June 29th, Continued...
So, this turned out to be our busiest day in London...
Having spent a wonderful morning at Westminster Abbey, we proceeded to
find somewhere for lunch,all the while taking in the sites of Big Ben
and the House of Parliament. I'll skip the sordid details, but the
conclusion was that Dan and I will never go on The Amazing Race
together, or if we did, we'd be the most entertaining couple on there,
and not in a good way. Suffice to say that after much walking and
getting lost, we finally found a recommended pub on our list to eat
lunch at (thank you Rick Steves for producing amazing travel books with
superb recommendations!). We ate at the Red Lion Tavern where Matt
enjoyed fish and chips, and Dan and I had ham sandwiches...he liked his
better than I did. But, the tavern was adorable, and we loved how the
locals were sipping summer shandies at lunchtime.
After lunch, and refreshed, happy and rejuvenated, we walked the road
along St. James Park to Buckingham Palace, which is much more glamorous
in real life than photographs. Where the edging along the building looks
dark and black in pictures, it's truly gold and stunning. The Queen was
in residence during the week we were in London and therefore BP is not
open for tours, but it was still fun to actually stand at the gates and
admire.
After BP, we walked back on the other side of
St. James Park, leading us to Trafalgar Square in all it's
magnificence, and then we completed our walk back to the Tube and passed
The Horse Guards Arch and Parades where the royal horses are readied
for events. We also passed the Churchill War Rooms (which we did not go
in, but I would have liked to.) For some reason, and this was the source
of our frustration earlier in the day, we could not find Downing St,
and therefore could not find the Prime Minister's digs, but we'll just
put it on the list for next time.
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| Big Ben |
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| House of Parliament |
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| Pub we had lunch at. |
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| Downstairs in the pub. |
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| That beer was not as big as it appears. |
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| St. James Park |
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| Buckingham Palace |
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| Ditto (where it appears black on the building, it's actually gold!) |
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| Another view. |
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| Seriously, can we get a photo without other tourists running into it? |
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| BP Gardens |
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| Ditto |
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| St. James Park and Big Ben |
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| Statue outside BP |
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| A shot from the road |
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| Archways to Trafalgar Square Area |
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| Trafalgar Square and more tourists! |
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| View of street from Traf. Sqaure |
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| Statue in Trafalgar Square |
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| Matt at statue in T. Square |
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| More from T. Square |
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| Read and see below |
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| Beautiful monument in memory of those lost in Bali Terrorist Attack |
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| Horse Guard Palace |
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| Ditto |
Next Blog: Kensington Palace and Diana's Memorial Wading Pool
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