There is a new post below!

I began the "Sunday" post awhile ago, but hadn't had time to finish it until now. It came up not at the top of the blog, but down on the date when I first began it so you'll have to scroll down!

More random pics for now...

Here we are enjoying tea & tasties at the Bramah Tea Museum on London's South Bank.
Couldn't believe we found a Tim Horton's in London! No, we didn't buy anything.
The Duke of Wellington Pub between Sloane Square and Victoria Station was enjoyed by all.
I enhoyed this quote chiselled into the floor of the British Museum's Great Hall.

Now, I am going out to enjoy the warmer weather! Yay- spring is finally coming back!

I haven't forgotten you...

I haven't forgotten to finish blogging about our London trip, I have just been really busy. Here are a few random pics from my recently acquired "London- Bex's Camera" file. Thanks for taking such great pictures Becky!

Above and below are pictures from Madame Tussuad's Wax Museum. Do you see how many people are crammed in there? It was insane. I would NOT recommend going there on a cold weekend afternoon. There a were a few fun parts like straightening Sir Winston Churchill's bow tie, but I stand by my decision to never, ever go there again.
You may recall I whined about how cold it was at Hampton Court? Here is a picture of me trying to warm my nose near the one heating register we found in the entire place. You will notice that I am wearing a toque and scarf indoors. Yes, it was that cold.
Running though the maze at Hampton Court was fun- and it helped get the blood flowing again.
Yay! Someone remembered to take a picture of the front of the castle!
Thanks for reading- hopefully you'll get the "Sunday Update" soon. If not, I at least promise to put on more random photos!

Sunday, March 30th

Off to Windsor to visit the Queen! Her royal standard was flying above the castle, announcing that she was in residence.

Sunday morning came earlier than usual- I mean that literally. We had to "spring ahead" for daylight savings time... again. We packed up our bags and enjoyed one last breakfast with our travelling companions before heading west to Windsor. We left London out of Paddington Station and had one transfer before arriving at our destination. Walking about 10 minutes, we found our B&B, left our bags, got a key, and headed for the castle.
Windsor Castle was easy to find; it is the reason for the town after all. Keith and I enjoyed a picnic style lunch on a sunny bench just outside before we went in. It was so nice to feel the spring weather again! There weren't too many crowds and we got in straight away. Audio guides were included in our admission and, as always it seems with the British Royal Residences, they were excellently done. We had time to take in every part of the castle that was open and a free band concert to boot. Once you get in the castle, there are no extra fees for anything inside which was nice. Though there were a few small gift shops, since this is primarily a residence there was no cafe. I was getting quite hungry by late afternoon and had depleted my emergency supplies so I ended up buying a tin of shortbread cookies. They were delicious, and the tin will be used repeatedly, but I think they were the most expensive cookies I have ever eaten. St. George's Chapel was closed to tourists (read: people wearing audio guides) as it was Sunday and there were church services throughout the day. We attended the Evensong at 5pm which was beautiful even though the Chapel Choir was not there. St. George's is the chapel associated with the Knights of the Garter and each seat in the choir area is associated with one of those knights, adorned with their family crest as well as a helmut and partially drawn sword to signify their protection of the sovereign. As the Knights have been around for quite a long time, some seats have numerous plaques of crests. I sat beside a seat which had a black cord draped over it announcing that its knight had recently passed away- Sir Edmund Hillary.
This photo looks across from the State Rooms exit to the private Royal Residences. That's right- the Queen and her corgies are somewhere in there!
Here's that band concert I mentioned earlier. As we were waiting for it to begin, I examined our entry tickets and discovered that if we filled in a certain part of it and had it stamped before we left, then we could come back on another 5 days this year on the same ticket. It seemed too good to be true, but sure enough, we had it validated and made plans to come back the next morning and take another look around.

Following Evensong, we left the castle and found ourselves wandering some very empty streets. It seems most people just come to Windsor on a day trip so we had the place pretty much to ourselves (well, after the business of London it seemed that way anyway!). We ate a quiet Italian restaurant, strolled around a bit more, then retired to our B&B relatively early as we were wiped out from our long day after a short night's sleep.

We decided to get most of our packing done that night so that we could maximize our last morning of vacation. One of the shops we had been in earlier had a teapot, cup & saucer set which I had quite liked, but I wasn't sure I had room to pack it home so I hadn't purchased it yet. We had travelled carry-on only this time, but thanks to my superior packing skills I was able to carve out a place in my smaller bag which looked to be just the right size for the box I wanted to fit into it. I can just imagine what that looked like going through the x-ray machine!

Saturday, March 29th

Wandering through the Portobello Market(s) had been our plan for Saturday all along, though we weren't quite motivated enough to be there when it first opened at 5:30am! It is open every Saturday and lauds itself as the world's largest antiques market, with over 1500 dealers selling every kind of antique and collectable in addition to vendors with food and modern items. We began at the Notting Hill Gate end where the most antiques stalls are found and continued roughly northbound. Early on we decided that we would all be happier if we let the men go their own way, and Grant issued a challenge to see who could find the most interesting item for a pound or less. Becky and I meandered through the stalls searching for tea strainers, which were nowhere near a single pound in price, while Keith found various musical instruments (also more than a pound), and Grant found himself a postcard (80 pence). Eventually, I stumbled across coins from the Dutch East India Company circa 1790 which were going for a pound a piece and some degraded Britannia-Roman coins for 50 pence each, so I won the challenge hands down, though the victory was a bit hollow as no one else had anything! We didn't end up purchasing very much (that pound is just too strong!), but Keith did find some reasonably priced tea strainers for us and I found a scarf for my mother (which I had to put on for awhile when it turned cold, sorry Mom!). "Elevensies" found us inside a sit down cafe enjoying sausage rolls and other pastries giving us enough warmth and energy to continue a few more blocks before calling it quits at the market and looking for a bus stop.

Finally taking a double decker bus, we leisurely made our way from the Portobello Road area to Trafalgar Square. We considered getting a picture on top of one of those lions, but upon closer inspection, it seemed a foolish idea to risk the very long fall down off the slippery sculpture. While in the square, one couldn't help but notice all the protesters and their catchy chant, "Shame on Canada". So often it is our southern neighbour drawing criticism, it was a bit shocking to be protested against ourselves. I thought the Canadian flags with "blood" splattered all over them were in particular poor taste. Figured out what they were protesting yet? The annual seal hunt had just begun.
From there, we wondered a few short blocks on foot down to the Parliament area and caught this view of the London Eye across the Thames.

Just down from Parliament and Westminster Abbey we tucked into the Westminster Arms Pub for a very late but delicious lunch. The bell in the picture below lets patrons know when there is about to be an important parliamentary vote so that they can make it back in time!
While at lunch we decided that we had time to go over to the Tower of London. Grant & Becky's time there earlier had been cut short by the funeral of a yeoman, so they hadn't had a chance to see the crown jewels and we had 2 for 1 passes making it relatively inexpensive so off we went! After the Tower we headed back to our hotel so Keith and I could change and still make it to the ballet (just) on time.
As you can see, our tickets to see the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden were pretty high up. In fact, there was no row behind us and I am certain a tall person could have stood on my seat and touched the ceiling. That said, they were only 5 pound tickets, and we did manage to see most of the performance by standing up and leaning forward. The sets and costumes were incredible, as was the dancing. Knowing what I know now about how much English Premiere League tickets were going to run us, I think I would have bought a better seat without any guilt about the price!
As soon as the ballet was over, and I mean as the clapping began, Keith and I dashed out of there and down many, many stairs as we were already late for our dessert date with Grant & Becky back in the neighbourhood of our hotel. We broke into a run when we got out of the theatre, and managed to catch the Tube before the major post-show rush began. The spot we had initially agreed to meet had closed for the night, but thankfully our friends spotted us from the place they had re-located to as they waited. Keith and I hadn't had time for supper earlier, so we were grateful that we could order a very late supper as we spent the end of our last evening in London in good company.

Friday, March 28th

I still can't believe that I talked them all into it, and it was surprisingly easy. We began our Friday by getting up earlier than the breakfast people (not really that difficult) and going to the British Museum an hour before it officially opened. Why, you ask? Well, the special exhibit in the Reading Room was called "The First Emperor" and featured the terracotta warriors found in that huge grave near Xian, China. Not something a person gets to see everyday, or even in a lifetime for most. The British Museum only sold a certain number of tickets to the exhibit each day, and the only days you could buy in advance were Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday which was no longer an option for us. Clearly, we should have looked into this sooner, but since we hadn't, our only hope was lining up early.

So there we were, in the rain, waiting. Quite a few people were ahead of us, and even more behind by the time the museum opened. Keith and Grant had gone to a market the night before to buy provisions so we certainly had more than enough to eat and I would venture that we had a better breakfast that morning than at any time in our hotel. Except, of course, we were standing in the rain and it wasn't very warm. Keith walked up to the beginning of the line to find out just how early those people had arrived. This first guy was there at 5am, he had held a spot for the others in his group, and the next people had been there since 6am. We had arrived just past 7am which the ticket girl had assured us would be early enough, but we were nervous just the same. This would have been a good morning to have my Dad around, he so would have been right there with the other 5am guy.

Anyway, the museum opened at 8am and we continued to stand in line as we snaked up the sidewalk, into the museum Great Court and around the Reading Room's outside walls. It was nearly 10:30am when we discovered that we were about a dozen people too late to get in. Being that close was hard to take- one train earlier, one escalator we had run down instead of walked, might have made the difference. Alas, it was not meant to be. I guess we'll just have to go to China now, or wherever the special exhibit goes next...

Keith snapped me out of my mournful state by promising fish & chips & mushy peas for lunch in Greenwich (yes, I am surprisingly easy to manipulate with food; it's a MacMillan thing) so we jumped back to our original Friday plans of heading to the Greenwich area to look around and travel to the eastern hemisphere. The World Heritage Site of Greenwich includes Sir Christopher Wren's Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich Park, and the Royal Observatory. The first two pictures (one above this writing and one below) may look like they were taken in a church, but it was actually built as an eating hall for injured navy personnel who were recovering at the hospital here. It is called the "Painted Hall" for good reason and we were thankful that they had mirrors on trolleys to give your neck a break from looking up all the time.

The next two photos are from the Royal Chapel at the Naval College. There is a fine arts school also on this campus now which uses this church often for concerts. The organ is sitting on a single carved piece of marble (including the pillars below)- the only real marble in the place. Due to cost cutting measures, all the other "marble" columns (including the ones to the sides) are just painted that way.
Below: looking out from the Royal Chapel towards the Painted Hall.
After seeing some of the Naval College sites, we had a quick peek through the Maritime Museum where we learned a few new nautical terms and maritime-related stories. I thought the next bit of info was entertaining enough to share:

Ahh, the promised fish & chips & mushy peas. You would think that Greenwich would have the best fish, but it's not true at all. For atmosphere though, they get high points.

And they hadn't run out of mushy peas like some other establishments.
Although it had been pouring rain this whole time in Greenwich, as we ate our lunch the clouds lifted and the sun came out. Just in time for our hike up to the Royal Observatory! Here is the view looking back down at the Royal Naval College with London in the background:
"Prime Meridian of the World"
Looking the other direction, but still straddling the "Prime Meridian of the World."

Our last cultural event for the day was visiting the Victoria and Alberta Museum back in the South Kensington area near our hotel. Wow. Now THIS should be in the top ten book. The V&A could be described as a museum of the history of pop culture. There are a lot of different exhibits showcasing different parts of the world or different parts of culture. I particularly enjoyed the Fashion exhibit showcasing changes in high fashion from the 1700s to present day. We were quite disappointed that many of the galleries we wanted to see were closed at the time. I suspect it was because we were there during the evening instead of earlier. On the last Friday of each month the V&A is open till 10pm with the front foyer turned into a nightclub complete with dj and beverages. For a single person in London, what a great place to go socialize. None of us were really wearing enough black to fit in with the young professional crowd gathering there, so we finished off our evening back at the pizza place near our hotel. Delicious again!

Thursday, March 27th

Keith and I began our day by sleeping in and then heading off to the Imperial War Museum which didn't open until 10 anyway. Last trip, we hadn't allotted ourselves near enough time for this comprehensive place, so we thought it deserved a bit more.
Keith posed with Montgomery's tank here.

The sheer amount of artifacts in this building is amazing. I don't believe that any of these are reproductions. We spent most of our time in the WWI section and also went though the "Blitz Experience" as well as the Children's War special exhibit before heading off to grab a bite and meet our cohorts at St. Paul's.

St. Paul's Cathedral is impressive enough inside, but when you start climbing the stairs you get an even better perspective on just how big it is. The sign at the entrance warned us that the climb was not recommended for pregnant women and by the Whispering Gallery I was starting to think that I should have taken that a bit more seriously. After a rest, I did continue, and found the last two sections much easier.
The view is reward enough for climbing. It was particularily nice that the sun came out and it was quite warm while we were up there. Possibly more entertaining was overhearing groups of American teenagers talk about what they were seeing, especially the ones who were convinced that they could see the Eiffel Tower. Thankfully their teacher knew better and corrected them, but we giggled for quite some time. The picture above shows the Millenium Pedestrian Bridge and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and absolutely nothing from France.
A peek-hole into the nave below the dome gives a chance to appreciate how high up in the church we were.
Yes, we all made it to the top! Here is the requisite foot photo to prove it! After that climb we deserved some refreshment.

Afternoon tea was enjoyed at the Kensington Palace Orangery. Earlier in the week, at Hampton Court, we learned that an orangery is the place where you store your orange trees for the winter. Seems obvious, but I had no idea. Guess I hadn't given much thought to the name. This is basically a very nice shed. Please note the table center piece.
A sunken garden with part of Kensington Palace in the background. We never actually went in this palace either time we were in London, not that we couldn't have. Parts of it are open to the public for a price.

After tea, we parted ways as Keith & I headed off to do some brass rubbing at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields before joining Grant & Becky at the British Museum. Keith decided to do a griffin in red, while I had to wait for someone else to finish doing the celtic design that I preferred. It all worked out. I had initially wanted to complete my rubbing with silver, but seeing what an awful lot of work it was for the other lady, I opted to do it in white as I saw someone else's look quite nice with way less time consumed.

It was neat to see the design reveal itself as I first went over it lightly to find the edges, then put in the elbow grease to bring out the design more distinctly. We haven't decided where in the house to hang these yet, but they will go nicely wherever we move the Jazz Portrait from the office to since it is also black and white with red detail.

We didn't have long for the British Museum by the time we finished our rubbings, but there were far fewer people around this evening than there had been on our previous visit so it was easy to get around and see what we wanted umimpeded. We were even able to get a few good pictures of the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles.
I just really enjoy this sign. Yup, this place has been open since before our country was a country.
I don't think that the Elgin Marbles get any less impressive no matter how many times you look at them. These photos do them no justice whatsoever.

We ended our evening back at St.-Martin-in-the-Field's Crypt Cafe. Keith and I had noticed how excellent the food looked when we were here for our brass rubbing, and the prices were very reasonable. It was so nice to eat a meal which included steamed vegetables and NO gravy. After a week including a lot of pub food (read: gravy on everything), I will certainly not miss it for awhile.

Wednesday, March 26th

Our first activity on Wednesday was to walk the few blocks from our hotel to the Natural History Museum. It is a very impressive building, but that is just about where my enthusiam ends.
Although this is supposedly one of the "TopTen" places to visit in London, it is certainly nothing compared to the Natural History Museum in New York. It was the large quantities of dust found all though the large mammal exhibit which turned us off the most.
The Blue Whale had dust bunnies all around the top of its mouth. Very sad. As if being on the endangered animal list isn't enough!
In all, I think we spent 45 minutes to an hour here before deciding it was time to shake the dust from our feet and move on to something completely different.

After the Natural History Museum, Keith and I headed to the Chelsea Football Club's home stadium for a tour (2 for 1 paying off again!). I asked him to write about all the soccer related photos:

Stamford Bridge Stadium, Chelsea, West London

Keith sitting at the media desk where all Chelsea FC players sign contracts.

The home team dressing room at Stamford Bridge.

The pitch at the stadium. The large rolling lights are to keep the grass green throughout the many cloudy London days.

We took a tour of Stamford Bridge, home stadium for Chelsea FC of the Premier League. Our tour guide was great and extremely funny, taking shots constantly at anyone who wasn't a Chelsea fan. We began by going to the media centre which is decked out for journalists to set up laptops, watch the game when its cold, and have all the free drinks from the open bar. Team philosophy is that a drunk journalist will most likely give you a better review in the papers.

After this we were taken to the visitors' dressing room. This was nothing to write home about with bare walls, a few hard massage tables, and hard benches along the walls. They have also put the whiteboard for writing down plays in such a spot that they have to keep the door open to discuss them. Our guide told us that there is a competition in the Premier League for who can have the worst, most oppressive visitor dressing room in the league.

In contrast, the home dressing room is quite nice with safes for valuables, carpeted floors, nice showers and a other equipment for relaxing after the game. We were surprised however that it came no where near the Edmonton Oilers' new dressing room for fancy.

We then were divided into Chelsea fans and other fans and told to line up. We ran up the tunnel out onto the edge of the pitch taking pictures of the vast empty stadium. In the upper east end is a large box not for press, but rather for security. Mirrored glass hides a large team of security personel who can videotape/photograph every person in every seat of the stadium as well as listen in to all conversations. In this way, the Premier League has taken huge steps in calming football violence throughout England. It's way safer to see a game in England than in Holland.

At the end of the tour, Jenn and I returned to the museum which gives the history of Chelsea FC since 1908. It was an extremely great tour, and I say that in all sincerity. Even Jenn enjoyed it.

After finishing at the stadium, we met back up with the Grant & Becky at Sloane Square and walked over to the Duke of Wellington pub. Since it wasn't serving any food for another 2 hours, we decided that we had time to zip over to King's Cross Station for a photo op at Platform 9 3/4 and then to the British Library for a quick look at the Treasures of the British Library Exhibit. We made it back right at 6pm with time enough to eat, walk over to Victoria Station, then on to the Apollo Theatre for our evening entertainment.

On Monday, we had purchased tickets for the relatively new musical "Wicked" which had come highly recommended to us. We were in the orchestra stalls section, just enough to the left to make our tickets 30 pounds instead of 60. It was worth every pence and then some. If you ever get a chance, go see it. It is the "untold story of the witches of Oz" and recounts the days back when Glinda (the "good witch") was roomates with Elphaba (to be known in infamy as the "wicked witch of the West") back in boarding school. It had a great message, fantastic music, AND they sold little pots of ice cream at the intermission. What more could you ask for?