England, Continued: Day Seven

I swear i don't mean to let so much time pass between posts, but...  You know: Stuff happens.  =-)

Our seventh day in England, and our 2nd full day in London.
This was a FANTASTIC trip!!!

After breakfast, we went to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guards.  We got there at least a half hour before it was supposed to start, and it already looked like this:

Buckingham Palace before

The Changing of the Guard

Me and Boyfriend in front of Buckingham Palace

with hundreds of our best friends (ha!)

First came the guys on foot in their red uniforms

It was a little scary for me because the US travel dept had issued warnings before we left, saying to stay away from "large crowds" because of possible terrorist attacks...

After the guys on foot came the guys on horse, with the first horse being white and all the rest were dark brown and/or black

I wish someone had been there to explain all this "pomp & circumstance" to us...

After they finished marching into the "yard" behind the gates/fence, the Guard did a bunch of stuff we couldn't hear, and really couldn't see.  If you were one of the "lucky people" who got there who-knows-how-early to get a good spot, then i suppose you could see and hear everything.

But we couldn't.

So we left.

We weren't really too comfortable, anyway, being in all that crowd, and constantly needing to think about pick-pockets (as the Bobbies reminded us while we were standing around waiting for things to begin!)

So we walked around town, down to the Thames near Big Ben...

to go ride the London Eye.

(Google that sometime.  It is FANTASTIC!)

The London Eye is like a HUGE bicycle wheel with little "bubble cars" attached to it.  I was a little concerned that i would be scared up there so high.  I get scared on the Ferris Wheel when it comes to town for the Fair, so...

But the view was so marvelous that i didn't have time to think about it!

I absolutely LOVED it!

It took right at an hour to complete the circuit, but it really didn't seem like that long.

What a gorgeous city!

We loved the London Eye, even though it cost SO much!

The Thames River and a piece of the "car" in front of us

I could  show you tons more pix we took, but i won't.  =-)

After The Eye, we walked around to find a pub for lunch. 

A directional sign for a Roundabout.

Remember, their traffic goes on the left, so the first street off the roundabout goes to Lambeth Bridge, then the next street goes to Victoria Station (and that funky red & white symbol means there's a railroad station there too).  It's "different" there, but not "un-translate-able".  =-)

We found a pub just across and down a bit from 10 Downing Street called The Red Lion.  Delicious.

Next, we took the Tube to Kings Cross Station to see...

Taking the escalator down and down and down to take

the Tube to King's Cross Station to go see...

Platform 9 and three quarters!!!

(This meant nothing to W & C, but they were such good sports about it.  They even took pictures!)

It was difficult to find, but that was kinda appropriate since it was difficult for Harry Potter to find it in the book.  =-)

Boyfriend & me at King's Cross Station,

Platform 9 and three-quarters.

After King's Cross Station, we went to St Pancras Station to try to get re-imbursed for our Chunnel train tickets to Paris.  We had planned on going to Paris, but with the "million" people striking (due to the president trying to change the retirement age from 60 to 62 [or something like that]) and rioting in the streets, we decided not to go.

A sign in the EuroStar office confirming that we may have problems if we try to go to France

But did that make them refund us the price of our train tickets?

No it did not!!

Whatever. We still had a BLAST in England and Wales!  =-)

After no success at EuroStar, we went back to our hotel for a little drink and a nap, and then we headed to...

ChinaTown!

Is there some law or something that says every large city must have a ChinaTown?  =-)

We were looking for some place to eat. 
We wanted Chinese, so what better place than ChinaTown?
Only, ChinaTown may have been a "little" too authentic for us...

Duck in the Window at Hung's

We weren't the only ones looking for Chinese food on a Wednesday night.

We went into a place called The Golden Pagoda.
Nice.
But still, maybe a little too authentic for us.
The menu was MANY pages, and i wasn't sure what i could eat that wouldn't upset my stomach, so i went with something that had Ginger in it, thinking it would be "safe".

HA!
It was called Crab & Ginger.  I should have known better.

We didn't think about taking a picture of it until i'd already "attacked" it, but...

They brought me an ENTIRE CRAB!!!

I wasn't sure how to eat it,

but i TRIED!

It was VERY tasty, but slightly intimidating.  =-)

Then we walked through SoHo back to a Tube station to get to our hotel.

SoHo at night.

TONS of people, and we were very conscious of pick-pockets.

Anytime we got in a crowd, we kept our purses close.

Paranoid?  Maybe

Safe? Absolutely!

SoHo at night

We stopped at W's "favorite" pub, the Lamb & Flag, and had a drink before walking to the Tube Station to get "home".

Tube Station (that was very deep into the Earth)

on the way back to our hotel

after another long but wonderful day.

Lovely day.

Lovely weather.

Lovely friends.

Lovely time!

=-)

Day Six

Ummm...  If i'd known it was gonna take me so frikkin' long to write about my trip, i wouldda saved you the bother and just told you to GO to England yourself and save you the time!  =-)

Anyway, this was our first full day in London, and Oh My God! I LOVED it!!!
After breakfast, we got on the Tube and rode (somewhere) to a place to catch "The Original Bus Tour" to see the sights.  (It was a red double-decker bus where the top was only 1/3 covered.  We rode on top, of course!  I would definitely recommend this tour.  Very informative.  And you can hop off and on all day, if you find something you wanna see up-close.  Or you can just ride around ALLL day if you want.)

Lots of the stuff we did was because it was in Rick Steves book, and i HIGHLY recommend his books.  Our neighbors, W & C (who went with us to England) travel allllllll over the place, and they ALWAYS use his books, no matter where they're going.  They say he's NEVER steered them wrong.

So here are a few random pix from our double-decker tour:

I loved the architecture and the history everywhere. 

London is crowded but beautiful.

I liked this building.  The tour guide said we could tour it, and we could climb the hundreds of steps to get up to the top to look down from the very tip-top

... but we didn't do it.

Boyfriend liked this building.

I like the mix of the old and the new.

That's the Tower of London on the right

and the water is the Thames (pronounced tims).

A one-way street.

Flags of the different cities or districts or something...

Sorry. I wasn't really paying attention 'cause i was too busy staring at EVERYTHING!  =-)

That's Eros at the top of the fountain. 

This is where we got off the bus.  We needed lunch.

After the bus tour, we went to a pub called Punch and Judy's for lunch.
Then we walked to Trafalgar Square.

Trafalgar Square

The National Gallery

(we didn't go in, but we wanted to...

too much to do and see so we had to pick-n-choose.)

Not sure what the story was with this ship in a HUGE bottle, but we thought it was really cool.  See the pigeons? They're there for scale for you.

After Trafalgar Square, we walked around some more.
Next we went by the Horse Guard.  I wanted to see them go through their "changing of the guard" or whatever, but the others didn't really wanna wait for it...

The Royal Horse Guard

So we walked on.  Next we came upon 10 Downing Street where the Prime Minister lives.  Wow! Talk about security!

10 Downing Street

(It's the little black building on the right between the guard and me.  You can barely see it.  Heck, *I* could barely see it, and i was THERE!)

We walked a bit more and found the Churchill Museum and the War Rooms.  Fascinating!  (Even though i didn't really wanna go.)  Boyfriend LOVED it!

Just down the street from 10 Downing is these buildings

and at the end of the building on the left is

the Churchill Museum and The War Rooms.

Churchill was Prime Minister after the war, and when he left, he got to take the door with him, so

this is the door from 10 Downing Street from Churchill's stay there.

(And that's Boyfriend with that big grin on his face.)

After that looong day of lots of walking, we ended the day with supper at a pub, and then a drink (or two) at the bar at our hotel.

Boyfriend, me, C and  W

having a fitting end to another wonderful day in England

So that's the story for the 6th day.

Hopefully it won't take me so long to get back to you on the continuation of the tales of our trip.

=-)

As Promised...

Finally... back to England!  =-) 

(I think i've figured out the problem with Blogger.  It works MUCH better if i upload the pictures FIRST.)

If you recall, we landed in Manchester, England; had supper with S & her friend; left the next morning (in a rental car) for Wales; rode north across the coast toward Rhyl, Colwyn Bay, Llandudno, and around the Great Orme.  Then we rode south toward Betws-y-Coed, Dolgellau, and Aberystwyth, all the way to Cardigan.  We spent the night in a hotel in a small town called Gwbert, and left the next day for Carmarthen where we met up with K & her friend, and took them to lunch.  Then we went to Newport, Wales (Ryder Cup was there), and on to Bath, England.  We spent the night in Bath and went to the old town of Lacock, followed by Bourton-on-the-Water.  We spent the night in Bath again...  And now you're "caught up"!  =-)

The fifth day began with a typical English breakfast for me.  (I LOVED it!  I know lots of people talk about how bad and/or bland the food is in England, but i never had anything there that i didn't like, and i tried some of the "traditional" stuff.)

Traditional English breakfast, minus the beans.

After breakfast, we walked into town to tour the Roman baths in Bath (thus the name!).

The main Roman bath, looking down from the present street level.

Boyfriend & me below the present street level, touring the Baths.

I won't bore you with ALLL the pictures we took.  =-)

After touring the Baths, we took the Mayor's Tour of Bath, England.  If you ever go, SERIOUSLY take this tour!  It's very informative, and it's 

FREE!  =-)  Free is always good!  

Street sign near the start of our Mayor's Tour.  Boyfriend & i liked it...

The Royal Crescent in Bath, England.  Google it sometime.  You'll be amazed...

Circus in Bath, England.  It's thus called because the four buildings make a circle.

Sorry, i don't really have a better picture of it.  Google this one too!  =-)

After our Mayor's Tour of Bath, and after we had a bite for lunch, we went to...

Yes!  Stonehenge!
I ABSOLUTELY *LOVED* IT!!! 
There was a slight problem with visiting Stonehenge, though...
I WAS FREEZIN'!!!  The temp was in the 40s, and the wind was *whippin'* across all those open pastures around Stonehenge.
You see, Stonehenge is in the middle of *nowhere*, with *nothing* around it except for some military camps (bases).  We could hear them shooting their cannons and what-not, but still...

It was Beautiful and Majestic, and i *loved* it!
I  think i could have stood there and "felt" it better if i wasn't freezin' my ass off, but if i ever get the chance to go back, you better believe i'll go back to Stonehenge as well!
Talk about History!

We took *TONS* of pictures of Stonehenge, but i'll only show you a *few*... unless you simply beg me to show more.  =-)

Boyfriend and me in front of Stonehenge.

It's not tiny, but it's not as big as i thought it was from the t.v. shows i've seen...

But i'm NOT complaining!

It was Magnificent!

Sorry about the "Do Not Enter" sign, but they were everywhere.

So much so that Boyfriend didn't even notice it was in the pic until i pointed it out to him...

at HOME!  =-)

  

A shot from far away.

There's a walk all the way around it so you can see it 360.

After oohing and aahing (and freezing my buns off!), we turned in the rental car at Gatwick Airport, and rode the train in to Victoria Station.

Boyfriend & me on the train into London.

We were excited, and getting a bit tired...

The Victoria Station in London.

We had to find the correct Tube to get to our hotel.

No problem though!  There was a  Tube station right around the corner from our hotel!  Yay!

We stayed at the Copthorne Tara International Hotel near the High Street/Kensington Tube station.

The view of London from our hotel window.

If i had pointed a *little* more to the left, you would have been able to see

the London Eye in the distance.

Once we got settled into our rooms, Boyfriend, W, C and I went out in search of a pub for supper.

We didn't have far to look!  (Thank goodness.)

We got supper and a pint (or two...) at a pub called The Prince of Wales.

We thought it was fitting, since we'd just been in Wales a couple of days before, and we loved it so.

Good pub! 

W took a picture of *every* pub we ate/drank in!

Trust me, that's a lot of pubs.  =-)

A good end to a VERY good day!

I SWEAR i'll try to post sooner than the previous "incidents"! 

=-)