Day 1: Arrival

My mom, Rose, joined us on a trip to London. She had been there before, just last year, but agreed to go again.

For our plane ride over, we tried something different. Most USA-Europe flights (including all the ones we've taken in the past) leave in the evening and arrive (with the time difference) the following morning.

Since we were unable to leave Friday evening, we decided to take a flight that left Saturday morning, putting us into London around 10:30 at night. We figured that would allow us to get a good night's sleep and therefore a better start on our sightseeing Sunday morning. I think that worked quite well!

Here's Brian, standing in line:
We had a direct flight, which was nice. The London Tube system does not run 24 hours a day, so we were a bit worried about making it off of the plane in time. Luckily, we had no problems and were soon heading towards our apartment!

Here are Rose and Brian on the Tube:
As we've done on past trips, we rented an apartment instead of getting a hotel. The owner sent us the keys ahead of time, so we were all set when we arrived just around midnight.

Obviously, very little sightseeing was done this day; however, the apartment was right by the Tower of London, so we were able to catch a glimpse of this historic complex as we made our way towards what would be home for the next week.

After saying goodnight, we settled in for our first night in London!

Day 2: British Library & British Museum

Sunday, our first full day in London. There was a park across the street from us, on the way to the Tube stop. I imagine that it must be even more beautiful during the spring and summer. We got some unexpected history. There was a memorial at the location where the scaffold had been set up for the execution of, among others, Sir Thomas More. Brian is looking at the markers, which listed the names of others who had met a similar fate.
We hopped on the Tube and made our way to Spitalfields Market. We walked around, looking at the various things that were for sale. Brian got some money from the ATM:
Here is a view of part of the market (it was much bigger than we anticipated):
We stopped at a cafe for coffee and breakfast:
And then we hopped on the Tube again and visited the British Library.
Unfortunately, camera were not allowed to be used inside. We saw, among other things, copies of the magna carta, Shakespeare's First Folio, drawings by Leonardo, and original music scores by various composers.

Then, we headed over to the British Museum; here are Brian and Rose entering through a back entrance:
We were surprised and pleased to see that the atrium had the same glass ceiling as we'd seen at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in DC.
We ate lunch in their cafe; here's a view of the line from an upper level:
Here are Rose and Brian, with a view of the shop in the background. Brian and I were very pleasantly surprised by the quantity and quality of vegetarian choices at every place we frequented. It was easier to find great stuff to eat here than back home!

I am barely visible, but here I am next to a moai:
And here's Brian looking at an exhibit of pills that purported to show how many pharmaceuticals the average person will consume in their lifetime:
Finally, I tried to get a picture of the Rosetta Stone. As you might imagine, it attracted quite the crowd (even in November!) This particular man kept getting in the way of my camera. I tried from several different angles, but he managed to get in front of me every single time. I decided that was a sign that he was meant to be in the blog:
Then, we stopped in at a pub for a drink. While paging through a guidebook to see what else we might be able to do on a Sunday evening, we noticed that Westminster Abbey had a free organ concert every Sunday at 17:45. We calculated that we'd have just enough time to make it, and we were seated with a minute to spare!

After the concert, we walked around. This picture is rather dark, but that's London at night. You can see the London Eye, lit up in green in the background. We stopped at a restaurant for dinner.And then took the Tube back home. Here are Rose and Brian waiting for the train to arrive:

Off to bed after a first exhausting day in London!

Day 3: National Gallery

On Monday, we woke up and had a small breakfast in the apartment. Then, we headed out on the Tube towards Trafalgar Square, with the intention of going to the National Gallery. We were earlier than expected and the museum was not yet opened. This gave us a chance to stop in at a little cafe for some coffee and a pastry.

We walked around Trafalgar Square; here is Nelson's Column:
As you might be able to see, they were doing some work, so we were unable to get too close. By that time, the National Gallery was open, so we headed there. The outside of the building:
We spent several hours looking at masterpieces. As it approached lunchtime, we decided to eat lunch in the crypt restaurant at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. There was a concert at 1 pm we wanted to see, so we ate first and then headed to the church.

On our way to the church, we noticed that there were many pigeons flying about, sounding an alarm call. We soon realized why when we noticed some official-looking people with a ladder: there was an injured hawk in front of one of the windows of the National Gallery.
Here's Rose, in the crypt. There was a little room off to the side with a table. We ate there, isolated from the other diners:
And a not-so-flattering picture of my travel companions:
Here is the outside of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Like so many other London attractions, inside pictures were prohibited:We were a bit disappointed that the concert was an organ one (since we had just heard one yesterday), but the pieces were short and as upbeat as one can expect for organ music, which was nice.

We then crossed the street to return to the National Gallery so we could see the rest of the rooms. In front, a newspaper was staging their photo for the following morning (Election Day in the US). We're not sure which paper this was for, but Brian noticed they took several pictures, with signs saying "Obama wins!" and "McCain wins!"We next took the Tube to the Burlington Arcade and then walked around the area some. We stopped in Fortnum and Mason for a look around. I had never heard of this store before, but it was quite possibly the most elegant store I have ever been in. I would have loved to take a picture of the inside, but felt too gauche. Here is Rose looking in one of the windows they had decorated for Christmas:We stopped at a pub, Blackfriars, for a quick drink.Then, we went to yet another pub for dinner. Brian and I were able to get vegetarian versions of British specialties. He got bangers and mash, and I got shepherd's pie:After dinner, we took the Tube back home. We rested a bit and planned some things for the next day. However, we couldn't relax too much because we had tickets to see the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. Once again, no cameras were allowed.

This ceremony has been taking place for 700 years! It was quite interesting to witness this piece of living history. Once the Tower was safely locked up, we were escorted out through a hole in the door and we crossed the street to return to our apartment.

Day 4: London Pass

Before leaving for London, we purchased the London Pass. The combination we purchased allowed for unlimited Tube rides for 7 days, and 3 consecutive days of unlimited sightseeing at specified attractions.

Of course we wanted to get the best value for our money, so we tried to visit as many of these attractions as we could.

We started our first London Pass day by going to the Tower of London, just across the street from our apartment.

We arrived a few minutes before the Tower opened, hoping to find an open coffee shop. We were disappointed in that regard, but took the time to walk around the perimeter of the tower and read the signs that had been posted.

The Tower is actually a complex of buildings, with the oldest having been started by William the Conqueror in 1078. Over 900 years ago! Among other experiences, we got to visit the place where the Princes in the Tower were last known to be alive, and see the graffiti, "Jane," carved into the wall where her husband was imprisoned.There was an impressive display of armour, much of it thought to be worn by specific kings and their horses. In this picture, Brian is replicating a picture my dad took when they visited the Tower on their trip last year:That's Henry VIII's armour in the case behind him.

One thing we noticed is that many of the London museums had interactive exhibits, and the Tower was no exception. Here, Brian is playing a game with a fake sword. It seemed to be a version of wack-a-mole.We also visited the crown jewels, but we weren't allowed to take pictures. This was one of the many times we were happy to not be here in high season. If I remember correctly, there were three separate room with corrals for people to wait, like before reaching security at the airport or while waiting for a ride at an amusement park. With no crowds, we were able to walk right through these.

Most of the jewels were in a glass case with a moving walkway on either side, so as to keep the line moving. Once again, with no crowds, we were able to continuously take steps to the left in order to stay in front of the piece we wanted to look at. We also went through a second time so that we could see the front and back of the jewels.

Outside, we saw some of the famous ravens. There were signs asking visitors not to approach them, so we respected that. This guy rather blends into the stairs, but he's about in the middle of the photo.Here is their cage. There were two ravens inside that we watched for a few minutes. They appeared to want to get out!

I believe that we were in the area of the Tower showcasing some of the torture and execution methods used. I further believe that Brian is standing in front of a display that has what is believed to be the execution block and/or axe for Anne Boleyn's execution. I guess I should take better notes with my pictures! In any case, this shows the wonderful ambiance inside of the Tower's exhibits.

Here, Rose is standing by the place thought to be the site of Anne Boleyn's execution. The picture came out a little fuzzy, unfortunately.We weren't able to go into the chapel, pictured in the background above. This was allowed only for people who went on a tour with a Yeoman Warder. And while we would have loved to have done so, we were a bit pressed for time and couldn't wait the 45 minutes until the next one.

After exiting the Tower, we went to the small cafe attached, for a coffee/light lunch. I really liked the paintings on the walls of this cafe!The next stop on our London Pass tour extravaganza was the Tower Bridge Exhibition. The pictures on the linked website are more beautiful than ours as we had the bad luck to be there on a very gray and gloomy day. Here is a view of the Bridge from near the Tower:And a couple of views of London taken from the upper bridge:As we exited the bridge, we were on the south side of the Thames River for the first time.

We continued on to the Britain at War exhibit. This was one of the many times I was happy we'd gotten the London Pass. I don't think I would have gone to this museum otherwise, and I would have missed out!

We entered the museum and were directed onto an elevator (lift), which brought us down to the exhibition:

There were many videos, posters, and other things to give us an idea of what the average British citizen went through during WWII.I can't even imagine going through what these people did! Brian, looking at the cots:There was a replica bomb shelter that went dark and had bombing noises coming through the speakers:At the end was a shocking representation of the devastation caused by the bombing.

The next attraction we went to is another one I don't think we would have visited had it not been for the London Pass, and another one that was very interesting and fun. It was the HMS Belfast; a naval vessel in service during, among other times, WWII.

We took lots of pictures, so I had to choose some of the better ones. There was quite a bit of climbing up and down to different levels:And lots of pretending to work the various pieces of equipment:Here's a picture of Rose taking a picture of the dental bay:And of me, pretending to be a prisoner (don't worry if you can't read my name on the chalkboard; I just left it the way it was):Leaving the south side of the Thames, we took the Tube to Kensington Gardens. We walked through the Gardens to Kensington Palace, where photos are not allowed.

The exhibitions inside were mainly about clothes, which are not that interesting to any of us, so we didn't stay very long. As we walked back to the Tube, we saw a gentleman who must come frequently to feed the birds and squirrels. The squirrels would climb up his legs for nuts. They were also very fat!Realizing it had been many hours since we had eaten (and when we had, it was a light lunch), we headed to a pub in the neighborhood. Then, we got on the Tube back to our home station. We ate dinner at Wagamama, which is apparently a chain, but we had never heard of them before. It looks like the only US locations are in Boston.

The meal was delicious, and we had a very nice waiter!

After dinner, we walked to the nearest grocery store, a Tesco. Here is Brian, trying to figure out the self-checkout. We had a few problems, and I think they mostly resulted from the fact that we had brought our own bag (from Envirosax, if anyone's interested -- they're fantastic!).

We walked home, put away the groceries, and settled in for another night's sleep after a busy day.

Goodnight!