Plane Ride
Last night we boarded the “English Rose” Boeing 747 to head to London.
The plane ride took 9 hours. In anticipation for our trip we brought some Ambien to sleep. The prescription, however, did not work and neither of us slept a wink.
We landed about 10:30 AM English Standard Time (3:30 AM MST). After exiting the plane we went through customs. I was a bit surprised on how long the line in customs was. Hundreds of people were in line, but they only had eight booths of customs agents helping individuals enter the UK from foreign nationalities.
After exiting customs we took the express train from the London, Gatwick Airport to Victoria Station. There we jumped on the “Underground” or “Tube” (we call it a Subway) on the “Circle Line” to High Street in Kensington. We quickly discovered our hotel the Copthorne Tara Millennium is just around the corner from the Tube Station. The picture below is Tiff in a traditional English Telephone Booth. Our hotel is right behind it.
The hotel is decent, probably the quality of a Best Western, but most importantly it was free. For that price, it is excellent! (although i will complain that the pillows probably cost $1.00). We arrived at the hotel around noon, and our room was not yet ready. Even though we hadn’t slept at all, we loaded up and headed to Trafalgar Square to pick up our London Pass. The London Pass is great. I found it got us into most of the main attractions we wanted to get into at a discounted price. The key with the pass is to go to enough exhibits. If you don’t hit at least a few each day then its cheaper to just buy the tickets at the individual places. One of the other benefits of the London Pass is it gets you into attractions quicker than having to wait and buy tickets, and in the case of the Tower of London, there is a special queue (line) which gets you in quicker.
Walking Around
From Trafalgar square we walked to Westminster Abbey. I did not realize all of the great sites to see between these two destinations. On our way we passed the Prime Minister’s House, 10 Downing Street; the Ministry of Justice, Big Ben, and Parliament.
After a 30 minute walk from Trafalgar Square we finally reached our destination at Westminster Abby. You could probably make the walk faster, but we stopped at a chain called Pret A Manger. I’ve eaten at these before in New York and D.C., and its good cheap on the go food. Plus, by this time Tiff and I were staving after not eating much on the plane. The breakfast provided on Virgin Atlantic was the nastiest yogurt.
Before I talk about the wonders of Westminster Abbey, let me mention a few things about Big Ben and the Parliament Buildings. While Big Ben is not the tallest of buildings. It is beautiful. The ornate details of the buildings is exquisite. I can only image the hours of minute details which went into making those buildings.
Westminster Abbey
The current Westminster Abbey sits on the site of the original constructed approximately 1,000 years ago. The main structure of the building standing today dates back to the 1300’s. The attraction is free with the London Pass, and we had a special entrance which got us in to quickly. The Abbey prohibits photographs so I don’t have any that i have taken, although there are several pictures online.
The Building was originally used for monks as a monastery. When Henry VIII converted England from Catholicism to the Church of England, the Abbey changed purpose. It is one of the oldest actively used churches in the world and each day they still conduct Mass and conduct the Holy Communion, its version of the sacrament.
The Abbey has its own mens and boys choirs which are world renown. In fact, children form around the world are recruited to the choir. The interior is magnificent. High arching ceilings and hand crafted marble floors. Don’t expect a lot of color though. A few highlights are the tombs of those interred there including: Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of the Scots; James I, Henry VII, Charles Darwin, Sir. Issac Newton, Lawrence Olivia, and many, many others.
Although not buried there the Abbey has a huge shrine to William Shakespeare. I thought it was interesting that Sir. Lawrence Olivia was buried below that shrine when he died. Another interesting story if of someone who was buried there, Oliver Cromwell. The reason this is interesting is because two years after Cromwell’s death, the current crown was so upset with Cromwell’s revolt against Charles I, that those favorable to the Crown removed his body from the Abbey, hung it, and beheaded the corpse. Yikes!
Another highlight of the tour was seeing the coronation chair. The chair is not flamboyant, but has held every royal crowed as monarch since the 1300s. It is kept in a special room near the exit of the building. Tiff enjoyed looking at the pictures of William and Kate’s marriage there, and the procession. I can only imagine the cost of paying for a wedding there.
Buckingham Palace
From Westminster Abbey we walked to Buckingham Place. Along the way we ran into a cupcake store. We paid about £5 for two fingernail sized cupcakes. They were good, but over priced. Buckingham Palace is impressive. Its interesting that you have a palace which is located so close to the center of a city. It is adjacent to a park, and there is a lot of room in front of it, but it is definitely in the heart of the city. I was very impressed with the black rod iron gates with the gold leave tops.
One misrepresentation of the palace from the movies is the proximity of the guard. Below I took a picture of the guard, quite a bit away from them, but as close as I could get. There is no way you could stand in front of them and try to make them break.
Its hard to see some of the splendor of this palace without being there. We made an executive decision not to tour inside. From what I read it takes a long time, and doesn’t give the greatest bank for your buck. After the Palace we went back to the hotel checked in and changed for our last stop of the night
Les Miserables
The night ended with us going to the Queen Theatre and seeing a production of Les Miserables on the West End.
Let me start off by saying I have seen several productions of Les Miserables, and this was the best hands down. The acting, signing, staging, was superb. Normally there is a weak link in the cast, in this case there wasn’t.
Well that is day 1 for you. I’m exhausted. Haven’t slept in 48 hours. Talk to you Tomorrow!
Greg
Christiansen Travel 