Westminster Abbey, Baker Street, and the British Library

We slept in this morning.  We didn't get out of the apartment until after 10:00 a.m.  We stopped in for breakfast at McDonald's.  Then we went to Westminster.  We were hoping we could go into the Parliament Building, but they told us that tours were only allowed on Saturdays.  We waited for Big Ben to chime, but the noon hour came and went.  I thought it was supposed to be ringing again starting with the New Year, 2022, but it never did ring.  We toured the Westminster Abbey for the next hour or so.  I never knew that so many people were buried or memorialized there.  It was interesting to see so many historical names.  After touring the Abbey we took the Underground to Baker Street.  We went to 221 B for a picture in front of the Sherlock Holmes museum and gift shop.  We decided not to go through the museum.  Instead, we left for the British Library.  We saw their wonderful collection of historical books and documents, including several Codex of early bibles, a first edition Gutenberg Bible, the Magna Carta, notes of Leonardo DaVinci, and many other examples.  We returned to our apartment in the early evening and stayed in the rest of the night.

Tower of London, Tower Bridge, River Boat, and Wicked

This morning we wanted to leave early enough to be among the first to enter the Tower of London when it opened at 9:00 a.m.  We arrived at the Tower Hill Underground station and walked up the steps to see the Tower of London directly in front of us.  We could see the Tower Bridge on one side of it and the Shard on the other side.  I loved it immediately.  We spoke with one of the Yeoman at the gate who gave us some recommendations.  After taking a picture with him we went straight to the Crown Jewels.  We then visited the White Tower and the rest of the buildings.  It was one of the highlights of our trip.  Very few people were there and the weather was perfect.  It began to be crowded by the time we were finished.  We went to the Tower Bridge and took the elevator to the top to walk across the sky walks with windows looking down on the street below.  We ate lunch at The Vault, a pub located below the south end of Tower Bridge.  We sat in the beer garden at a table with a view of the bridge and boats passing by on the river.  We boarded an Uber clipper boat and traveled to East London, and then returned to Westminster.  We returned to Notting Hill for a brief rest, and then we got ready for Wicked.  Wendy had seen it advertised.  We looked it up and there were still good tickets left.  It was a spur of the moment decision, but we were so glad we did go to it.  It was a fantastic performance with a live orchestra.  The musical finished after 10:00 p.m. and we returned home by double decker bus.

Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's, and the London Eye

This morning we took Bus#52 from our street, and it dropped us off right next to Buckingham Palace.  We staked out a spot against the fence right next to the gate an hour before the changing of the guard.  By the time the ceremony began the crowd behind us was pressing in.  I was amazed at the number of people trying to get a view.  I was able to video the ceremony through the fence, but we had arms reaching between us and over our heads trying to do the same thing.  We enjoyed watching the change of guard and listening to the band play.  It is something you do once, and then never again.  My legs cramped up from standing for so long.  After the ceremony we walked around the Memorial and up the Mall to Trafalgar Square.  We found an Italian restaurant and sat down to eat Margherita brick-oven pizza, Bruschetta, and Penne pasta.  We boarded the Big Bus close to the restaurant and rode to St. Paul's Cathedral.  We did a walking tour of the immense church.  Jeffrey and I took the 528 steps to the top to take in a view of London. My right leg just about gave out on my way down.  We hopped on another bus to Waterloo Station.  I tried to book tickets for the London Eye online, but I couldn't get it to work.  We walked to the ticket booth, and they were kind enough to give us three tickets for the price of two - so it worked out better.  We walked right on without waiting in line.  The ride took about 30 minutes, and we enjoyed it very much.  We stopped for ice cream cones and then returned home.

Notting Hill and the British Museum

We arrived in London this morning at 8:30 a.m.  We spent some time at the Heathrow Airport, clearing customs, claiming luggage, exchanging currency, replacing a SIM card in my phone, finding the Covid-19 testing center, and then walking to the Underground.  We could have used a bus or train to get to London, but we used the Underground Piccadilly Line and then transferred to the Hammersmith Line to get to Notting Hill.  We walked from the Underground station to our apartment (flat) on Arundel Gardens street.  We arrived just after 11:00 a.m. and only spent about 1.5 pounds each to get there.  We met Lilly who checked us in and gave us the keys.  We are on the third floor, and our living area window looks over the private gardens in the back.  We unpacked and Jeffrey and I walked to Portobello Road to buy some groceries.  It was busy with people walking and shopping along the street.  After a short rest we left to visit the British Museum.  We took the Underground again.  We used the Rick Steve's Walking Tour at the museum.  We saw the Egyptian, Assyrian, and Greek exhibits.  I didn't know that the stone artwork from the Parthenon was in the British Museum.  We also visited the Medieval exhibit where I was excited to see the Anglo-Saxon helmet discovered at Sutton Hoo.  I did a paper on that once for a college class.  We stopped to eat at Five Guys on our way back home.  We rested the rest of the evening.  Jeffrey was out of it and deep asleep by 8:00 p.m.

A Trip to London

Today we started our trip to London.  I was able to plan this several months ago, and then I surprised Wendy with it on Christmas morning.  We have been excited to go.  We left home after 9:00 a.m. and drove to Salt Lake City.  We thought of Ashley and Caz as we passed Layton.  They had just closed and received the keys to their new home.  We parked at the Parking Spot just in time for the shuttle to pick us up at our car and drive us to the airport.  We flew from Salt Lake to Denver and had a short layover for our flight from Denver to London.  We boarded a new 787-9 Dreamliner.  What a nice plane!  The windows had adjustable tint instead of shades, and a nice entertainment system.  The seating was arranged three, three, and three.  We sat in the left three seats.  Jeffrey hardly slept at all.  Wendy and I did sleep a little.