London - day 1

We arrived in London about noon and quickly passed through customs, found the tube and started our journey to our apartment in the Islington neighborhood, north of the city.  It's the first of many times we're thankful we have only carryon luggage to haul around!

Small, but clean and adequate for us.....kind of like a cruise ship; we mostly need a place for breakfast and to sleep!   It was mid afternoon so we decided to just walk around and explore our neighborhood and get a feel for the city.

A typical neighborhood - no detached houses anywhere and we were pretty far out in the suburbs.  All attached homes and didn't see any garages unless they're in a back alley somewhere.

Tomorrow starts some serious sightseeing as we head to Cambridge.

London - day 3

Friday, October 2

Standing in Trafalgar Square - the arches lead to St. James park.  The square was under construction everywhere so we didn't linger. St James Park is lovely and the gardens are just gorgeous.

Buckingham Palace from St James park

Dan's focus this morning is to get to Buckingham early enough that we can get a good photo place for the changing of the guards. He kept rushing me through the park!  We got to the palace about 10am and the area was starting to fill up but it was nothing compared to how crowded it finally got.

The new guards arrived around 11:30 and the whole ceremony took about 40 minutes - 40 long, boring minutes to me.  However, Dan loved it.  I couldn't wait to leave.

Had lunch at the Grenadier, a pub originally built to feed the queen's guard soldiers - Dan had the best beer of the trip - a Wodehouse Wherry.  Then, the tube to St. Paul's Cathedral.  We couldn't take photos inside, but it is definitely another beautiful church.  One of the 50 London churches designed by Christopher Wren, it is the second largest domed cathedral after St. Peter's in Rome.

We didn't climb the dome levels, though I wish now that we would have.

The cathedral from the Millenium bridge.

The Shard building in the background.

On to the shopping / eating area called Neal's Yard. Found it online and was surprised it was so small. We passed through and took a few pictures, then went to dinner and home to do laundry.

A busy but fun day -

London - day 5

Sunday, October 4

Our last day in London started at the Tower of London. We were there bright and early so the ticket line wasn't very long.  Once we got inside, the wait to see the crown jewels was minimal.  We were underwhelmed by the jewels and the other museum items in general. We were in and out of this section pretty quickly.  We found the grounds more interesting.

The castle was originally a royal residence and at that time common gifts from visiting royalty were live exotic animals.  Over the years a large menagerie was established and this sculpture represents that menagerie.

Nearby is the Tower Bridge which we did not tour, just walked across:

One of the places I wanted to see was St. Dunstan in the East so after lunch we headed that direction. On the way we came across a couple of cool finds.

All Hallows church - the oldest in London. A small, charming, old church.  Its claim to fame in addition to being the oldest is that it houses the oldest existing Saxon arch (from 675) and Roman tesselated flooring from the 2nd century.

Continuing on we found the pub with maybe the coolest name in London - we stopped in for a drink.

St. Dunstan in the East is another church built by Christopher Wren that was bombed during WWII. They left the damaged walls & tower and created a little park.  It's calm and quiet in the middle of a busy city - a great little surprise of a garden.

in camera sepia setting

This little garden was one of my favorite sites in London. After all the elaborate, intricate architecture, it was a relief to enjoy something simpler.  Dan said he'd seen enough stone and concrete and wanted some green, so we took the tube across town to Hyde Park.

Speakers Corner was in full swing - lots of religious speakers and more than a few hecklers.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that all the planting beds were still in full bloom and pretty - arbors, paths, rose gardens, a lake - the park has it all!

We walked FORever through this park - didn't realize how big it was.

It was time for a rest.  As we finally moved on, we were surprised by this monument - somehow my research overlooked this.

The Prince Albert monument built by Queen Victoria in 1875 is 176 feet tall, and literally glows in the sun with all the gold detailing.  Around the base are 169 individual composers, architects, artists, poets, etc.  On each of the 4 corners is a large sculpture representing Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas with figures and a central animal.  This is one detailed and amazing monument!

We're starving by this point so keep walking into the Nottinghill district and find a pub - The Windsor Castle - Dan had beef pie and Yorkshire pudding; I had delicious salmon and asparagus.

Caught the tube home and spent the evening updating my trip journal and RESTING!