St. Paul's Harrods and home

On Monday morning I woke with some tummy issues. Got ready kind of slowly and wasn't up to my usual breakfast so wanted to go back to the Daylesford Farm store for tea and toast while T had scrambled eggs. Good excuse as any. We bought a few things for dinner and after dropping them at "home" made our way to the Tube and traveled to St Paul's Cathedral. St Paul's had a good audio guide and we enjoyed exploring the church. We got to the American Chapel but oddly there was nothing about it on the audioguide or if there was we could not find it on the menu. The chapel is dedicated to those Americans who gave their lives helping to defend Britain in WWII.  The pilot of Daddy's B-17 should be listed in the book of American dead which was open to the Hs this day. T thought St Paul's was one of the most impressive buildings he had ever seen. Left him wondering what Christopher Wren's IQ must have been.

As we sat under the dome a school class came through on a tour with a really good guide. The kids all sat on the floor while the guide spoke to them about the building and how it changed over history. He was very good at putting things at a level children could understand and could keep their interest.
 

Di has the all-time best umbrellasin the rain photo but I had to try

We visited the crypt where the gift shop and cafe are. We had a light lunch which was rather pleasant. If my system had been up for it we could have had tea in the cathedral restaurant. We got a peek at someone else's and the food on the tea stand looked very nice.

After this we took the Underground to Harrods for some final shopping. We needed one last gift and found it.  We looked over the Harrods logo shop, Christmas decorations and the food halls. The Christmas stuff was a bit disappointing but I could have bought a lot in the logo shop and food halls if we had room to bring stuff home. That's one drawback with carrying small suitcases. 

A trip back to the apartment, a little dinner followed by packng and we are ready to leave in the morning.  It's been a wonderful two weeks but we are looking forward to being home.

9,367 steps

Sunday in London

Awoke to another sunny morning with temps predicted in the high 50s. We had seen a church near our hotel when we first arrived in Europe that we wanted to visit on Sunday morning so headed there. Underground travel was much easier on Sunday morning even without the Circle Line running. We just had to make one change at Bond Street.

People at Westminster Chapel (not to be confused with the Abbey or the cathedral) were very friendly. They seemed to have a core of volunteers to greet newcomers and we spoke with a young woman who was half English, half Ukrainian and lived in the Ukraine for 10 years. Her accent was all English however. The format of worship was similar to Hillside with similar worship music. The big difference was the service went for about 2 hours instead of 1 1/2 but the hour-long sermon on 2 Peter was really good. Mom always said that I like church to be like school and this just proves her right (again).

After church we walked past Buckingham Palace and then through St. James Park to Inn the Park for lunch. Tom had roast beef, I had chicken and both came with veggies and really good roasted potatoes. The chicken was very moist and tasty.  After lunch we continued to the Cabinet War Rooms which had added an exhibit on Churchill's life since we visited several years ago. It is so interesting to see these underground rooms where the British government ran the war. Our final stop was on Oxford Street to stop at Marks & Spencer. We took the bus home for a change as one went from Oxford Street to Westbourne Grove right near our apartment.
 

St. James Park

One more day to visit any last spot we don't want to miss before returning home. Harrods is definitely on the list.

10,688 steps

Hampton Court Palace

We woke to a beautiful day and decided we would make the trip to Hampton Court Palace. As we got close to the Underground we found hoards of people coming at us.  It dawned on us that they must be heading to the Portobello Road Saturday market.  So glad we went there early in the week.   It would be an absolute nightmare with these crowds.  Wish I had taken a photo of the mobs.

The Circle line of the Underground is not available this weekend so we had to take the District Line to to Tottenham Court Road so we could take the Northern Line to Waterloo Station. At the Tottenham Court Road stop it was announced that the Northern Line was not available. We got off and took the same line back one stop to Oxford Circus and took the Bakerloo Line down to Waterloo Station. After that is was easy to get the train to Hampton Court.

It was only a 1/2 hour train trip to Hampton Court Palace and easy to get from the station across the bridge to the palace. The grounds were beautiful and the palace interesting as it is part Tudor and part Baroque in style. There must have been hundreds of chimneys.  We started with an exhibit on Henry VIII as a young man and saw his apartments. We also visited the Fountain Court, chapel and Great Hall among others and, as we did at Versailles years ago, spent a lot of time in the gardens. They were beautiful even in autumn. There is a giant grape vine that was planted in 1768 and still bears fruit that is sold at the palace in August and September.   It was so lovely outside we enjoyed an ice cream cone break.
 

After a full afternoon we headed back to London around 5pm. At Waterloo Station we decided to walk to the London Eye to see how long the wait was. The area was an absolute zoo of people. I'm sure every tourist in London wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather on a Saturday evening. We did get some great photos.  After fighting our way through the crowds we crossed Westminster Bridge then headed home. We picked up a couple of panini sandwiches at a small Italian place near our apartment and are enjoying a quiet evening at home.

12,518 steps.

Yes, Prime Minister

We are back from the play and enjoyed it very much.  It was recommended by our friend M and we are so glad we took her advice.  It was topical, political and funny.  The ushers encouraged the audience to fill in some of the empty seats closer to the stage so we got to move to aisle seats with lots of room around us--getting better and better.  We had One Fine Stay book a taxi which was a really good idea to get there since it was raining and T wasn't up to the Underground this night .  We did not realize how easy it would be to hail a taxi after the play however.  I remember having difficulty doing this 9 years ago after the theater with our cousins so we may have spent a little more but with the rain were glad we did.  Passed by Buckingham Palace and Marble Arch on our way home.

Since we toured close to home and took the taxi we only managed 8688 steps today. 

Fit for a Queen

Friday October 5

I woke early with a lousy headache and got up to have a cup of tea and bread then took two and went back to bed. T let me sleep a couple of hours and that did the trick. While I got ready he went out to Sainsbury (the local grocery store) for a few things. Finally we set out walking to Kensington Palace which isn't far from our flat. I wanted to visit the exhibit on Queen Victoria. We picked up the 2 for 1 brochure at Victoria Station yesterday and with our train ticket saved a lot of money. As it was after noon we went to the Orangery to have lunch. It's a long white room in a building in the palace gardens. T ordered venison sausage which was very good but I had a rather disappointing salad with smoked chicken. I discovered I don't much like smoked chicken or at least this smoked chicken. Too bad we were too early for tea as I had read they do a lovely tea.

Back in the palace we started with one room on the ground floor with a small exhibit about Princess Diana. We had passed the Cafe Diana on the street across from the park while walking to the palace and a well dressed man coming out of the cafe invited us in for lunch (he was probably the owner). The walls of the cafe were covered with photos of the late Diana--someone is cashing in on Diana. The palace exhibit had about 6 of Diana's dresses displayed along with photos of her wearing them and other photos of her life and with her children. She had lived in Kensington Palace and there were also photos of the flowers left outside the palace when she died.

Up one floor was the exhibit Victoria Revealed which covered major events in her life and featured clothing and personal artifacts. I loved seeing the clothing, especially Victoria's wedding dress. She was so petite. It was all beautifully displayed and photos (without flash) were allowed--I loved that! At the end was a multi-media presentation on Victoria's Jubiliee celebration which we enjoyed. Lots of photos and film of the events. I'm sure it was also planned to coincide with Queen Elizabeth's Jubilee this year. 

 

We stopped in the little cafe/gift shop at the end of our visit for tea and a scone to share. There is beautiful china for sale for the current Queen's Jubilee but I just can't bring myself to spend more than $60 for a teacup and saucer.

We walked back to the flat and made it just as the rain was starting. This evening we are going to the play "Yes Prime Minister" and have decided to splurge on a taxi rather than fight the Friday night rush hour on the Tube. We'll take the Underground home when there will be fewer people.

Canterbury

This moring we got ready to go fairly early. We headed out on the tube to Victoria Station to take the train to Canterbury. It's about 1.5 hours from Victoria to Canterbury and the train was comfortable.

From the train it is an easy walk to the Cathedral. The bridge over the hightway from the station to the town lead us to the ancient city wall. We walked along the wall for a bit and came down at a likely spot that looked like it would lead to the cathedral.  We walked pass a Tesco grocery store and other "high street" shops finally leading into the older part of town full of quaint looking store fronts. We turned down St. Margaret's street and decided to try Tiny Tim's tea shop for lunch. It turned out to be a good choice. T had a "puffkin" which is meat loaf baked in dough and served with baked beans. I was able to have their afternoon tea for lunch--perfect. The service was really good and we enjoyed the food. The restrooms were up two flights of ancient stairs next to the ghost's room. It was a fun little place.
 

Tiny Tim's gave us a good map to the Cathedral and we walked there easily. It was a beautiful day and we got some great shots of the Cathedral with blue skies and puffy clouds and scaffolding! Oh well, it only covered a portion of the outside. It was very interesting to visit and so beautiful. As we were leaving there was a display that mentioned aspects of Cathedral life including the cathedral cats! Unfortunately we did not get to see any of them but we learned one is named Leo (MP!) and another Tom.

 


We began to head back to the train and passed Debenhams. In the Sunday paper was an ad for some gold trimmed goblets so we went in and they had them. I bought two to mix in with the other goblets I have at home. Surprise--they were even on sale.

Train, tube and walk back to the apartment where we had a light dinner and did some more laundry. The machine is so bad that T's shirts all came out really wrinkled. At least there is an iron and ironing board.

8,915 steps

Wednesday 10/3

We got up late since we got to bed so late after dealing with the power outtage. We decided to treat ourselves to breakfast at Daylesford Farm Store again. After breakfast we took the tube to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. We looked at some renaissance Italian paintings then decided to focus on the 19th century Impressionists. There were some lovely works by favorite artists including one of Van Gogh's sunflowers and Monet's study of the Gare St. Lazare. My favorite however was the Bridge at Argenteuil by Gustave Caillebotte. Because the work was on loan there were not postcards or prints to purchase of this work.

 

From Trafalgar Square we walked to Covent Garden. Lots of new shops since we had last been there and no sign of Past Times, one of my favorites. Found a gift at Whittard which sells tea and tea cups, pots, etc. There was a Laduree shop but I skipped the expensive macarons since we still had Belgian chocolate in the apartment. We did pass a place called Ben's cookies and shared a peanut butter with milk chocolate chunk cookie--it was amazingly good.

We headed home for a light dinner and a load of laundry. The tiny little washer dryer combo took about 3 hours to clean and dry a small load. It's handy and sort of entertaining to laugh at how long it takes but we wonder how people live like this on a daily basis.