Windsor Castle

Yesterday (Saturday) we drove out to Windsor Castle.  It is only about 30 minutes or so from home (not counting the heavy traffic we hit).  This is certainly the height of tourist season here.  I can only imagine how crazy it will be next summer when the Olympics are in London.

We parked easily and walked up to the castle.  It took a while to get tickets, go through security and pick up our audio guides but we happened to catch the changing of the guards while in line.

The audio guide was very good and had an intro by Prince Charles welcoming us to his ancestral home.  Then we had a wonderful leisurely tour of the immense castle grounds (13 acres).  The castle has been in continuous use for almost 1,000 years. It sustained a large fire in the early 1990's but has been fully and beautifully restored.

We skipped seeing Queen Mary's Dollhouse because of the very long line - although it sounded very intriguing .  It would have been cool to see a dollhouse with running water and electricity and a working elevator, but not worth waiting in line for an hour or more. 

We did tour the State Apartments (no photos allowed) and really enjoyed it.  The rooms were oddly livable even through they were huge.  They had some video screens showing the rooms in use - like the banquet room with the shields of all the Knights of the Garter and the room where the queen "knights" people and has private audiences.  The queen has always fascinated me since I saw her when I lived in England for a year in 1961, so I really enjoyed seeing all that.

We also toured St. George's Chapel where Henry VIII and his favorite wife, Jane Seymour, are buried

and took our pictures with the guard.

After lunch in town we wandered the town and went down to the river to see the amazing swans on the River Thames.

After a drive through Eton to see the college and town we headed home to relax before taking the bus into Richmond to find dinner.  We had a pretty good meal at Rustica Pizza although the place was terribly noisy with several very loud parties at nearby tables.  A very enjoyable evening.

Britain at War Museum and a Trip to Greenwich

Friday we headed into London to check out "Winston Churchill's Britain at War" Exhibit.  Our interest in this was created by touring the Churchill War Rooms which we had done last week.  As an American it is hard for us to imagine what it must have been like to fear invasion by Hitler after hearing how he had mowed across Poland and France and was just 23 short miles across the English Channel.  The nightly bombings in 1940-41 must have been terrifying.

The Britain at War Museum was all about the British people and what it was like for them during WWII.  It wasn't about the military situation or the political situation, just what life was like.  We learned a lot of interesting things that we did not know, such as they sent the children away from London (which was very unfortunate for some of the children).  Fascinating to learn about but still very very hard to imagine.

When we left the museum we walked across the London Bridge and up to the pier at the Tower of London and caught the river boat tour up to Greenwich, about a 30 minute narrated ride.  The river has lots of interesting buildings along its shores (as well as many old pubs).

Cher lived in top left apartment for many years

These are supposed to look like 3 French Soldiers (do you see it?)

We got off the boat in Greenwich at the Royal Naval College and went in search of lunch in town.

Royal Naval College

After lunch we hiked up the steep hill to the Royal Observatory.  There are a variety of things there but the most interesting one is the Prime Meridian.   This is the longitudinal line from which all others are based.  This line also divides the east and west hemispheres. and it defines GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).   Being a science buff this holds special significance to Larry so we couldn't come to London without making a pilgrimage to Greenwich.

Prime Meridian

The fun thing to do is stand with one foot on either side - so that you are spanning the two hemispheres.  Larry, of course, had to do that but we didn't go into the Observatory because they now charge quite a bit for it and there is a long queue to take your picture on the meridian.  You can tell outside the yard where the line is and we staged our own picture.

They also have the offical time keeping clock.  Larry was dismayed to find out that his watch is now 22 seconds ahead.

The view of London from up on the hill was wonderful as well.

Compared to many of our sight seeing days, this was a relative relaxed and low-key day.  Very nice.

A Day Near Home: Hampton Court

Friends from Raleigh, Deb and Bob, arrived early Thursday morning and we thought we should take in a sight near home rather than trek into London.  We had a choice between Hampton Court and Kew Gardens - both within minutes of the house.  So after a short nap we headed off by car to find lunch and Hampton Court, the home of kings, including Henry VIII and several of his many wives.

Arriving at Hampton Court was pretty cool. You actually drive in the main gates of the palace to get to the car park. We grabbed a quick, unimpresive, expensive lunch at the cafe there. (Food in England has not impressed us.) 

The gardens at Hampton Court are really spectacular. It must take an army of gardeners to maintain them but you don't see anyone working on them. There is a hedge maze which we attempted to find the center of. You could really get lost in there. I think we all were getting a little uneasy and a little annoyed when we finally found the center.   Fortunately, the exit was easy to find from there.

We then headed for the palace itself and got our audio guides (I love that they are included in the admission price and you don't have to think about whether or not to get them.). 

We toured the impressive kitchens first - something we could all relate to a bit.  The kitchen was massive and took up a huge wing of the palace.  The organization required to feed the 1200 people in Henry's court must have been amazing.   At that time being fed was part of the pay for the servants. 

There were huge fireplaces (one of which was going) with many spits for roasting meat, a massive wine cellar, offices, dish rooms, pastry rooms, and boiler rooms (for making stews).  We learned that meat pies were developed because it was cheaper and easier than using crockery.  People would get a pie, cut off the top, eat the insides and throw the rest of the crust away.  To me the crust is the best part.

We then toured the main part of the Henry VIII palace which was interesting but not terribly memoriable to me (perhaps I have seen one too many palaces).  I do find it interesting to learn about how they lived.  For example, when the court was here they sucked up so much of the resources in the immediate area that after a while, there was nothing left to eat and drink so they needed to move on to another palace.  The other reason they would move on was that eventually the palace would start to stink!

The grounds however, were really amazing.  The gardens were so beautiful.

I do love English history.  It has always struck me as much more colorful than our own American history.  All the shifty fellows and the people who got their heads cut off.  Amazing.  Makes it really fun to tour places like this where these characters actually lived.

We then headed home for cheese and crackers and wine/beer on the back patio and tried to pick a good pub to have dinner.  We headed to Twickenham (next town over from Richmond) to The Swan pub and had a fun time (if not a great meal).

Our House in England and the Tube

The house we are staying in in England is very nice and in a lovely neighborhood in the town of Richmond.  It is a large house (the family has 4 children).

Front

Back deck

The back yard is quite large for a house in England and very private.  There is a guest house at the rear of it but we found it too mildewy to make use of.  We enjoyed some wine, cheese and crackers on the deck last evening.

Living room with Dot napping

While the house is old, it has been completely modernized and renovated.  Across the back of the house is a lovely glass enclosure which serves as the dining room.  We spend most of our time there when we are awake and at home.

Part of the kitchen

The kitchen is very modern and extremely well equipped.  I have prepared a couple of simple meals.

The town of Richmond is about 10 miles west of central London.  It is on the River Thames and there are some lovely pubs on the river here.  It is a 30 minute drive to Heathrow.  Kew Gardens is in the adjacent town - we plan to check it out on Monday.  

From our house, it is a ten minutes walk to the bus stop and then a 15 minute ride to the Richmond train station. From there we can catch the tube into London. It takes about 30 minutes on the tube to reach Westminster.  We have travel cards which allow us to pre-pay and travel on the tube and busses for half price.  We also have an annual travel pass which allows one of us to travel as much as we like for free.

The tube is a wonderful way to get around London.  It costs us 2.20 pounds to go in off-peak and 3.40 during peak travel times. (The pound is about $1.60).

Some of the stations are incredible looking - especially the newer stations like the one s shown here.  They have multiple floors, many escalators (few stairs, yeah!) and move massive numbers of people, especially during rush hour. 

 London has also put in place a "congestion charge" which you are hit with if you drive in to the center of London during the day.  Your license plate is electronically recorded and you are sent a bill for 8 to 10 pounds!  What a clever way to reduce congestion.  They have used the extra revenue to add busses and they are able to make it around their routes faster, so everyone wins.  We aren't driving into London - there's no reason to when public transport is so convenient and easy to use.

We do have a large car at our disposal and we have used it for day trips out and about.  I'm getting really used to driving on the wrong side of the road from the wrong side of the car.  God help me when I get back to the states.

Quiet Day and Quick Trip to London

Tuesday morning we took Chuck and Colleen to the airport (just 30 minutes away), and headed home to do laundry, read, rest and re-coup from a very busy few days of travel and sight seeing.

One of the things on my list of things to do was to visit Parliament - apparently you can actually go into the House of Lords and the House of Commons and watch the politicians "debate" the issues before Parliament. I researched it and discovered that they were about to take a Summer Recess until September and that today (23rd) was the last possible date you could go it.

We headed into London around 3:30 (it takes an hour) and headed to Parliament. It was closed...they went "on holiday" last Friday. Perhaps we will take the public tours which start next Friday.  So we took a nice walk along the river, past Westminster Cathedral (who knew there was one of those as well as there being an Abbey).  It is the largest Catholic church in England, I believe. It is massive inside and most of it is covered with colorful marble.  It appears to be incomplete.

Westminster Cathedral

and over to the Victoria Station area.

Victoria Station

We stopped to buy theatre tickets for next week to see "Wicked" - really looking forward to that.

We had dinner at a nearby pub before taking the tube home to Richmond.  Check out the size of the pastry on my beef and ale pie.

Car Trip to Stonehenge, Avebury and Windsor

The following day (Monday) we headed out by car mid-morning to Stonehenge, only about 90 minutes from where we are staying. Just an amazing sight to behold.

We walked all around it listening to the audio guide telling us what is known and what is speculated about the huge ring of upright stones and how and why they are here. My favorite theory was that there was some force of nature yet unknown to us which was used to put them there.

We compared impressions afterwards and we were all surprised that it wasn't bigger. It is big, but somehow not quite as big as we had all imagined.

We then headed for Avebury, another prehistoric stone site which covers an area 8 times larger than Stonehenge. There were stones all over the place in concentric circles with a tiny, little village of thatched roofed houses and shops in amongst the stones. It was more amazing that Stonehenge in a way as it was just all out there in sheep fields and around the village.

Unfortunately we choose poorly for lunch spots (there were only two to choose from) and it took forever for Chuck and Colleen's lunch to arrive and ours never arrived! We finished up their lunch, got a refund and left. Bummer.

During our rest stop at this adorable (but inefficient pub), Larry took the shot below of the urinals.  There were four in all labelled "small", "medium", "large" and "liar".  LOL

We had planned to visit Windsor Castle but we had spent so much time at Avebury we arrived in Windsor too late to do anything except walk around some of the outside of the castle, take a few pictures and check out the charming town and expensive shops. We plan to return and tour the castle another time, but Chuck and Colleen will have missed out on it. Double bummer.

We then drove "home." Chuck and Colleen packed and Larry researched pubs nearby.

We headed out for a wonderful last supper at The Hand and Flower pub. The food was excellent (I had lamb, yum) and the service terrific. We will probably return there again soon as well.

London: Second Day

The London Pass we bought was good for entrance to many of the main attractions in London but it was for two consecutive days which meant we had to try to tackle as much as we could during the two days.  Sunday (24th) was almost as long and hard a day of sight seeing as Saturday had been. In retrospect doing this on the weekend probably wasn't a good idea as I think it is more crowded in London on weekends this time of year. Despite the crowds we were able to see all that we wanted to see. (Warning: long blog entry to follow :) )

We took the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus and enjoyed the views for a while.

Marble Arch

Marble Arch was built in the early 1800's as the entrance to Buckingham Palace but apparently Queen Victoria hated it and had a coach built that wouldn't fit through it, so the arch was later moved off to a new location.  There are many statutes, memorials and interesting things to see just riding around London.  (If you click on the pictures, they will enlarge.)

Mini-Cooper Modern Art Statue

Horse Head statute ???



Parliament

Whitehall Horse Guard

Mad King George with traffic cones on his head

Largest Ship in a Bottle

We ended up near Buckingham Palace at 11:15, prime time for seeing the changing of the guard which happens at 11:30 each day in the summer.  The mob there was absolutely amazing (and just a little scary).  We held up our cameras to take pictures of things we couldn't see. 

Eventually Colleen and I climbed up on the iron fence and could take pictures of the palace yard from there.  All in all, not a wildly successful endeavor, but an interesting experience.

We then rode the bus back to the Tower of London, crossing Tower Bridge on our way.

We grabbed a lovely lunch at a nearby pub (Sunday is roast day!) and then headed in to tour the Tower of London - to me, the most amazing, interesting site in London.  We had a fabulous Beefeater guide named Dickie who was interesting, funny and told us a lot about the bloody history of the tower. 

Dickie

Important Prisoner Barracks (Queens)

Bloody Tower

The White Tower (seen from River Thames)

Changing of the Guard at the Crown Jewels

We waited in line to see the crown jewels and got to see a second changing of the guard.  The jewels were very impressive, but I suspect that only a small portion of what they own is actually displayed. (Sorry, no photos allowed.)

By then our feet were giving out so we left the tower and opted for a nice river cruise up the River Thames to Westminster and back.

The ferris wheel pictures is called The London Eye and was built by British Airways in 1999 for the millenium celebration.  It costs $30 to ride around once.  It goes a constant 1 mph.

We even got to see Tower Bridge open to let a boat through.

Somewhat rested from the lovely boat ride (notice how spectacular the weather was), we decided to go on the Jack the Ripper walking tour of the East End of London.  Our Beefeater guide, Dickie, was leading the tour tonight and since we had enjoyed him so much at the Tower, we thought this one would be fun.  It was a lot of walking, the story telling was fascinating but grim and gruesome due to the subject.  The east end is the seamier side of town so it was interesting to walk through there - not something we were likely to do otherwise.  All in all, very good street theatre.

After the tour, we dined near Victoria Station and took the tube home.  The food here is not nearly as good as in Ireland but it isn't quite as expensive either.  Attractions, however, are much more expensive here.  It costs $15 - $20 to get into things like the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey.

Phew - another long day, but London is beginning to feel like home now.