London: Part Three

On Easter Sunday, we did a lot of walking to see some sites and to enjoy the great weather.  We started from our hotel in the financial district and walked south across the Tower Bridge.  We then walked along the southern bank of the Thames, heading west toward Westminster. 

Heading towards Tower Bridge, looking back at Tower of London and the financial district

The Tower Bridge, one of many bridge on the Thames, but I think the coolest

The Tower Bridge was completed in 1894 and is a draw bridge.  The bridge used to go up at least five times a day when river travel was more important, but now it hardly ever opens.  As you can see in the picture above, there is a walkway connecting the two towers at the top that is now open to the public (for a fee, of course).  I'm sure it has great views, but it was a very hazy day (as you can see from all these pictures), so it wasn't worth it to go up there.

Darren in front of Tower Bridge

Tower Bridge from the other side of the river

Tower of London from the other side of the river

An example of how busy the attractions were: the line to get into Tower of London

The southern bank used to be where the poor lived and illicit activities occurred, but over the last 60 years, the waterfront was rebuilt with posh apartments and shops with a lovely promenade.  Several museums and attractions moved/were built here and the famous Borough Market is now a must-see for any foodie.  We walked along the promenade and took pictures of a few of the southern bank highlights.

Replica of Sir Francis Drake's ship he used to circumnavigate the globe, which you can tour

Shakespeare's Globe Theater, replica of the original, where they perform the playwright's works

Darren with the Millenium Bridge on the right and St. Paul's Cathedral in the background

The London Eye, built in 2000

Westminster Bridge and Palace of Westminster

Me in front of Big Ben on Westminster Bridge

We ended our four-mile walk at Big Ben and figured it took us about two hours to do.  We then took the subway back to our hotel to change into church clothes and left to attend a Mormon congregation in South Kensington.  After that, we went back to Westminster Abbey to attend a service called Evensong, which is like an evening prayer, I think.  The famous Westminster Abbey Choir performed several songs with an amazing organ and organist.  They also had a short scripture reading, a small (and entertaining) sermon, and some prayers.  We mainly went to hear the choir and the organ.  Darren used to sing in a choral group for services at the Harvard Memorial Church, so he enjoyed listening to the choir and even knew some of the songs the Westminster Abbey Choir performed.  I really enjoyed listening to large and powerful organ played by a very talented organist.  Organs are amazing instruments!

After the service, we did more walking!  We walked over to Hyde Park and sat for a bit enjoying the sun and the greenery.  Then Darren went over to see Speakers Corner in the park.  I don't know much about this tradition, but in 1872, London passed a law making it legal for anyone to address an audience in this corner of Hyde Park on Sundays.  I refused to go over there to see people making a spectacle of themselves and trying to get attention, but Darren went over an snapped a few pictures because he thought it was interesting. 

One guy addressing the crowd in Speaker's Corner

After that, we headed down Oxford Street (a shopping street) to find a fish and chips place I had picked out.  We walked for a long time just to find that the place was closed for the holiday.  UGH.  We just ate at McDonald's and called it a day.

Oxford Street

London: Part Two

Before I begin my summary of our second full day in London, I want to explain how crazy London was while we were there because of all the holidays.  So let me run through all the holidays that occurred:

Thursday: Queen's Birthday (celebrated with gun salutes and parades at multiple locations)

Friday: Good Friday (national holiday, processional and large ceremony at Westminster Abbey)

Saturday: St. George's Day (parade and concert at Trafalgar Square)

Sunday: Easter Sunday (big services at multiple famous churches in London)

Monday: Easter Monday (not sure what goes on this day, but still means every in England is off work)

Tuesday: Countdown to Royal Wedding (okay, not a holiday... well maybe to some)

We weren't even aware of some of these holidays until we got there.  So needless to say, even with my extensive research and meticulous planning there still were a lot hiccups in the daily itinerary.  A lot of times we would show up to a restaurant I had picked to find that it was closed the whole holiday weekend.  Or, we would show up to an attraction, like Westminster Abbey on Saturday morning, to find the line an hour long (or more) to get in.  Whoops.

The west entrance on Westminster Abbey on a very warm, but hazy day

Westminster Abbey West towers, completed in 1745

The press box across the street for the royal wedding

Can't see the whole door because Darren is avoiding having hundreds of tourists in our pictures

Looking at the West towers from the north entrance

After looking at the long line, we decided to move Westminster Abbey to another day and to take a tour of Parliament next.  This also had a (smaller) line to get tickets, but you can't really complain about having to wait outside when it's 78 and sunny in London. :)

The Jewel Tower (part of an old medieval castle) and the line for Parliament tickets

The Houses of Parliament are located in the Palace of Westminster, first built in the 11th century.  The palace was originally a royal residence, but after a fire occurred in 1512, it stopped being a residence and was rebuilt to become the seat of the two Houses of Parliament.  The palace has been destroyed by fires and was even bombed during World War II, but it has always been rebuilt.  Most of the building we see today is from it's major reconstruction in 1834 during the reign of Queen Victoria.

The clock tower with the Big Ben bell inside in the foreground and the London Eye in the background

Other side of the building, Darren really enjoyed the architecture

We went on a two-hour tour of the inside of the building with a fantastic British guide who kept calling us "Ladies and Gents" and said "Par-lee-ment".  Our guide told us about the history of the palace and how it functions today as the house of Parliament.  We really enjoyed the tour and would recommend it to anyone.  We couldn't take any pictures inside except for in the Westminster Hall.  This is the only surviving room from the original construction of the palace back in the 11th century.  Most of the roof that you can see below is the original 14th-century hammer beam roof.

Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the Palace of Westminster

Pictures of us after the tour to prove we were there

Just up the street from Parliament is 10 Downing Street, where the British Prime Ministers have lived since 1732.  You used to be able to walk down Downing Street, but twenty years ago they put up a gate, so now you can only peer down the street.

Downing Street

We then visited Trafalgar Square and ran into the St. George's Day festivities.  Our Parliament tour guide  explained to us that England's patron saint is George, just like Ireland's patron saint is Patrick.  So secularly, St. George's Day is like St. Patrick's day, meaning people just celebrate it by partying.  A concert and parade were going on in the square, so we just ducked into a pizza place to get some lunch.

Statue of Admiral Lord Nelson, who defeated Napoleon (but died) at the Battle of Trafalgar

We left Trafalgar Square and walked along the Mall (or as you might have heard the British pronounce it on Friday the "Mal", as in malpractice) towards Buckingham Palace.  This was the route the royal wedding procession took to get to Buckingham Palace.  On the left is St. James's Park and on the right are all government buildings, with Buckingham Palace at the end of the road.

St. James's Park

The best picture we could get of Clarence House, where Princes Charles's family lives

Buckingham Palace is where the Queen and her husband, Prince Phillip live.  Their children all also have apartments here for when they around, but the rooms are mostly used for state functions such as banquets, and ceremonies, and of course, for royal wedding receptions.  You can't go inside Buckingham Palace except for in July and August when the Queen goes Scotland.  In other months, the only thing really to do is to see the exterior.

The front of Buckingham Palace, six days later there were one million people out here

The balcony where the two famous kisses occurred, can you tell I watched the royal wedding?

The two-story press box across from the palace constructed for the royal wedding

After seeing Buckingham Palace we walked around to see yet, another palace.  This one is the St. James Palace, which was built by King Henry VIII and was mainly used as a residence by Queen Elizabeth I.  This isn't a very well-known attraction, but after reading about it in our guide book, I had wanted to see it.

Me in front of St. James Palace

We spent the rest of the late afternoon going to see Piccadilly Circus, which is like Times Square, and to the National Gallery.  When we got out, it was actually raining a bit.  This was the only time it rained our whole trip!  We didn't have jackets or umbrellas, but it was still really warm outside, so we just walked quickly to a restaurant I had picked and got a few sprinkles on us along the way.  Another great day in London!

London: Part One

This past weekend, as most of you know, was Easter weekend and most people in Europe get Good Friday and Easter Monday off from school or work.  Since this meant Darren had four consecutive days off, we decided to use all that time to go to one of the best destinations in Europe: London.  My dad took me and my brother to London nine years ago and I've always wanted to go back since.  When Darren and I started planning for our trip, we decided Darren would take Tuesday off, too, so that meant we would have five glorious days in London.  I spent hours looking up all the things to do before we left and my list was so long, that even with five days I still couldn't fit in everything I was interested in seeing.  I took this as a sign that this trip was going to be awesome.

We arrived Thursday early evening to a sunny, warm, and lively London.  We stayed at the Apex City of London Hotel (highly recommend it), which was near the Tower of London and in the financial district.  Since it was the end of the day and the beginning of a holiday weekend, tons of business people were enjoying a drink and soaking up the sun with coworkers outside all the bars and restaurants.  

We dropped our stuff at the hotel and immediately left to get some sightseeing in before the day was over.  We ate a quick dinner, where I enjoyed the food, but mostly enjoyed speaking English!  You just feel so empowered when you can communicate without any problems!  After dinner, we took the subway over to the National Portait Gallery.  The gallery features portraits of Britain's most famous/important citizens throughout history, beginning with the Tudor family all the way up to people like Paul McCartney and Princess Diana.  Darren and I both enjoyed this museum because it was nice to put a face with all these names you learn in school.  We were only able to see half of it before it closed, but since it is free (as are most museums here) we would just finish it up another day.

The entrance to the National Portrait Gallery, no photography allowed inside

The next day, Good Friday, we woke up and headed out to see the British Museum.  To get there from our hotel, we took a subway line in and would have had to transfer to another line, but we decided to walk from there to see some neighborhoods along the way.  We first stopped at Embankment Park to see the beautiful flowers that had bloomed.

Embankment Park

We then walked up through the Covent Garden neighborhood, which originally was an actual garden in medieval times, but now has lots of shops, restaurants, and a farmer's market.  I thought it was a really cute part of town.

The Covent Garden subway station

A cute, old restaurant in Covent Garden

Ran into this great street in Covent Garden

We finally arrived at The British Museum and it was packed, but this was to be expected on a holiday weekend.  The British Museum is the oldest public museum in the world.  It was established in 1753, but  came to its current home in the early 1800s.  The British Museum holds some of the world's greatest artifacts and luckily you can take pictures, so I'll show you some we saw.

Entrance gate to the British Museum

Entrance to the British Museum

The main hall inside the museum that connects all the galleries

Probably the most famous artifact in the museum is the Rosetta Stone.  As you might be able to see in the picture below, the stone tablet contains a government decree written in three languages: ancient Egyptian, a later form of Egyptian (I think), and ancient Greek.  By using the other two languages written on the tablet, historians were finally able to read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.

All the tourists swarming around the Rosetta Stone

The British Museum has artifacts from all over the world and from all periods of time, which are contained in 94 galleries stretch 2.5 miles long!  In other words: you can spend a lot of time here.  We managed to see most of the museum in four hours before I just refused to look at any more artifacts and demanded lunch.

Darren with an ancient Egyptian artifact

Statues taken from the Parthenon

Cleopatra

The first statue created of The Buddha

A Mayan artifact

So the first lunch I planned was not traditional British food, or even at a British restaurant.  We ate at the only Chipotle in Europe because I miss burritos a lot.  It was delicious.

We then took the subway over to the Notting Hill neighborhood to see what it looked like.  The area was a mix of cute, old residential streets and a few hipster streets where the popular stores were selling vintage clothes and accessories.

A cute Notting Hill street

Lovely Wisteria that was in bloom all over London and made everywhere smell wonderful

Just south of Notting Hill is the Kensington area, which features, among other things, a long, wide road where most foreign embassies are located.  You can see in the picture below all the large estates the embassies were located in.  It was a very pretty area.

The estates in Kensington that house ambassadors and foreign embassies

Next to these estates is Kensington Gardens, which has the famous Kensington Palace where Princess Diana lived and where people laid thousands of bouquets for her after her death.

Kensington Palace, usually open to the public, but is undergoing renovation currently

Everyone out enjoying the warm weather and sunshine in Kensington Gardens

After a quick dinner of meat pies and sandwiches at a local pub, our last stop of the night was to see the famous department store Harrod's before it closed.  Funnily enough, Switzerland tourism is currently advertising all over Harrod's department store, so it was a little weird to get away from Switzerland only to see tons of Swiss flags in London.

Harrod's department store decked out in Swiss flags

After that we headed back to the hotel and collapsed.