British Isles Tour - Day One London, England

When I hear the word "cruise," my heart just skips a beat!  Nothing better in my book!  But add to that, being able to go for 2 1/2 weeks to some places that I have never been before with my best friend (my husband), and two of my other best friends (my two sisters), and their husbands, well, what could be better!  In August, off the three couples went for a flight to London after meeting in Atlanta--Larry and Beverly flew there from Boise, and Doug and Joyce from Salt Lake City.  Upon arriving in London after traveling the entire night, we took a shuttle to our darling, quaint hotel which certainly made us exclaim:  "We're really in London!"

 I loved the derby hats that all of the bellmen wore.  They all dressed so English-appropriate!

 I am going to use the words "so green" and "beautiful flowers" so many times in these blogs!

St. Ermine's Hotel was the perfect way to start our vacation.  It was formerly an ancient monastery that was thought to have been occupied in the pre-10th century, and then converted to a hotel in 1896.  It was close to St. James Park, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and the Houses of Parliament.

 Plus, it was just beautiful inside!

After arriving in the hotel, our rooms weren't ready yet because, of course, we got there in the morning after flying all night.  The hotel kindly put our bags in a holding room, and then we took off walking to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard Ceremony.

 It was really fun to just walk the streets over to the palace after sitting on a plane for nine hours!

 I loved reading the historical plaques they have on places or buildings stating important events that had taken there.

 And, yes, they still have their red telephone booths!  That's just a symbol of London that I hope never goes away!

The rain was lightly falling while we were walking and was still falling when we arrived at Buckingham Palace.  We hoped it wouldn't interfere with the famous ceremony of the Changing of the Guards.

 The little cupboard area is where they stand when they aren't patrolling back and forth.  They remind me of a nutcracker in a Christmas box!

 Soon it was raining more.  Larry put his pant legs inside of his socks because his pants were getting wet.  We all had a good laugh about that!

 We waited patiently with the many other observers for the ceremony, but they soon announced that it was beginning to rain too hard, so they were cancelling it.

 The Victoria Memorial (honoring Queen Victoria) is directly across from the palace and is actually a good place to stand if you don't get a place right in front of the gates.  So you can see how many other disappointed people there were.

 That's okay.  We still saw the guards, the palace, and the beginning of the horse parade, so we got the idea.  


Since it was raining, we chose to board one of these double decker red buses.  They are such a common sight on the streets of London.  Some of them are closed in, but we chose to sit on the top of an open air bus--so that we could see better and take better pictures.

 These are called the hop-on, hop-off buses and at first it was only raining lightly.  We anticipated getting off and on whenever we wanted.

 However, we soon were being pelted by the rain, so we went to the lower level.  Many of the pictures are taken out of the window, so you can see raindrops on them all.  However, after our cruise, we came back to beautiful weather and actually were able to visit many of these places and got beautiful pictures of them.  The picture above is the English lion and the Scottish unicorn in front of Hyde Park.

 Passing by Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.  There was a giant line.  We weren't able to go there this trip, but we had seen it with John and Alison's family a few years before.  The line went for miles to the left, even in the rain.  It is a really interesting place, for sure!

 We passed the theater district.  (Doug and Joyce still stayed on the top level--rain or no rain--so she got these next few pictures.)

The Marble Arch based on the Arch of Constantine in Rome and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.  Formerly it was the entrance to Buckingham Palace, but when the palace was made larger, it had to be moved, first to the entrance of Hyde Park, and now it is just on a busy traffic island.  Still very stately!

 This blue rooster just seems so out of place to me, but it is a temporary statue at Trafalgar Square.  They change it by putting in the winner of an art contest every so often.  This is meant to symbolize the male dominated England, and the color is appropriate with the Royal Baby being a boy. 


 Near the Tower of London is the Tower Bridge.  Great picture of us going under it taken by Joyce.




 This is what the Tower Bridge looks like.  It goes across the River Thames.

 The London Eye which takes about a half hour to go around in--but, I guess the view is fantastic.  Too many things to see, and too little time!

 The Tower of London--Founded towards the end of 1066, it was a royal residence, an armory, a treasury, housed the Royal Mint, and also served as a prison until 1952.  It is now a museum (comprised of several buildings) and houses the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.

 It continued to rain, but we decided to get off the bus for a little while to look around the Tower.  

 On the dock where we boarded a boat like you can see across the river for a half hour trip down the River Thames.  (Raining too hard and we were inside the boat, so we didn't get any good pictures.)

 Big Ben--not named for the clock, but for the bell which lies behind the clock.

 In addition to the foot soldiers guarding Buckingham Palace, the Queen, also, has these Horse Soldiers who do a changing ceremony, too.  I will tell you about my experience with these Horse Soldiers later on in my blog!  I think I almost ended up becoming the newest prisoner of the Tower of London myself over one picture that I tried to take of them--but enough.  I'll save that story for later.

 Statue of Nelson Mandela, educated in England,
a symbol of global peacemaking, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

  We thought this was funny--With all the talk of the kings in the kingdom, this famous eating pub honored three:  King Henry VIII, another king, and Elvis!   

 After we toured most of the route of the red bus, we were literally drenched in our shoes!  We went back to our hotel, had a warm shower, and changed into new clothes.  We then were ready to try the famous English fish and chips.  We went right down in our hotel and had the best I've ever eaten, and definitely the best of any we ate the entire trip!

 Doug was exhausted and opted to go to bed, so Joyce went with him, but George and I, along with Larry and Beverly ate that wonderful dinner together.

Great first day on one of the most fantastic vacations of a lifetime!

Tomorrow:  We go to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Oxford