We had three days of sightseeing left in London, and the weather was incredibly kind to us. It was a bit chilly in the mornings, but it was sunny and warm for most of the three days. We took advantage of the weather and our central location and explored all over the city.
Our hotel was near the Green Park, so on Thursday we walked out of the hotel and through the park towards Buckingham Palace. While the name Green Park doesn't sound very original, it is very accurate. There was green everywhere, and the sun coming through the trees made for a great start to our day.
When we got to Buckingham Palace, there was hardly anyone around, so we had lots of time and space for pictures. The sun being in our face didn't help, so we had to move around a bit to not all be blinded.
The sun started to warm us up too as we took more pictures.
Once we had our fill of pictures, we crossed another street to get to St. James's Park. It was still pretty early in the morning, so there weren't a lot of people, but there were a lot of birds.
Jeff and Elena had fun trying to match the birds to their pictures and names.
But Elena was displeased with the pigeons, and kept trying to chase them off while yelling, you are not a featured bird!
Aside from Elena and her assault on the pigeons, it was a very peaceful park.
We even got to see a group of pelicans, which we hadn't been expecting.
One of my favorite things about St. James's Park is that it's nestled in the middle of the city, so you can see famous landmarks, but you're apart from them.
We even found a little cottage with a vegetable garden, definitely the stuff of fairy tales.
We decided this park was a family favorite.
We emerged from the park near a bunch of government buildings, and we found a stereotypical phone box for a great "London" shot.
Our goal was to get to the river and see about getting a boat up to the Tower, so we walked along taking pictures as we went by Westminster.
Jeff had fun playing with the morning sun.
We didn't go in, because you had to pay for the tickets in advance, and there were huge crowds of people. We finally made it down to the docks.
The first boat wasn't until 10, so we walked back up to find a place to hang out until then. It's all government buildings, so the first thing we found open was a Starbucks. The girls sat inside, and Jeff and I sat outside to continue enjoying the fabulous weather.
Eventually, we headed back to the dock and found our boat.
We had a live commentary from one of the crew, and he explained that we were going to go across the river to pick people up before we headed towards the Tower. Jeff played with the sun again while we waited for more people to board.
The tide and the time cooperated, so we went back under the bridge to take another look at parliament.
Then we headed up the river. We went under several bridges, and he explained about them as we went, including the ones that aren't in use anymore.
London is such a cool combination of old and new.
We sailed by Shakespeare's Globe, which is a recreation of the original theater. We didn't get to it this trip, so it is definitely on our list for next time.
We went under the most recent iteration of London Bridge, not to be confused with its more famous cousin Tower Bridge which we sailed by shortly afterwards.
Our awesome crew checked the times when the drawbridge would be lifted, so we knew when to be on the lookout. Then, they dropped us off at the pier, not at Traitor's Gate, which we appreciated.
We got in just as one of the Beefeaters was about to start his tour of the Tower. We joined the crowd of people and enjoyed his humor and his knowledge of the Tower's history.
After about 20-30 minutes though, we were all getting a bit tired of standing around in a huge crowd in the sun, so we abandoned our tour guide and went up into the rooms along the walls.
It was interesting to see how people had lived in the Tower when it was a primary royal castle.
The stained glass in the private chapel was lovely,
as was the view out the regular windows.
We realized this would be a perfect place to watch the drawbridge open, so we did a bit more exploring and then came back to claim our positions.
We had a great view,
but we were a bit disappointed when we realized that all the hoopla was for a little boat that happened to have a big mast it wasn't even using!
Jeff's theory was that that was the whole point of the boat tour, to get the drawbridge to open, and that's what people paid for. He's probably right. Still, we got to see it and explore the Tower grounds, so that was fun.
We even saw a raven hopping around. They are big! And not really afraid of all the people.
We didn't go into the Crown Jewels exhibit, because, again, huge line, but we enjoyed our Tower visit very much nevertheless.
Of course, the exit was through the gift shop. We couldn't resist a magnet, and Elena fell in love with the stuffed corgis, so we caved and got her one. She wanted to name it after one of the queen's corgis, so we looked up all their names, and she picked Jolly.
For lunch, we walked a bit to find the pub called The Hung Drawn and Quartered, one of the lovely punishments on offer at the Tower back in the day.
We went full British fare to fill up after our morning walking around London.
Jeff and I split the beef and ale pie which the menu said was for two, but was really for at least four. We couldn't finish it, but what we did eat, was delicious.
That evening was a low-key one for Jeff and Elena. They did dinner at the club and relaxed in the room, but Vivian and I had plans to go to the theatre. We walked from the hotel to the theater district, which was about a mile away. We went through Trafalgar Square where they were setting up for the theater festival that coming weekend.
After a yummy dinner, we still had time, so we walked around the neighborhood a bit. I absolutely loved all the pedestrian streets and little shops. It's a good thing that most of them were closed, or I might have been tempted to buy something.
Finally, we made our way back to the Duke of York theater and our show for the night.
I'll admit, I was skeptical about the journey from Spider Man to Romeo, but Tom Holland did an excellent job, and the way the entire production was put together and staged was really interesting, so I enjoyed it. One thing we were surprised to learn though, was that having food and drink at your seat is totally normal, which is not the case in the U.S., so the whole row of ladies next to us each had a bottle of champagne in one hand and a glass in the other, and they were drinking away throughout the show.
Vivian's favorite part though was at the end, when the cast was bowing and the lights were up. We were close enough to the stage that Tom Holland made eye contact with her and smiled. She was semi-hysterical for the whole evening. She insisted that we wait outside until he came out, so we did, along with at least a hundred other enthusiastic young women. Vivian was laughing and crying, and I wasn't entirely sure if taking her to see it was a good parenting move or not, but she assured me that she was happy, so I'll believe her and be glad that we went. It was a big end to a full day.
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