This is the last part of our journey, but I have one more post about our trip after this one. But I will have it later, since I have several workroom related posts that I want to publish first. I am getting bad about posting regularly, and you are probably getting tired of the trip posts, but I kind of considered it like my vacation photo album and if I put it down it will be somewhere that I can look back on it. So you can consider it my electronic photo album/diary!
We saw and did a lot in the 2 and half days we were in London. The first day we rode the train from Paris to London, checked into our hotel(The Holiday Inn Express in Earl’s Court), which was out aways from the center of London, and started exploring. We bought a bus pass and caught the bus. We got off to have lunch, and found we were close to the Natural History Museum and Albert and Victoria Museum. The Museum’s in London are free, so it is great to go in and see them.
The Natural History Museum.
Inside the Natural History Museum.
Hannah with the classic pose in a British Telephone Booth outside the Victoria and Albert Museum!
The museum’s and Palaces had so many exhibits that I want to share, that I am going to have another post on them. I loved the Victoria and Albert Museum because of all the textiles, and amazing fashions, home and clothing.
Taking a break in the pottery/china section of the Victoria and Albert Museum!
We also dropped by to see Buckingham Palace and got a bite to eat around the corner at a local pub. We came back the next day to see the changing of the Guard.
So you ask, what is this picture doing in a travel post? Well this was our first night in London, and Hannah is a HUGE Sherlock Holmes fan, (the one on the BBC right now) and we turn on the T.V. and what is on, but the first episode of Sherlock Holmes! I could not resist taking this picture!
The next day we did the Hop on, Hop off bus tour. The company we used(The Original Tour) was not as good as some of the others, they did not have enough buses and didn’t keep on schedule very well. So if you go use another tour bus company!
One of the first places we hopped off at was Buckingham Palace, because you have to be there good and early to get even close to the fence to see the changing of the Guard.
Buckingham Palace
Constable Tuck – Hannah’s favorite British policeman!
The crowd and if you look closely you can see the horses and horse guards!
After the changing of the Guard, we found another bus and hopped on to tour the rest of London!
Herod’s!
Be sure to look the correct direction before crossing the street, and if you forget, look down and they will help you out if you are dumb American! 😉
House of Parliament
Westminster Abbey, which we did not go it, it would have been more than $30 each and we decided we had seen enough cathedrals!
Big Ben and The London Eye!
The London Eye – which we did not get to ride either, because Hannah was afraid! (She doesn’t like heights)
I got my Fish and Chips! Right under the London Eye, and they were pretty good!
After lunch we hopped back on and took the rest of the tour.
The London Bridge.
It did include a river cruise which we took, but me and Hannah set inside, since it was freezing outside.
London Bridge
The next day was our tour day, we had Hampton Court, Kensington Palace and Tower of London to see.
Hampton Court
Hampton Court is celebrating their 500 Anniversary, so had a lot of special things going on. Loved seeing the school children in their uniforms on a field trip to Hampton Court!
They had actors reenacting parts of Henry the 8th’s court.
One of the courtyards. I am going to share more of Hampton Court in a later post!
We did spend a lot of time traveling to and from Hampton Court because it is about an hour outside of London and as we learned the trains are not real reliable in London. They worked like clock work in Barcelona, but don’t expect that in London. Also the buses in London do a lot of diverting and you might wind up somewhere you weren’t planning on. Ask me how I know!
Our next stop was the Tour of London, where we got to see the Crown Jewels. (but no pictures!)
After Tower of London, our last stop on the tour was Kensington Palace.
We were there right after the birth of the new Princess!
The public rooms are enormous and beautiful, but I am saving that for later! Also we got to see a lot of the gowns from Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana. (Mark loved seeing them);)
After we walked thru Hyde Park, and headed for the one place Hannah didn’t want to miss! Try guessing!
Yes it is 221B Baker Street! And if you are not a Sherlock Holmes fan, as Hannah would say, you are just missing out! But unfortunately after we walked about 5 miles (I’m not kidding) to get there, it was closed. But if you look at the smile on Hannah’s face, she didn’t care, she just got to go there!
And then of course as we were headed home on our last night I caught sight of Selfridge’s, as in Mr Selfridge, which is also a Master Piece Classic show on PBS!
Well thanks for sticking around and going with us on our trip.
Hopefully I will get back into the swing of things, and post what we have been doing in the workroom between all our trips!
Would love to hear from you!