Anyway, our flight to London was great. I was excited because I got to see Massachusetts' boot; however I wasn't brilliant enough to take a picture of it. We were excited because we had video screens in our seats, so we got to have games, trivia (and together we beat up the other players on the plane), and pick which movies we wanted to watch.
We got into Gatwick about 7 a.m., and I as usual attracted the person who thought that cows were sheep and that it was SOOOO amazing that England had these HUGE areas where THOUSANDS of cars were parked. I wanted to turn around and say, "Ma'am, if you've ever left your house in the U.S., you'd realize those are parking lots." I really couldn't make up this stuff if I tried.
Gatwick is a 30 minute train ride away from London, and the great part was our travel company (Trafalgar) arranged for our transport from plane to airport. We got to Victoria Station and then were introduced to London traffic, which was the calmest we saw on the trip. I will never make too much fun of Missouri drivers anymore.
We couldn't get our room until after 1, so we left our bags with the front desk and took off walking. We figured we'd find a currency exchanged on the way, but no dice. We stumbled onto Kensington Park, so we ended up wandering around it for the day. This meant we saw Kensington Palace (where Diana lived, and the entire continent is obsessed with her), Royal Albert Hall (there was some squealing when I realized what it was and then educated Jeremy on the fact that Beatles played there and the entire story behind it), the Albert memorial, Diana's memorial (Jeremy said it looked like a log ride), and amazingly well-behaved dogs. Sam would not have fit in over there. We headed back to the hotel, got our room, and crashed out because we could no longer keep our eyes open. We didn't wander out for dinner and opted for the hotel food.
The next morning, we had a 1/2 day tour scheduled, and we get on the bus only to find out we will get to see the queen; princes Harry, William, Charles, and Philip; Princess Ann; and Camilla because it was the queen's birthday (Trouping the Colour). My mouth immediately dropped open, and I was just ready to go stand on the edge of the street. On this tour we also drove past Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St. James Palace, the museums and Downing Street. Since it was the "big" day, we also got to see a lot of the nobles in their fancy clothes and big hats (yes, I was bummed that I wasn't given enough notice because I would have so bought a big hat to wear). The bad part of the day was that I was sick. I'm blaming the awful English food, but I honestly don't know what it was. All I know is that seeing food made my stomach curl, and made me a little agitated. The short, rude woman who kept shoving her camera in my view at the parade almost got beat down because of this. At least the boy is tall and got decent pictures. Neither of us managed to get Prince Charles or Princess Ann; they were wearing full dress uniform so the hats obscured them. They were there though.
Philip, why do all these commoners think that I care to see them?
Camilla's hat was just ugly. I would have had a much more interesting one.
After Trouping the Colour, the tour was basically done. So, we hiked it down to Buckingham Palace, which is smaller than I thought it was, and then went back to Westminster Abbey so we could go inside. It was a little unnerving to think that we were walking over graves in the church and that we were basically looking at graves the entire time, but it was very interesting. They had a very good audiotour that was narrated by Jeremy Irons. I was happy enough to see the grave of Elizabeth I, which includes a life size figure of her. We were very glad we went.
Then, we trooped it up to the national gallery, which we were kinda disappointed in. There weren't many impressionist paintings, and I'm most happiest seeing Monet and Van Gogh. It did have DaVinci's Maddona on the Rocks, so it was nice to see that.
We were still jet lagged, and I was tired and cranky thanks to the stomach issues, so we got on the Underground and went back to the hotel. I crashed out for two hours, and Jeremy went to the grocery store to get us peanut butter and bread. I had croissants for dinner, and he had peanut butter sandwiches. Neither of us felt like we were missing out on much.
I did not go to Abbey Road. I couldn't easily pinpoint it on the maps we had, and I was too sick to really make an effort to go see it. I was happy enough that we saw the royals because how often does that happen?
Hopefully, I will update tomorrow with details from Paris, which was our favorite part of the trip, much to my surprise. Of course, the French know how to make bread, which will endear any country to me.
Where's Part 2?
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for Chapter 2. You should write a book.
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