London...

Well, it’s Tuesday 11 September, and we’re getting ready to pick up our hire car and head off on our tour of the UK. Hard to believe that our time in London is over already – we packed so much into the 4 full days we had for sight-seeing here, not all of it together. 

After the 2 ¼ hour train trip from Paris (faster than catching a plane by the time you add in transfers to / from airports and customs clearance times!) we found ourselves in London and on our way to our hotel. We were all in the one room this time, which was going to be interesting and something we would have to get used to, but man, it was a BIG room. Although, no fridge…    :-? 

Between us all we have been to the London Eye, Westminster and the Houses of Parliament (though not inside), Buckingham Palace, the Duxford Air Show, Madame Tussauds, the Tower of London, HMS Belfast, Tower Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral, the Globe Theatre, the Museum of Natural History, Trafalgar Square, The Monument, London Bridge (and a few other bridges across the Thames, the London Tombs, various memorials, the RAF Museum, and Churchill’s War Rooms. We have done an open-top bus tour, seen squirrels play in St James’s Park, been to the largest shopping centre in London, caught ‘the tube’ multiple times and met a Chinese Paralympic long jumper on one trip, seen the Paralympic marathon, been to the Covent Garden market, and eaten our way through goodness knows how much money - thank goodness breakfast at the hotel is all you can eat and free! We heard the fireworks from the Paralympic closing ceremony the other night, and by the time we realised what we were hearing it was too late. Wouldn’t have mattered too much anyway – kids were asleep, and we were showered and ready for / tucked up in bed ourselves! 

In the midst of all the tourist-y stuff and visiting London landmarks and museums on Monday, we got caught up in the remnants of the crush that was the Olympic and Paralympic “Thank You” parade – and were lucky enough to have cameras at the ready to capture shots of the flypast by the RAF Red Arrows.

After three attempts to gain entry to Westminster Abbey, we finally made it in the doors on Tuesday morning. The first time, we were our way to get to Buckingham Palace for our tour before crowds picked up too much; the second time we got there about 15 minutes after it had closed for the day. Somewhat annoyed when we were allowed in that we weren’t allowed to take any photographs of anything, though. Would have been nice to be able to have photos of the tombs and grave markers for those that are buries in / under the Abbey – like Queen Elizabeth I, King George I, King Henry IV, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, and so on….

Now for the photos in no particular order - it's after 10:30 at night as I post this, and I am too tired to spend the next 1/2 hour trying to get them in chronological order.  ;-)   Enjoy!

Jo. xxx