London Trip!

Wow -- where has the time gone? Thing have been pretty busy over here between craziness at the office and insanity in my personal life. In an effort to get back to blogging, I'm going to start with a couple of posts about our last-minute trip to London at the end of August.

Originally, we were planning a trip to Nova Scotia, but both Nico and I felt the tug of Europe. Since neither of us had been to London, we decided it was a good place to start! We booked our tickets to London, and one week later, we left. I admit I enjoyed the last-minute spontaneity of it all. We were gone for a total of eight days -- leaving on Sunday evening, and returning on Monday evening.

Day 1: Monday

After arriving in London, we knew we wanted to beat jet-lag, so we took the Tube from the airport to our hotel near Green Park, left our bags at the hotel, and took off walking towards Westminster Abbey. Along the way, we stopped for take-out sandwiches, which we took into St. James Park. After watching people and birds for a bit, we continued past Buckingham Palace, White Hall, and onward through many government buildings. There was some sort of security situation, so we ended up taking a circuitous route, since all the government buildings and the surrounding streets were unexpectedly closed.

We paid a bit of extra money to take a guided tour of Westminster Abbey -- money very well spent! Our tour guide was fabulous, and we got to go in several places those not on the guided tours are not allowed to enter.



Next, we wandered around, stopped at Westminster Cathedral and into some shops along the way (Top Shop, Zara, etc.) Exhausted, we stopped in St. James Park once again for a brief respite in the grass with some fruit and chocolate before going back to our hotel to freshen up before dinner.

For dinner, we found an authentic looking pub near our hotel. They happened to specialize in pies, so we both decided to forgo fish & chips for that first evening and have the house special pies. Nico tried a wild game pie, and I had a basic beef stew pie. Both were delicious!

After dinner, we stopped at Lilly White's in Picadilly Circus -- a giant sportswear store. Nico wanted to get a football jersey of his team (the Tottenham Hotspur), so we found the humongous football floor, which contained the hilariously named "boot room." I think Nico was in heaven.



Day 2: Tuesday

On our way back to our hotel the first evening, we happened to go by Buckingham Palace. We were advised to buy tickets in advance -- there was no line when we walked by, and the tickets are timed in an effort to control the crowds inside the Palace. So, with our tickets purchased, we planned our "royal day" on Tuesday, beginning with a tour of the Royal Mews. The Mews is where the queen's carriages, cars, and horses are kept. When we arrived in the morning, the horses were being exercised in the riding school within the mews, so we got to see the trainers working with the horses, then taking the saddles off, washing them, and putting them back into the stables. It was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip!


One of my favorite stories from the tour is that the Queen names all of the horses herself. And, she comes to visit the horses at least once a year. She's such an animal lover, that she can name all of the horses by sight! The Windsor Greys were on summer holiday in the countryside for the summer, so we were just able to see a few of the Cleveland Bays.

Next, we rushed over to see the changing of the guard. The crowd gathered was crazy! We got a tip from the woman who helped us schedule our tours on where to watch the ceremony -- we pushed our way to the top of the traffic circle in front of Buckingham Palace to see the entire spectacle unfold. Most of the time, we didn't really know what was going on, but it was, of course, a fun thing to see nonetheless.


Finally, we toured the state rooms of Buckingham Palace. After seeing the grandeur of the rooms, it's easy to see why the British love the monarchy so. It's an amazingly rich history that is truly unique.

View of Buckhingham Palace from the Palace Gardens.

Next, we decided to walk over to Hyde Park. We wandered amongst some gardens there and planned a lunch at the Lido. With a pitcher of Pimm's split between us, we continued to wander through Hyde Park after lunch, past Kensington Palace, by the Prince Albert Memorial, the Royal Albert Hall, and through Notting Hill.

We ended the day by walking all the way west past Notting Hill and to a Queen's Park Rangers football match. They wouldn't allow cameras inside the stadium, so you'll have to trust that we enjoyed ourselves immensely.