Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Met in the lobby at 9:30 a.m. and off onto the tube by 10:00. Due to the commuting schedule, it was 'asked' on our London Pass that we do not board until after 10, to leave the space for the working bee's. That worked for us!!
Today's goal: Changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben in Parliament Square, the London Eye, a ride along the Thames River and The Monument.
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| Feeling pretty refreshed! |
The Changing of the Guards was a huge pomp and circumstance that happens EVERY DAY at 11 a.m.!! WOW! Such dedication and protocol! Horses, bands, music, rifles, marching!!
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| The Exchange |
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| When the flag is flying, the Queen is home! (The flag was flying!) |
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| The public gardens as we walked from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey. |
I was most impressed to actually see the graves INSIDE of the Westminster Abbey of Sir Isaac Newton buried 1727, Charles Darwin buried 1882, Charles Dickens, Robert Burns, Mary Queen of Scots...just to name a few!
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| Westminster Abbey - so much history! Consecrated in 1065!! Now that is OLD!!! |
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| AMEN! |
That all cooked up quite the appetite! We asked one of the guards at the Abbey where he would suggest for lunch, without a doubt - THE SANCTUARY!! Great little spot where Pimm's was introduced to us - kind of like an iced tea/lemonade/mint and light rum. Very refreshing!
This time Tay got the fish and chips! His was better than ours!
This place was known for their meat pies. Oh my! By looking at this pic, my mouth waters!! It was soooo yummy!!!
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| Big Ben!! |
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| Big Ben, Big Tay, Big Dick, Big Red bus and some other white dude! haha |
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Heading over to the big ferris wheel called The London Eye
It is the tallest ferris wheel in Europe - 443 feet tall and diameter of 394 feet. It has 32 sealed and air conditioned capsules that hold about 25 people.
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The views were spectacular!! Everyone enjoyed the ride, except Dickie. He has a fear of heights and just could not make the trip....but he enjoyed the pics!
Oh the views!! It was a magnificent ride! Taylor was freaking a little because he also has a fear of heights but he did great!
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The Thames River
We hopped on the last boat to go out on the river. We wanted to go all the way up to Greenwich but it could only take it to the Tower of London. The tour of the river was interesting and many places were pointed out to us - including Shakespeare's Globe. We wanted to check this area out more but really had no time. Plus, we have to save some things for THE NEXT TIME!! |
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| Interesting old bridge |
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| Tower of London from the river. (We'll check this out more tomorrow) |
We walked to The Monument (it stood in the back right of the photo below). I found it interesting that every pub we walked by, people were always standing outside, enjoying the sunshine (fairly rare in London).
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| The Monument! |
There was a great fire in London in 1666 about 200 feet away from this monument. We could have walked to the top - 311 steps, but it was getting later in the day and they were closed.
The men had to check the maps to figure out where to catch the tube back home.....
We made our way back to our beautiful hotel lobby, had a few drinks and appetizers for dinner and called it a day.
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| Hotel lobby/kick it area. |
When we arrived in the room, a towel and slippers were set and the lights where on a romantic low!
1 comment:
I'm afraid of heights too! I would have hung with UD at the bottom :)
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