Travel

The Tower of London

On our third and final day in London we got out a bit earlier. We had breakfast at a bakery around the corner from our hotel and then caught a bus to near Harrods department store. We spent about an hour wandering around the store.

From there we took a bus to Victoria Station and then walked past Westminster Cathedral to Westminster Abbey. The line to get in the Abbey was fairly long (did I mention that August isn’t the best time to visit London?) but there was nothing for it but to join the queue and wait.

It was pretty crowded inside, as well. No photography is allowed in the abbey, which is probably just as well, when you consider how slowly people were moving without taking pictures. Most of our group listened to the audio guides but Dorothy and I satisfied ourselves with reading the monuments themselves. While I’m certainly glad we went, I’m not as thrilled with Westminster Abbey as I am with some other churches I’ve visited. It’s more a shrine to fallen men than a place to worship the God whom they ostensibly served.

After lunch in the new Cellarium cafe, which opened last year, we walked across Westminster Bridge and caught a bus to near Tower Bridge. We enjoyed the view of the bridge and the Tower of London across the river from Potter’s Fields Park. We walked across the bridge and then around the Tower, which was closed by this time.

We took a bus back to the west, passing St. Paul’s Cathedral, which we didn’t have time to see on this trip. I’ve been in but I’d love to go there again. I’m a fan of big domes. We had dinner near Covent Garden and the returned to our hotel, again via Trafalgar Square. Buying Oyster cards before leaving home turned out to be a good idea. We certainly got our money’s worth out of them.

Big Ben and Westminster Abbey

We got off to a late start this morning because everyone was so tired. We left the hotel at about 11:30, had breakfast and then caught a bus to near the British Museum. That was high on everyone’s “I really want to go there” list. It was absolutely jammed with people and it would be nice to visit again sometime other than August, but we were all still glad we went. We were there for about four hours (except I left to have a cup of coffee with a friend who was nice enough to meet me for an hour or so).

From the British Museum we took the bus to Westminster. We decided we were hungry enough that we’d like to have dinner. We ate at The Red Lion, opposite Downing Street and enjoyed a relatively quiet meal away from the crowds (somewhat surprisingly, but I guess it was a bit early for dinner for most people). After dinner we walked to Westminster Abbey but by this point is was closed. Considering how long it takes to go through, it was just as well. We had tickets for the London Eye so we walked across Westminster Bridge and got on without spending more than 15 minutes in line. It’s a nice ride providing a great view of the city and I highly recommend it.

We crossed the river again on the Hungerford Bridge, which is actually a pair of walking bridges on either side of the rail bridge that leads into Charing Cross Rail Station. We made our way to Trafalgar Square and took the requisite pictures of the girls climbing on the lions around Nelson’s Column. We took the bus back to our hotel but went to Gelato Mio a few blocks away for a nice dessert before heading to bed.

On-board Miss Sunshine, our Airbus 330-300

As many of you know, we went to England for two weeks this summer. Since I’m posting these after we got back, I can say with some confidence that we had a wonderful time, saw some amazing sights, and are very glad we went. We traveled with another family, Stuart and Donna and their three beautiful daughters, Hannah, Ellen, and Katie.

If it had been possible to go any time other than the month of August that would have been nice but it simply wasn’t going to happen any other time. Still, we had fabulous weather for most of the trip (and the rainy day was pretty awesome, as well). Many places we went were crowded but we managed to squeeze a wide variety of things into a relatively short time and had a good time doing it.

This trip was a long time coming. The idea for it actually came up more than a year ago and we even talked about going last summer but with the Olympics, that didn’t seem like a good idea. Last fall, though, we started talking in earnest and early this year we began making firm plans, buying tickets, booking rooms in hotels, and renting two cars for most of the time (but not London).

The date of departure finally arrived. This is one of only a few pictures I took as we left on Miss Sunshine, a Virgin Atlantic Airbus. Don’t worry, I took a few more pictures once we got there.