England: London

We took a cab into London on the afternoon of July 25th. Keith, our cab driver, was a very nice "bloke" who gave a commentary of some of the places that we drove by, including the iconic Abbey Road crosswalk which was featured on the cover of the Beatles' album "Abbey Road". He safely dropped us off at our hotel, the St. Ermin's on Caxton Street.

We couldn't have asked for a better location. The St. Ermin's was within walking distance of Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey and adjacent to St James's Park. And just in case we got into mischief, New Scotland Yard was just around the corner!

After unpacking and settling into our room, we went to a nearby pub for dinner, The Albert.

July 26, 2015

On Sunday, we toured the Churchill War Rooms. This museum is located in the bunkers that were used by Churchill and his staff during World War II. It was a really fascinating look at what was going on behind-the-scenes during the war, especially during the Battle of Britain.

July 27, 2015

While Gary worked in the hotel room, I went to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. That afternoon, we went to see the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace. Every year, Buckingham Palace opens its doors for two months in the summer for a special tour. This year's exhibition, "A Royal Welcome", showcased the preparations for an official visit to Buckingham Palace.

July 27, 2015 (Continued)

We entered the State Rooms through the Grand Entrance, used by all those who come to the Palace at the Queen's invitation, including Heads of State and Prime Ministers. The Australian State Coach was on display at the Grand Entrance portico. This is where the Queen departs and returns to Buckingham Palace by carriage for ceremonial processions. The displays recreated some of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into preparing for a State Visit, from the food and selection of wine to the choice of the Queen’s outfits. We were happy to see a large poster of Barack Obama (with his killer grin!) with the Queen from a photograph taken during his state visit in 2011. Probably the most impressive part of the exhibit was the Palace's Ballroom, which was set up for a State Banquet. The tables were dressed with centerpieces and candelabra from the Grand Service in the Royal Collection. The detailed preparations required to create such a spectacle were captured in an incredible time-lapse film that showed just how much work goes into

July 27, 2015 (Continued)

one of these banquets. Reminds me of Downton Abbey! Afterwards, we had dinner at the Blue Boar in Westminster.

July 28, 2015

We both stuck around the hotel today, with Gary working (as he never ceases to remind me!) and me catching up on emails. We had afternoon tea at St. Ermin's (très elegant) and afterward, headed out to Covent Garden in the West End. We went to the Gielgud Theatre to see "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time". This play is based on a book that Gary had just finished reading, a 2003 mystery novel by British writer Mark Haddon. Its title quotes the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle's 1892 short story "Silver Blaze". This was the most amazing, imaginative, kinetic, creative play that either of us had ever seen. It is no wonder that it won a Tony in 2015 for Best New Play!

July 29, 2015

I toured Westminster Abbey today while Gary worked. When he signed off for the day, we went to the National Portrait Gallery. There was a photographic exhibition entitled "Audrey Hepburn: Portrait of an Icon" that we would love to have seen, but the tickets were sold out for the day. We went to dinner at The Côte Bistro in Covent Garden before going to The Duchess Theatre to see "The Play That Goes Wrong". It is a highly physical and very silly comedy that features the cast and crew of the “Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society” attempting to stage a 1920s murder mystery - and everything that can go wrong, does. This play came highly recommended to us by our playwright friends, Jessie Jones, Nick Wilkinson and Jamie Wooten, better known in the world of theatre as "Jones Hope Wooten".

July 30, 2015

On Thursday, I took the bus to the Millenium Bridge in Bankside. The bridge, which is officially known as the "London Millennium Footbridge", is a steel suspension bridge for pedestrians crossing the River Thames. I walked over the bridge to Shakespeare's Globe, which I toured. After work, Gary met me at Founders Arms, a pub overlooking the Thames. We took a bus from there to St. John's Square in Blackpool, where Sue works. We reunited with her, Martin and Hannah for dinner at The Chardonnay.

July 31, 2015

On Friday, I took the bus back to Covent Garden, where I had lunch at The Crusting Pipe, which is located in the lower level of the Market. It was very relaxing, with a trio playing classical music in the courtyard. I went back to the hotel and Gary and I boarded the bus for our Hop-On, Hop-Off tour.

July 31, 2015 (Continued)

We "hopped off" at Covent Garden and had dinner at the Boulevard Brasserie. One thing we didn't realize when we booked our 24-Hour Hop-On, Hop-Off bus tour was that there was a huge cycling event through the streets of London called the "Prudential RideLondon". Starting Friday evening at 6:00 P.M. through 10:30 A.M. on Sunday, most of the streets through downtown London were closed for the event. We were able to get in most of the sightseeing that we wanted on the bus Friday evening, but it became clear to us that there would be no sightseeing on Saturday due to the road closures.

August 1, 2015

Most of today was spent getting ready for our departure on Sunday. We had tickets for a wine-tasting on the London Eye at 5:30. Before we got to London, we had purchased two 7-Day Travel Cards which allowed unlimited travel on London's buses, trains and tubes within a certain zone. We ended up using buses for our transportation because we enjoyed seeing the sights, and naively assumed that we would be able to use them to get to the Eye on Saturday afternoon. However, when we set out we were only able to go part of the way, so we hailed a cab and got to the Eye with only minutes to spare! With our purchase of the wine-tasting option, thankfully we were able to skip the long queue for tickets. We were loaded into the "capsule" along with only about 10 other people, which gave us plenty of room to roam about. The wine-tasting was conducted by a representative of Vinopolis, which is a wine-oriented visitor attraction in London. The wines were reasonably good, and they served a Prosecco, which made me very happy, of course! We went around two rotations, which took about an hour and the views were amazing!

August 2, 2015

We checked out of the hotel on Sunday morning to make our way to London City Airport. Gary had worked with the concierge to find a taxi willing to navigate the street closures and finally found one. The trip to the airport, which would normally have taken only about 1/2 hour, ended up taking well more than an hour, but we arrived there in plenty of time for our CityJet flight at 2:05 P.M.

Some final thoughts about London:

Both Gary and I hadn't expected to fall in love with London, but we did. I had been there only one time previously, when I was 16, and only for a couple of days. Gary had been to London many times before, but most recently on business, staying outside the city at the Sofitel at Heathrow Airport. We loved travelling around on the double decker buses, and were charmed by the lovely parks, the iconic landmarks and, of course, the pubs! Since there are so many attractions on our list that we didn't get to see, such as the British Museum, the Tower of London, National Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, Oxford, Cambridge and Bletchley Park, we shall return!

So long to St. Ermin's!