The UK in 5 days! Thousands of years of history in less than a week!

Whew!  We're back from our whirlwind tour of London and a few other parts of the UK.  Pern and I had a great time and are excited to go back, although who knows when that will happen.  Are you ready for a lot of pictures?  OK... here we go...

Tim and Zoe are the reason we went in the first place!  (Thanks, Tim and Zoe!)  They were married on Saturday, December 27 in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, which is about 45 minutes south of Manchester.  We flew in to Manchester on Saturday morning.  Our flights had been messed up due to bad weather in Chicago, but we made it all the same.  We were supposed to arrive at 7:00am, check in to our hotel early, and get a good nap in before the wedding at 3:00.  Instead, we arrived around 10:00, had a late pick-up (our taxi that Tim had arranged was about 30 minutes late), checked into our hotel by 11:30, had a not so good nap and then went down to the wedding at 3:00.

Maybe that explains why we looked like this: tired.  The wedding was great though.  We met some of Tim and Zoe's friends and family and really enjoyed being guests at a wedding, instead of working at one.  Besides, we were to tired to work!  We managed to stay up until 11:00 and then got a solid night's sleep before our taxi arrived in the morning to take us to the train station.

The train to London was packed!  It was standing room only (all those Sunday after Christmas travelers) until we changed trains midway.  Then we got a seat and actually got to enjoy some of the passing countryside.

We got to our hotel, which was a short walk from Victoria station, around 4:00.  We settled in and then went for our first tour, a walking tour of the White Chapel area of London, site of the Jack the Ripper murders.  It was an interesting tour (now we feel the need to get a couple of Ripper movies from Netflix and pick up a couple of books from the library).  We didn't take the camera because it was a night time tour, therefore dark, and there wasn't much to see anyway.  It was also FREEZING and my hands were otherwise occupied in the pockets of my coat.

On Monday we took a "London in One Day" bus tour.  Again, it was freezing cold.  I was fine for the first half of the day, but by 1:00 I was on the verge of miserable.  The boat ride on the Thames with sub-zero winds didn't help the matter and we were both very happy to get back to our hotel room that night to thaw.

One of the downsides to a bus tour is that many photo opportunities take place rather quickly, 'cause you're on a bus!  Here are some of the places we saw from the window:

 

Westminster Abbey

"Look, kids!  It's Big Ben... and Parliament!"

Buckingham Palace

Her Majesty's Theatre.  This will change to His Majesty's Theatre when England has a king.  This is where The Phantom of the Opera has been showing for a bazillion years.

Admiral Nelson's statue in Trafalgar Square

We went into St. Paul's Cathedral (site of the royal wedding in 1981) and were shown around by our tour guide, Carol.  It's a beautiful cathedral; built after the fire of 1666.  Unfortunately, there is no photography allowed inside the building.

This is Carol's umbrella.  We followed it to St. Paul's, the Horse Guard's Parade, and the Tower of London.

We were expecting to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, but that occurs on alternate days during the winter and Monday was an off day.  Instead, we went to the Horse Guard's Parade and saw the changing of the guard there.  These guys are on duty for 24 hours.  The horses are on duty for one.  Pays to be a horse, I guess.

At the Horse Guard's Parade.  Don't let the smile fool you... The freeze was setting in and the hat came out soon after this was taken!

Can't go to London and not get a picture of a red telephone box!

Or a red double decker bus!  This one was sporting a "Twilight" ad.  I took book three of the Twilight series to the UK intent on finishing it.  I read books 1 and 2 back in September and then stalled out on book 3.  There's nothing like being stuck with one book to read and plenty of travel time to read it.  I got book 3 finished and am now almost done with book 4.  Yay!

While waiting to board the boat for our river cruise (the HMS Popsicle) we realized we were standing behind "look, kids!  Big Ben... and Parliament."

It's actually not falling down.  We rode under it, that's how I know.

The Tower of London

Tower Bridge

Our visit to the Tower of London was a little disappointing.  For one thing, I/we were too cold to really enjoy it.  It was mid afternoon and the sun was almost gone.  It was incredibly cold.  But enough about that.  I think I've made my point. 

The description of the London in One Day tour implied that we would get a tour of the tower by one of the official Yeoman Warder (Beefeater) guides.  We didn't.  Our purple umbrella-d guide, Carol, led us around briefly and then told us to get in line to see the crown jewels.  "It will only take 10 minutes," she said.  Um, no.  It took us 45 minutes to get through the line, by which time it was time to meet back up with the group to leave.  Oh well, next time, right?  The crown jewels were sparkly and expensive looking.

This is a picture of the scaffold site, where many Tower prisoners lost their lives (and their heads).  

Like Anne Boleyn.

One of our favorite parts of the trip was spotting quirky signs...

This one made us laugh.

Whoa!!  So did this one.

And let's not forget the lightning bolt of death.

Tuesday (also cold) was spent on our own, no tour.  We had tickets for the London Eye and the Hop On Hop Off bus line.  The theory is that you get on at one stop, ride to your next stop (let's say a museum or other attraction), hop off, go to the museum, hop back on again, etc.  This may have worked, if the bus routes weren't so completely convoluted!!  It took us well over an hour to get to the Tower of London (we wanted to go back and do the official tour), by which time we didn't have enough time to wait in line, take the tour, and still get to the London Eye for our 2:00pm ticket time.  So we skipped the Tower, said "cheerio!" to the Hop On Hop Off tour and walked over to the London Eye.

The Eye is an observation wheel that takes about 30 minutes to make a full revolution.  On a clear day you can see about 25 miles.  We didn't get a clear day.  

The pods hold about 20 people.  Almost all of the people in our pod were French.  And they weren't all together.  That was a little weird.

The day had been sort of hazy and foggy, ("Look, kids!" "We know!  Big Ben and Parliament."), but it wasn't until we were up above the city that the truth becomes clear...

...it's not so much fog as it is a cloud of doom.  Air pollution.  Eew.  

Pern takes in the view...

 

... and I shade my eyes.  It was bright up there!

After the Eye we set off to complete a few personal missions I had.  For those of you who may not know, I'm a Harry Potter fan.  We had already seen..

... Australia House, which is the building that is used in the HP films as the exterior of Gringots Bank and the street that was used for Diagon Alley (that was during the Jack the Ripper tour - no photo).  Now it was time to go to...

... King's Cross Station to find...

!!!!!!!!!

Time to catch the train to Hogwarts!

After Pern retrieved his hand from the magical world of Harry Potter we hopped back on the tube and made our way to Paddington station so that I could buy a - what else?...

... Padding Bear!!!  I'd seen them in other stores, but I wanted mine to have an air of authenticity!  I know... it's silly.  :)  He's so cute.

We finished up Tuesday with some cornish pasties (chicken, mushrooms, steak, veggies, cheese - you name it- wrapped up in a super yummy, flaky pastry... de-lish!), a little British telly, and an early night in preparation for our early morning.

Wednesday morning dawned not so bright, but very early.  We were picked up at our hotel at 8:00 and taken to the Victoria coach station to start our day-long journey into the British countryside.  I was super-excited to see our first stop...

... Stonehenge!!!  It was absolutely beautiful!  The sky and air were foggy, the grass was covered in frost, and it was (do I even need to say it?) absolutely freezing.  I've wanted to see Stonehenge for as long as I can remember.  It's been on my "things to do before I die" list.

See Stonehenge.  Check!

It's hard to take a picture of yourselves when the camera weighs 5 pounds and costs a few thousand dollars!  But we managed to do it.  Sort of.

It would have been nice if the lady we asked to take our picture could have thought to step to the side so that the gigantic rocks we're standing in front of were also in the picture.  Maybe we were asking too much.

Let's talk a little about this guy.  This is David, our tour guide for the day.  David had one of those pompous, snooty British accents that bring to mind the Grey Poupon commercials of yesteryear.  He was full of little stories, anecdotes, historical, personal, and otherwise about his country, his people, etc.  He was also full of it.  

I kept telling Pern, "I can't quite place his accent.  There's something off about it."  Well the day went on, his stories got longer, and my suspicions were confirmed when he told us about his first encounter with the works of William Shakespeare.  This was on the way to Stratford-Upon-Avon, by the way.  He first learned of Shakespeare when he was a teenage boy, living in South Africa.  !  Here's the kicker... not only is he South African, he's Afrikaans!!  

For those non-South African readers who are a little confused, this falls into the "you've got to be freakin' kidding me!!" category.  He's been in the UK for 20 years and is the same age as my dad.  We've been in the states for 19 years and my dad doesn't fake a southern drawl.  It just really bothered me that he put on such a show.  Talk about a phony.  I know I'm coming across a little harsh, but it was so obviously an act.  Ugh.  Anyway, moving on...

Our next stop was the town of Bath.  I felt like I'd stepped onto the set of a Jane Austen movie (minus the cars and buses, of course), it was pretty cool.  Bath is the location of the Roman baths, the only hot springs in England, which the Romans turned into a day spa a couple thousand years ago.  That's the short version.

We took a quick look through Bath Abbey on our way to the baths.

The baths were pretty cool.  Well, warm actually.  Very warm.  There's no swimming anymore (most museums frown on swimming on the premises) but David kept telling us how much he wished he could just take off his clothes and have a quick swim.  Ick.  

Baie Dankie, but nee dankie, David.  (That's, "thanks, but no thanks."  :)

After we toured the baths, Pern and I grabbed lunch, and a doughnut/cream pie thing.  Yummy.

We had a lot of time on our own (too much time... I'll get into that soon) before leaving Bath, so we walked around, looked out over the river,...

... strolled through the park...

... and took in the unique architecture.  The "modern" buildings in Bath were all designed by an architect, John Wood, and his son, John Wood a few hundred years ago.  Every building in Bath follows the same design: basement, three floors, multiple units to a building.  I have to agree with David on this one: two men, several decades, and only one architectural idea?  Really?  That's the best you could do?

After Bath we made our way to Stratford-Upon-Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare.  We were supposed to go straight to Shakespeare's childhood home, but David (argh!) decided to take us to the church were Shakespeare was buried.  It was now almost 3:30, getting dark, and (you guessed it) freezing.  We hopped off the bus and made our way to the church only to discover that it was closed.  And, oh right!  Shakespeare is buried inside the church, so better luck next time.

On our way to Shakespeare's birthplace museum we passed Harvard House, childhood home of John Harvard, founder of... any guesses?  Harvard University.

So we finally get to the museum (it's now 4:00) and David goes in to get our tickets.  He comes back out, no tickets in hand, and Afrikaans accent coming out a little stronger (he was ticked), and informs us that the museum is also closed.  They were supposed to be open until 5:00, but they hadn't had anyone come in for 20 minutes and it was New Year's Eve, so they were closing early.  Sucks.  Had we not lingered in Bath (we were there 2 hours instead of the original hour and a half) and stopped by the church, which wasn't supposed to be on the tour, we would have made it just fine.  Sigh.  Better luck next time, right?  

So here it is, the outside of Shakespeare's childhood home.  At least we got to see the gift shop.  

Our flight home was uneventful and on time.  Early actually.  

So that's it.  Whew.  We're back, we're unpacked, the Christmas decorations have been put away, and a new year has begun.  Where will this year take us?  Only time will tell...  Thanks for reading; this was a long one.  

That's what she said.  :)