Outside our hotel
Before our Tour
We started our day with a "Royal London" walk with a guide. His name was Tom and was a barrister by profession, but on fridays he shares his love of royal London history with travelers. He was enthusiastic and gave us lots of insight and info. He showed us how to identify where the queen was in residence and positioned us to watch the changing of the guard. As we were walking to Westminster Abbey, we happened upon a dress rehearsal for trooping the color (the queen's official birthday celebration held in June). It's a processional of the queen's regiment including all of her guards from 5 different regiments - Welsh, Irish, Scottish, and two English and a band. It was quite a treat to see!
The guards heading to change the guard
The processional
The guards trooping the color
Our guide then took us to Westminster Abbey. WA could almost be described as "grandmother's attic." It's full of tombs and history and all this stuff that nobody has ever thrown away. We saw Queen Mary and Elizabeth's tombs, the coronoation chair, and other royal artifacts. Our guides knew everything and were able to answer any question we had.
The Abbey
These pictures were taken in the cloisters.
Next we headed to the Tate Modern Museum of Art. When I took Humanities a year ago, my favorite section was the contemporary section. I was excited about it, but ended up being wildly disappointed. We figured there was about 3-5 paintings that deserved Museum status and we saw just about everything in the huge place. Most of it was trash and some of it depraved. Anyway . . . a huge waste of taxpayer money.
We had dinner at a delicious noodle place named Wagamama, recommended by the Morris. We then went to see Hairspray! It was very fun and actually a different experience than watching the movie.
Hope you're enjoying your stay. I was amused to see your pictures of the Trooping the Colour preparations, as I cross the road every weekday at the exact spot where the fourth shot was taken.
ReplyDeleteIf you have time can I suggest that you check out Blood Brothers at the Phoenix theatre (you should be able to get tickets quite cheaply on the day from the cut price ticket offices in Leicester Square). I saw it quite recently and absolutely loved it. Very affecting though, as well as quite funny. Certainly an experience you'll remember.
Anyway, I'll look forward to reading more about your adventures. Take care.
Lauren, your comment about the bacon made me laugh because it's just like something my dietician daughter would write. We were looking over some childhood trip journals of hers and she would always write about the food she ate -- her dietician interests started young. I've also eaten at Wagamama (on Cindy's recommendation) and really enjoyed it. But I have a different opinion about the Tate Modern -- it really is one of my favorite museums in London -- and that's saying a lot in that city with so many great museums. I just love the space itself, I guess, as much as the art. And I love walking across the bridge spanning the Thames to get there. I love traveling through Europe and will enjoy following with you on this trip through your blog. I would love to do this with Lindsay, because we have so many of the same interests, but after the kids come, it just doesn't work. So it's a good thing you two are doing this now!
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