beside it. Especially when you look at what else your eye is seeing. We were fortunate to hear it strike the hour and the sound is resonating.

Charlie and I had taken the tour of Westminster Abby and the Houses of Parliament when we were in London several years ago and seeing the buildings again refreshed our memory to the point that we decided to pass on them this year and continue on to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery.

Trafalgar Square is a large gathering place complete with a few huge marble lions which surround a tower dedicated to Lord Nelson. This is literally the center of London. There is a plaque in the sidewalk which marks the spot from which all UK signposts are measured. It is also home to the National Gallery.

Now this is what I call a gallery. It is a huge edifice towering above the square, with of course, a mere forty or fifty steps to get up to it. Once inside this massive structure you are transported back in time to the days of DaVinci, Reuben and many other great artists. The works of these masters is amazing. The colors are so vibrant they look like they were painted yesterday. This is a gallery I hated to leave.

But the Audrey tour must continue and now it was time for Covent Gardens. The name is misleading because the gardens which were once here are now a collection of shops and restaurants. We shared a large cookie for energy and made our way up and down the isles of this eclectic area.

Next on the tour is The London Eye. This marvelous piece of engineering on the bank of the Thames is the largest observation wheel ever built and one of the tallest structures in London. It looks like a gigantic bicycle wheel with glass bubble cars attached to its outer rim. The ride around takes approximately thirty minutes and the views from your bubble are spectacular. You can see all of London and then some. Definitely not for someone afraid of heights.

Although it was getting late I still had Hyde Park on my list. We took the tube to Hyde Park corner and set off through the park in search of the Princess Diana memorial. After two miles of walking through this beautiful park (they do everything big in England) we at last were in front of our destination. I have to say, this is the poorest example of a memorial that I have ever seen. Not a flower nor a light nor a plaque did we see. There may have been a fountain, but it was not operating when we were there.

By now it was pitch dark and we were tired and hungry and not really sure how to get back to where we needed to be. We decided to get on a double decker bus and see where it went. The reader board said Victoria and we hoped that meant the station. It was good to stop walking and the shops and city lights we observed as we rode along on the top level were very colorful. And it did go to Victoria station. By now we were very tired and in need of wine and food. The pubs in this area did not excite us however we came across this charming Italian restaurant that provided cold wine and delicious food. We were once again happy campers. Now it was time to find our way back to our train station. I wouldn’t say we were experts yet but we at least have a working knowledge of the tube and so were able to get back with little hassle. We made the 9:30 train as it was loading for departure back to the quiet world of Kent.

I mentioned that this was an Audrey tour on steroids. After Monday’s trip into the city we decided that today we would wear our step counters. Charlie’s step counter read 24,518; mine was a little bit more. The distance was 12.4 miles! And you have to know that a lot of those steps were up and down stairs.