May 31 - London Day 3

Spooky day.

Starting off with the Tower of London. Which isn't a tower at all, but a castle.
But it's where lots of people have been imprisoned and beheaded so it's creepy none the less.
Little bit of history... It used to be the place all the kings and queens lived at, but somewhere along the way they moved to Buckingham. Still not sure why or when, but then it was converted to a prison.
We saw the place where Ann Boleyn got her head cut off. They've replaced the chopping block with this watery art piece, which I think is a shame. I would have liked to see the chopping block instead.
Apparently, she was brought in by a secret passage in the river so no one would know she was there. They called this the 'traitors gate' and you can only get in by boat.
The Tower was cool and creepy, and they had people dressed up reenacting scenes which was awesome. Mostly because we knew their accents weren't fake. :) And we saw the armory where all the armor and weapons of all the kings are kept. Looking at the armor, you can tell what the knights were very keen to protect (if you get my drift)

But by far the coolest part of the Tower are the crown jewels. Again, you can't take pictures in there, and you have to stand on a moving platform to see them (no lingering allowed). But it was awesome. Every king or queen has their own crown and scepter and ring for inauguration and they have them all there going back to like 1200 or something. It's insane.
I saw the hope diamond in washington and it was cool, but this was 100 times better. How awesome would it be to just get to wear one for a minute? My inner little girl princess was squealing with delight.

After the tower everyone but Jesse and I went to Greenwich to see the Prime Meridian. It was a 2 hour boat ride and I guess Jess and I just decided to skip it and instead go shopping.
We went into Harrod's and went to Petticoat Lane (which is a big huge flea market). We also hit up the British War Experience which was not quite as interesting as it sounds. There was one part where you walk through a re-enacted street of WWII London as it is being bombed by the Nazis that was kind of cool.

The lot of us met back up that evening for the Jack the Ripper tour.
It started at the Tower of London (of course - extra creepy factor) and wandered through the streets of London, guided by a resident expert in the subject. I don't have alot of pictures of the tour because most of it is, "Look at these cobblestones. This is where a victim was found dead and de-gutted" and it starts at dusk so by halfway through the tour it was a little too dark for pictures. What's neat about the tour is that alot of the places still exist as is. You can still see the little halfway house where the prostitutes stayed. It's not that any more of course, but it's just as it was in the 1800's. That's pretty cool. And the buildings are real close together and it getting dark and all - it can make for a pretty creepy tour. Our guide was more matter of factual than dramatic though.

May 30th - London Day 2

Jesse felt a little better that morning, but again, we slept very little so we were quite tired.
We started out going to the London Eye which is a giant ferris wheel. I figured it would be good because Jesse could sit and rest a bit.
You get great views of the city in the Eye. We were in there with a British family and though I didn't know it at the time, Jesse was getting quite upset at one of the ladies because she kept hovering over the air conditioner.

Then we went to Westminster Abbey. Where apparently anyone who's anyone in British history or culture is buried. I mean everyone has a memorial there. Chaucer, Austen, Tennyson, Carrol, Isaac Newton, even Darwin - not to mention generations of kings and queens. It's also quite huge. It seemed to go on for ever. The cathedral was huge and had large prayer rooms off the side and burial chambers for the royalty. And then it also had cloisters and gardens you could visit.
They won't let you take pictures in the Abbey itself which is a shame.
So all the pictures I've attached in this blog are taken by a professional, but they are the pictures that I would have taken had they let me.
After the abbey, Jesse was feeling much better and we figured since we had seen Buckingham palace, we would go see the Prime Minister's residence, 10 Downing Street. It was heavily guarded of course, but he doesn't live in a huge palace or anything like our president. In fact, aside from the guards, the only thing that lets you know that he lives there is the black door with the address.
Then we went to the cabinet war rooms which are the underground bunkers for Churchill and his team during the blitz in WWII. It was typical museum fare, but the map room was pretty cool because it had all these old maps of Europe pasted on the wall with pins stuck in them obviously to follow battles and battle plans.
Jenny, Jesse's sister, was a history major (specifically WWII history) so she spent a lot more time in there than we did. While waiting for her to come out, we were hanging out on the side of the street when a big parade came by with lots of horses and carriages. We found out later that they were practicing for the queen's birthday which was going to take place just after we left.
When Jenny and Jay finally emerged, we split. Jesse's parents were going to take his grandparents back to the hotel to rest. Us 'kids' were going to see if we could find the church where Princess Diana was married.
Apparently, us kids are stupid. We went to the wrong church. We took a train halfway across London, only to get out at this little chapel. The cool thing was that there was a wedding going on and the vicar let us watch part of it through the glass doors.

After having spent a day in Liverpool, and now being in London, how could a tourist and a Beatles fan resist Abbey Road?
We did the the typical touristy thing walking across the road and acting like we were on the cover of the album. The thing is, Abbey Road is actually quite a busy street. I'm sure people get injured there all the time because of the traffic and the desire to stop mid-crossing to get a good picture. Very close to the spot where the Beatles got their album cover shot is the actual Abbey Road Studios.
Jesse was in Beatles heaven. He wanted to go in. He almost did, just to pop in and act like he was supposed to be there, but then be escorted out by security. I mean, how many people can say they were kicked out of Abbey Road Studios? But he chickened out.

A short walk from Abbey Road is Paul McCartney's actual home. He wasn't there because he was giving a show in Liverpool (missed him by two days!!). I was impressed by how unimpressive his home was. He doesn't live like a multi-millionaire at all.

We actually spent alot of this day just wandering London with Jesse's parents. We hit up the theater district to try and find cheap seats to Spamalot, but no luck. One of the cool things we saw was in Trafalgar square there was a sidewalk chalk artist just like in Mary Poppins.
I tried to jump in and see if it would transport me to a magical, colorful land with live carousels and dancing penguins, but it didn't :(

May 29th - London

London. I think I could live here. Honestly. It's foreign enough to be exotic and not like what you find in the US, but they speak English so you can navigate the town fairly easily.
And of course, what's the first thing you do when you get to London! Why, just like the pussy cat - you visit the queen! Our hotel was walking distance from Buckingham palace so we hoofed it over early to get a good spot to see the changing of the guards. On the way we walked through Trafalgar Square. Which, to be honest I don't know why it's famous. I really should have brushed up on my English history before coming over. I'm sure there is some significance to Trafalgar Square historically, but at the time I have no idea. The road leading to Victoria Square and the palace was lined with lamposts and flags (which we later learned from a cabby is topped with ships from Admiral Nelson's fleet - Not sure who he is, but he's on top of the column in the middle of the square).

We got pretty early so we got a really nice spot in front of the palace. It was a little odd after spending time in Ireland to be surrounded by so many different cultures at once. Jesse chatted in Japanese to the people standing next to us.
Also, I saw Prince William. Yes, the future king of England himself. Granted, it was a quick look as he drove out of the gates, but still... I saw him. Beverly (my MIL) saw him too so she can back me up on that. Oddly there was practically no security around him. I'm sure someone was in the car with him, but there wasn't a motorcade or snipers on every roof like there is when the president drives by.
The changing was intriguing; something every visitor must partake of. But I think since we are American, a lot of the symbolism of what they were doing and who was who was lost on us. I expected it to be solemn, like the one at Arlington cemetery, but the band was playing "76 Trombones".
And after the palace, the best place to go is the palace gift shops. I must say I was impressed. I'm not a souvenir buying kind of person. (I'm not into kitschy knick knacks and key rings) But this shop had my attention. You could buy Queen Victoria's china. It is quite possibly the most beautiful china pattern I've ever seen. I wanted a piece, but it was way to expensive. So I got a teacup from Elizabeth II's commemorative china for her 60th wedding anniversary. It's quite lover-ly.
At this point Jesse got very ill. He literally threw up on the side of the palace gates.
Hoping it was just the crush of people and bad air we went to a pub to sit it out for a bit. No doing - he threw up in the pub as well.
I decided to take him back to the hotel while the rest of the family went shopping at Portabello Road.
Jesse was pretty sick. Around 5 o'clock I decided we needed dinner so I went out into the streets of London by myself. I've gotta say it unnerved me a bit. I had looked online for a nearby restaurant and memorized the path there. It wasn't that bad though. Our hotel was just one block from a bunch of delis and restaurants.
Jesse and I spent the rest of the evening indoors. It turns out he only had a 24 hr bug and was doing much better the next day, but we didn't sleep at all that night.
Around 2am he woke up ill and desperate for something to drink. So we looked in the mini-bar. We pulled out everything and found a coke in the back. A $6 coke. But it was worth it for him to feel better.
We later found out that the hotel charges by what was moved in the mini-bar, not by what was actually taken. When we checked out we had like a $200 bar bill but they dropped it. (Which was stupid in the first place because to even get to the coke itself I had to pull out three different items)