Day 49 Coming Home May 28

 Left our accommodation to head to the airport. Caught the trains and amazed ourselves by actually arriving at Heathrow without any hiccups! Well, we nearly had one getting onto one of the trains, the door decided to close whilst Gary was attempting to get on! It was really crowded and of course, no one moves back so after a lot of pushing and shoving and holding doors open and being advised by the intercom that an object was preventing the doors closing (Gary!) we finally got him and the suitcase in! 

Check in process was so easy and amazing! Through customs so easily, upstairs and through duty free all so quickly! Spent the day waiting for our flight. Leaving at 220pm for Dubai, stop over there for about 2 hrs and then home to Brissie, arriving about 10pm on Thursday night. Can’t wait to get home! Had the most amazing wonderful holiday, saw and did lots, loved every place we visited! The UK, especially Scotland is an amazing beautiful country but there really is no place like home! Goodbye UK! 

Day 48 Tuesday May 27

 Big day today. Headed off early to get into London and see as much as we could that we missed yesterday. 

Gates to the palace

A guard

Gary on the Queen Victoria fountain in front of the palace

Gates into the gardens

Fountain in front of the palace

Buckingham Palace

The fountain again

First off to Buckingham Palace (yes we found it!) 

Walked up to Trafalgar Square

Caught the train up to London Bridge - thank God it didn’t fall down on this fair lady!

Where it is believed Ann Boleyn was executed

A suit of armour

Where The Crown Jewels are kept

The Valasse Cross is a rare example of medieval royal goldsmiths work. The larger outer cross was probably made in Normandy in the 1180’s.

St John’s Chapel in the White Tower

The White Tower

The poppies for the 80th anniversary of VE Day 

View of Big Ben from Westminster Bridge

The building where the Crown Jewels are kept

The suit of armour that Henry VIII wore

Over to Tower of London - what an experience! For us as well as fifty thousand other people! Don’t know where they all come from! Went in to look at Crown Jewels, my gosh, what wealth exists there! We saw the crowns that Charles and Camilla wore for their coronation. Not allowed to take photos unfortunately. Can’t remember any of the information in there!

Saw where Ann Boleyn was executed, where Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned for 13 years, where the two little princes disappeared and were murdered by their uncle Richard 111! 

Sun shining when we got there and rain falling by the time we left! Decided to catch the train to the Churchill Arms for lunch. We were at London Bridge and had to get to Nottinghillgate! What an experience- I do not like the subway, it feels like you are in the bowels of the earth! 

Had a lovely lunch there, great little pub. It has all these chamberpots on the ceiling! 

Walked  from there to Kensington Palace, half was covered up with scaffolding! 

There are so many renovations going on everywhere! Walked through the gardens, there are so many lovely green spaces in London!

Batman defending Leicester Square

Laurel and Hardy

Dick Van Dykes character in Mary Poppins

William Shakespeare 

Charlie Chaplin

Us in the M & M store

Found Soho, Chinatown and Leicester Square - it’s a long way to Australia, goodbye Piccadilly, farewell Leicester Square! It’s a long, long way to Australia but my hearts right there! Loved Leicester Square, so vibrant!

Went on to the National Gallery, some lovely art work there! Then on back to our accommodation, after a very long day! 

Looking forward to coming home, not looking forward to the flight 😫 

 

Day 47 Monday May 26

 Hop on and Hop Off bus today! Started off at Westminster Abbey, (what a place) Elizabeth Tower with Big Ben in it and the rosy red cheeks of the little children!

In front of Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

On the bus

Westminster Palace

Lambarth Palace

Mudlarks. These are waterproof clad humans, walking slowly at low tide, eyes focused on the ground. In the 18th and 19th centuries, mudlarks were the poorest in society, trying to scratch a living from the bits of rope, coal or anything else they could find on the banks of the river. Today mudlarks are enthusiasts who scour the foreshore for any historical treasures offered up by the tide. You need a licence to mudlark.

Richard the Lionheart

Us in front of Big Ben ( really Elizabeth Tower - Big Ben is the bell inside) must have heard this twenty times today!

Westminster Palace

Westminster Abbey

St Stephen’s Cathedral and I think Westminster Palace with a statue of Richard the Lionheart. Back onto the bus to head off to Buckingham Palace. Don’t know what happened there but we didn’t find it! Decided to have a cuppa and sandwich and get back on the bus and do the palace later. Headed off to do the River Thames Cruise. Cruise was really good, great commentary!

We went into Borough Markets for an early dinner! What a great place. Had beef Penang curry, followed by strawberries in chocolate sauce - yum, yum, yum! The strawberries here are so delicious! Luckily we had to walk back to Waterloo train station to catch the train home! 

The markets, an amazing, vibrant place

More of the markets

Sign about the markets

We saw so much today but we’re back into London tomorrow. Booked into the Tower of London and hope to get back to see more of what we saw today, just spend a bit more time at each place. It is so big, there is soooo much to see and there must be 50 million others also trying to see things! 

The Shard, tallest building in London

Tower Bridge

Us on the boat in front of Tower Bridge

And again

Cleopatras Needle

The Monument - a memorial to the Great Fires of London. Apparently more people have died jumping off the memorial than those who died in the fires!

Trafalgar Square

Nelsons Needle

Me in from of Tower Bridge

We thought about buying this teddy at Hamleys - largest toy shop in UK and the priciest! This bear was £4000! 

Front of Hamleys

Tate Modern Gallery

Street that Hamleys was in. Flags everywhere!

Just liked the window display!

Harrods - haven’t been in!

Nelson’s Needle again!

Top of St Paul’s Cathedral

A horses head - not sure what it’s for!

The London Eye - apparently when it opened in 2000, it cost £5 to go on it. Now it is £40! No thank you - apart from the cost, no way was I getting on that thing!

The Shrek Adventure

A monument to all animals that have served in wars

The Golden Eagle - memorial to the airforce!