London Trip

2012

Janet, Gary and myself were in London from May 6th through May 10th. We bought 3-day London Passes and I did all of the research upfront to create an aggressive itinerary that included as many things as we could squeeze in. Between the three of us, we have something like 700 photos, but I’ll only be showing a fraction of them.

Each photo is clickable and you can zoom in again on most of them.

Day .5

This is the street our hotel was on. We were located in the Chelsea and Kensington area and the Gloucester Road tube (subway) stop was only two blocks away so the location was perfect.

The entrance of the Hotel Saint Simeon. It is a small, private, family-run hotel that was perfect for us. The accommodations are spartan, but the price and location is great and the staff were very friendly and helpful.

A traditional English breakfast was included and consisted of eggs, sausage, bacon, baked beans, bread, fruit and ham/cheese. It was a ton of food but we took advantage of it every morning to save money. If we had to buy breakfast it would have been another $30-$40 every day! I would definitely stay there again on another London trip.

We arrived on Sunday afternoon. After checking in and dropping off our bags, we decided to hit the town and headed to Piccadilly Circus. Even with the temperature in the high 40s and a slight drizzle, the area was packed with people.

After wandering around Piccadilly Circus for a while, we decided to head to Trafalgar Square. It just happened to be the Sikh New Year (Vaisakhi) and they were having a giant festival. Bands were playing on the stage and the crowd was loving it.

We also found this chalk artwork that was done by two “street artists” (nicest way to put it.) People would put spare change on the flag of their choice. Of course I had to make it rain on the American flag, but sadly with the exchange rate in the UK, that change wasn’t worth much at all.

Unsurprisingly, the Indian flag had the most change due to the many mostly-Indian festival attendees!

We spotted this place after leaving Trafalgar Square. It looked very warm and inviting, the type of place where you could grab a pint and settle into a nice, overstuffed leather chair and read a book. We didn’t stop, but many of the pubs I saw around London were just as nice.

These bikes are available to rent and I believe you rent by the hour. They have an odometer and flashing LED lights for safety. Many people were riding these around town, both locals and tourists alike and there were several corrals that we passed at various areas where you could drop one off or pick one up. A friend said Washington D.C. has something similar.

The London Eye. We chose not to do it but it was interesting to see. Janet did not know it was not a normal ferris wheel but instead each “passenger capsule” actually holds 25 people and they can comfortably walk around in it.

It is hard to find a more “British” photo than this! Big Ben, Parliament and an overcast sky with one of London’s iconic double-decker buses thrown in for good measure.

We passed a McDonald’s on a street and spotted this. I think all of them except the “Arizona” has bacon. If you look close, you can see the tortilla chips on the “Arizona.” WHY DON’T WE HAVE THESE BURGERS HERE?!

If you are ever in a foreign country and spot a McDonald’s, do yourself a favor and check it out. I’m always curious to see what is different from the McDonald’s in America. At McDonald’s in India they have paneer sandwiches and veggie burgers listed among the offerings.

This is Janet with the largest horse head statue I’ve ever seen. It was at The Stables near Camden.

Another shot of the giant horse head with a little more context. This area used to be a large stable and horse-trading/selling area and is almost maze-like with many corridors and alleyways.

Nowadays the area is used as a place for vendors of all sorts. They each have a small stall (like a flea market) but there are very intricate wood carvings around many of the stables, obviously from another time period. It looked beautiful but I’ll refrain from posting 20 stable photos. We got here late on our first day, so most of the places were closed and the vendors were gone. Bummer.

Here we are in a tube station, headed home for the night. You’ll notice we’re bundled up – the average temperature was 50 degrees and it was almost always drizzly. The tube stations were very clean and nice compared to the NY subway (at least around central London, zones 1 and 2.)

On the way back to our room we stopped at the pub down the street for a late dinner – The Stanhope Arms. Our first real British meal! Bangers and mash, a meat pie and a pint of Fuller’s London Pride. It was delicious!

I noticed a few differences from an American pub right away – first, there were children running around and it seemed more like a place that a family could go and get a pint and a meal. Second, I noticed that they–and many of the pubs–close at 11:30pm or midnight (in the U.S. most pubs and bars close at 2am). I asked our waitress why that was and she said that the Brits start drinking much earlier in the day than us, so they need to close earlier also. Makes sense.

I really enjoyed that pub and since it was so close, I made it back there a few times for a pint or two in the evening.

Day 1

The iconic British telephone booth. If you look close, you can see me inside pretending to make a call like a dumb tourist.

We started this day off with a visit to The London Bridge Experience, which is sort of like a haunted house (which is why I don’t have any photos.) The best part was watching one of the characters (I think she was supposed to be Mrs. Lovett from Sweeney Todd) absolutely rip apart a local teenager that was there with his mates with nothing but a sharp wit and a healthy dose of British insult comedy.

Another shot of a tube station. I really wish our public transportation was as good as theirs, but we just don’t have the same density – yet.

After the London Bridge Experience, we went to the famous Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. It is a recreation of the original and they even used period construction methods wherever they could. I noticed lots of wooden pegs and almost no steel/bolts in the assembly. It would have been great to see a show here but we just didn’t have the time on this trip.

Our tour guide told us that in Shakespeare’s day, the more expensive seats were closer to the stage (see the painted booths in the upper left corner) with the most expensive being ON the stage (dead center in the top, on the left and right) with the very middle balcony reserved for parts of the show. The reason being that back then, costumes and “special effects” were very basic so the more expensive seats sacrificed the visual for the auditory experience. Hearing what was said and how it was said was more important than the visuals.

Another shot of the Globe. In this one you can see more of the seating and how it was arranged.

After The Globe it was on to the Tower of London! This is the moat area with a replica catapult of some sort. I think this was my favorite place out of everything we saw. I originally allotted something like 2-3 hours to check it out (based on what I found online) but we ended up spending a good portion of the day here. There is just so much to see and do.

This photo shows the layout. The Crown Jewels are housed here but I couldn’t take any photos. I think most of the girls fainted when they saw a 530 carat diamond in one of the crowns. The Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula is also here. This is where many famous English figures are buried, including Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. Janet and I were big fans of the Showtime series, The Tudors, so we recognized many of the names in the area. If you like period dramas, check it out.

If you ever visit London, this place is a MUST SEE. Also, take a guided tour if you can. Some people recommended doing it ourselves, but I’m really glad we waited for a Yeoman Warder. He was very nice, super funny and just plain awesome.

The next few photos will be from the Tower area.

This is a Yeoman Warder, commonly known as a “Beefeater.” The Beefeater in this photo is not the same one that took us on the tour–ours was much more jolly. If you look at the link I posted, the Beefeater in the right sidebar, first photo is the one that guided us!

Anyhow, these folks are not just tour guides. Being a Yeoman Warder is a prestigious position and there are several requirements. All warders are retired military and must be former senior non-commissioned officers with at least 22 years of service. They must also hold the Long Service and Good Conduct medal. The Yeoman Warders and their families also get to live inside the Tower grounds.

Just an awesome cannon they had on display. Check out the intricate mouldings and dragon theme.

Inside the tower perimeter there is a place called the White Tower. Inside this tower is a giant collection of armor and weapons from the Royal Armoury. I took many photos in here but I’ll only show a few.

This particular suit of armor belonged to King Henry VIII and features a prominent codpiece (hey, it was the style at the time!)

There were many sets of armor on display, all of them amazing, but I had to show these two sets. The smaller one on the left is for a child, and if you click the photo (and click again to enlarge) you can probably see the intricate dragon on the helmet. They think it may have been made for Henry VIII’s son, Edward.

The set on the right was made for a man that would have been around 6’8″, which was extremely rare at that time. It is also the largest suit of armor in existence.

Some of the cannons at the armoury. They probably had two dozen cannons on display.

More of the collection. They had spears, swords, bows/arrows and many ancient weapons on display that would have been used by the English.

A giant crystal diamond to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. The jubilee is significant because it marks 60 years of her reign (June 2012.) The only other monarch to reign as long was Queen Victoria in 1897 (she had 63 years.)

To mark the anniversary of the Queen’s accession, thousands of beacons across the British territories will be lit beginning June 4th. The Queen will light the final beacon at 10:30pm outside Buckingham Palace by inserting this crystal into a special receptacle.

This is a memorial inside the tower grounds that marks the scaffold where they held executions. This is NOT the Tower Hill scaffold where most of the famous executions took place.

THIS is the memorial on Tower Hill where most of the famous executions took place. The list includes Sir Thomas More, George Boleyn (brother of Anne) and Thomas Cromwell to name a few.

This is the view from Tower Hill looking back at the Tower of London (to give you an idea of the distance.) I couldn’t get a better shot than this without running onto the street and into traffic!

This is the famous Tower Bridge, an iconic symbol of London.

This is part of the Tower Bridge Exhibition. We are on the upper walkway that joins the towers. We climbed the stairs to get up here since the lift was taking a while and I lost count after several hundred. I climbed more stairs in London that any place I’ve ever been.

A view from the Tower Bridge walkway. The sky had cleared up some by this time and it was beautiful.

After the Tower Bridge, we were pretty hungry. I had researched several good places to eat (hat tip to Reddit/r/London) and it was time to get some legitimate fish and chips.

This is from Long Lane Fish Bar. We originally planned to each get something, but after we saw the HUGE portions we cut the order down to two.

I had the haddock and Gary had the cod. Janet had some of both. The guy behind the counter said to add vinegar to the fries (chips), but my only experience was with “salt and vinegar” potato chips here in the US and that flavor is VERY strong. I tried just a little bit, found the vinegar to be much milder than what I expected (and I liked it), so I drenched my fries in it.

Day 2

We started the day with Westminster Abbey. We were not allowed to take photos of the inside, but it is as amazing as you would imagine. They had a great “audio tour” narrated by Jeremy Irons.

Many historic figures are buried there (Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin) as well as many famous writers and poets. There is a section called the “Poets’ Corner” that holds Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Jane Austen and Lewis Carrol, to name a few.

This is the London Monument, designed by Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke.

It commemorates the Great Fire of London which happened in 1666 and burned down half of the city. You can go up to the top observation deck and get a nice view of the city.

Steps leading up to the observation deck. There are 311 steps and you get a certificate to show that you walked them all when you go back down!

A shot from the top of the London Monument. The tall building on the horizon is The Shard, currently the tallest building in Europe.

Next, we headed to St. Paul’s Cathedral.

This place was simply amazing. The interior was cleaned in the last several years and it is just insanely beautiful. The Byzantine mosaics on the ceiling were my favorite. I wish I had interior photos to show you but they asked that you not take photos and I didn’t want to get kicked out! Here is one I found online.

Christopher Wren designed the cathedral (and many other things around London) and it is considered his masterpiece. If you look at the dome, there is a walkway around the perimeter which you are allowed to go up to. More stairs!

This is a shot from up on top of the dome perimeter.

Another shot from the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral. The bridge you see is the Millennium Bridge.





While walking around town I saw this and thought that it was a great example of the juxtaposition of London – the old and the new together.

We were doing okay on time so Janet wanted to see the Handel House museum.

It was a nice out-of-the-way stop and was a quiet change of pace. You get to walk through all of the rooms that he lived in and each room is set-up to look the way it did when he lived there. I learned a lot about the composer and his history in London. Also, we learned that Jimi Hendrix shared part of this building when he lived in London, so the Handel museum has a section just for him that was interesting.

They have a small section of costumes that you can try on. I was very tempted to make a break for it and keep the jacket.

For lunch/dinner we headed to Battersea Pie Station (thanks again, Reddit!) at Covent Garden for some delicious pies.

Gary had Guiness and steak pie, I had minced meat and onion and Janet got an amazing goat cheese and butternut squash pie.

Later in the evening we headed to Hyde Park. We walked around a bit and took it all in.

This shot is of the Isis sculpture by Simon Gudgeon.

This is the Princess Diana Memorial, which is supposed to be a fountain. The water was off the day we were there because of some repairs elsewhere in the park. It was only off for that day and the next day, so we wouldn’t be able to see it before we left.

On the way back to the hotel we decided to check out Harrod’s. They closed at 8pm (weaksauce) and I think we were there at 8:15pm.

To finish up the night, we had to go get a pint in one of the oldest pubs in London, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street.

It was a very unique layout, most of the pub being a level or two underground. The lack of natural lighting gives it a dim, gloomy feel but inside were plenty of cheerful patrons.

A placard outside the pub shows a timeline of its existence.

Day 3

The plan on this morning (Wednesday, May 9th) was to head to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard at 11:30am. I knew we needed to be there by 11am to get a good spot for photos.

While eating breakfast around 8am the news said that today was the opening day of Parliament and that the Queen would be going to give a speech. They were showing footage of her walking down an aisle in her full outfit (with crown) at Parliament so I thought it was happening right then.

We headed out early to see the Wellington Arch and walk around the park for a bit. After taking some photos, we saw these riders coming our way and decided to follow them to the palace. As we got closer, I began to see a small crowd already there. My first thought was “dang, everyone had the same idea as me today.” As we got closer, we asked a policeman if this was normal and we were informed that the Queen was going to be coming by soon on her way to Parliament–the footage I saw on TV was archival footage!

We were there early enough to get prime spots and the next photos will be from that. I also took video of the whole procession, so I’ll post that up as well.

Here is another great example of the old and the new together–traditional military dress and a modern assault rifle.

The ceremony involved when the Queen travels is great to watch. This officer (facing camera) is going down the line making sure everyone is properly aligned and ready for Her Majesty. Everything must be perfect for the Queen!

As you can see here, the guards extended all the way down the road. Interesting fact–the tall hats are real bearskin and these guards are enlisted military.

Here is the Queen on her way to Parliament.

Here is a shot of me taking a ride with the Queen. No big deal.

Yes, yes, the previous picture was photoshopped. This is the real shot.

That is Buckingham Palace in the background. We hung around for a while and saw the Queen again on her way back to the palace. Not many people get the chance to see her while on a trip, especially one as short as ours!

These are the gates to Buckingham Palace. They just looked very ornate and beautiful so I thought I should get a shot.

Before we left the area we wanted to get a photo with a “Bobby” – British slang for a police officer. The nickname comes from Sir Robert Peel, a man that helped create the modern British police force.

The British police were very polite and helpful anytime we had a question. When we first landed in the airport, I saw two officers walking and they had Glocks in drop-leg holsters. Being a Glock man myself, I struck up a conversation about their sidearms (G17 for the record) and one even handed me a spare magazine so I could pop out a round and see what they were using (Speer Gold Dots.)

Try that in the U.S. with an American cop and you’ll be lucky if you don’t get tazed.

After Buckingham Palace we headed to Kensington Palace, the official residence of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Prince William and Kate Middleton.) It was also the residence of Princess Diana.

The palace recently underwent many renovations with special exhibits being set-up for tourists. It re-opened in March of 2012 so everything was brand spanking new. The next set of photos will be from Kensington Palace.

This photo was taken in the “Red Saloon” where they had recreation costumes for trying on.

A view from one of the rooms looking out towards the front of the palace.

They had many clothes on display from past monarchs and time periods. These clothes are for a Knight of the Order of the Garter, the highest order of chivalry.

More displays. If you click the photo and then zoom in, you can probably make out the text.

They had an exhibit featuring iconic dresses worn by Princess Diana. This is just one of several they had, and the exhibit was very moving.

After the lovely Kensington Palace tour we had to have traditional English tea at The Orangery, located on the palace grounds. An orangery is simply a building similar to a greenhouse or conservatory. Many large windows help to let in daylight. This particular orangery was built in 1761 and is now a restaurant.

After leaving Kensington Palace we walked through Kensington Gardens and spotted this–The Elfin Oak!

It is a 900 year-old tree that contains many carvings of elves and animals done by Ivor Innes. We didn’t know what it was when we first saw it, but it turned out to be a great surprise. The next few photos are closer shots of some of the individual carvings.

After Kensington, we wandered around some more and did souvenir shopping in Soho. We spotted this pub and decided to stop in for a pint since there is also a Dog & Duck in Austin, Tx where Janet and I went to school.

For early dinner on our last night we ate at “The Stockpot” near Leicester Square and then had a late dinner at Tayyabs in Whitechapel (I found both of these on the London subreddit.) Two dinners?! Yes, but we were splitting everything to save money.