June 7
We set out for a day of sightseeing in London - walked through our neighborhood and on to the Royal Mews. We passed Harrods, which always has interesting windows - this time, decked out for the Jubilee (of course.) Each window presented a "crown", designed and built by a fashion house (Cartier, Bulgari, etc.) or a legend design name (Wedgwood, etc.) They were all so beautiful and true to their namesake style. Exactly what one would expect Harrods to do.
We walked the couple of miles to the Mews and toured this part of the Royal palace landscape. "Mews" were originally sites where the Royals kept their falcons when the falcons were molting their feathers (mewing.) When horses became more important than falcons, the space was commandeered for the horses, but the name stuck. The Mews are working stables; they are arranged in a square with a large courtyard in the middle and a second story above where the Mews' workers actually live. The Mews also houses all the Royal coaches and carriages - bay after bay filled with crazy ornate coaches until we arrived at the largest bay with the craziest, most ornate coach, the Royal Coronation Coach. Giant (4 tons) and gold gilt all over. They have to remove a wall and a window to get the coach out - it usually takes a couple of days. Way over the top, but still a kick to see.
Our next stop was the Church of St. Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square. This was a nice, quiet respite from the crowds on the streets. And, there certainly were crowds. More people than I've ever seen in London. I know it was Jubilee time, but honestly, that was three days ago. And most of the languages we were hearing were foreign, so hard to believe that these tourists were here for the Jubilee and stayed a bit after. Probably like us? Booked the trip and then learned about the coincident Jubilee madness. Add the Brit hangers-on from the Jubilee celebrations and you've got mobs.
So, the Church was a welcome stop.
When we came out - pouring rain, so we hightailed it across the street to the National Gallery. We had a great lunch in the Gallery cafe and poked around a few galleries before heading over to St. Paul's. R liked the Nat'l Gallery more than I did - I am not that keen on the Classics and Impressionists.
I did notice, though, that the Nat'l Gallery has done something that the Tate has also done - changed the white gallery walls to deep, saturated colors - and the paintings definitely do stand out beautifully on the darker walls.
We originally thought we would take "the Blitz" tour but since it was pouring rain we opted to tour the inside of St. Paul's Cathedral - until we got inside and saw the lines and the crowds. We went back to Plan A and put on our hoods and met the tour guide and set of to learn about London during the Blitz.
WWII fascinates both R and me, so this insight into what actually happened in the time leading up to and during the Blitz was a good choice for a tour. Fiona, our guide, was very knowledgeable and had many stories of bravery, heartbreak and straight forward facts. She referenced diaries kept by Colin somebody (The Boy in the Blitz) and I plan to get hold of it to read it in detail. We stopped at the few remaining sites in London that are ruins from the Blitz - mostly churches - whose walls and steeples are still standing but whose innards have been planted with gardens. We learned about the different ways Londoners sheltered and how they coped through night after night of bombardments. Turns out that the War Office expected much greater casualties than occurred (they had thousands of papier mache caskets pre-made and had dug large graves in anticipation of the mass deaths), so when that didn't happen, it presented a different problem - how to deal, long term, with Londoners living and needing the supplies of the living while being blacked out at night and being interrupted at all hours by the raids.
The tour was terrific and sobering and again made us thankful that we have never seen war in our lifetime on our soil.
We took a million dollar taxi ride back to our neighborhood Waitrose, bought dinner supplies, walked back to our hotel and ate and relaxed happily in our room.
Tomorrow we come home. We don't quite know what we will find as our house has been partially demo-ed in prep for a new kitchen and bath. The new floors should be in when we return, but we will be living in our bedroom, master bath and guest room for the next couple of months.
Another adventure begins!
5 miles
He Said:
Today's gray and wet day in London was nevertheless quite good for our walk around the many attractions. We decided to take the back streets from our place to the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace; our first stop. I was again struck by the number of people around and especially the numbers of cars and buses. We had to do a good deal of dodging cars, motorcycles, and bicycles while crossing streets, and you don't always see the motorcycles because they cut between the cars. It seems that anything with a motor has a higher priority than pedestrians.
The Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace was interesting to visit. It's where the horses used to tow the royal carriages are trained and kept. QE2 has a keen interest in horses, so it's a priority to do it right, and perhaps over the top. We saw a few horses, and carriages, including the huge, gold plated carriage normally towed with 8 horses, that one is over the top.
Later, we walked to St Martin in the Fields church, and visited the National Gallery. We then walked to St Paul's Cathedral to join an organized walking tour about the London blitz of 1940/41. The rain increased over the course of the 2 hour tour. It's amazing how much recorded history there is in London.
We are both a little sad since we will end out trip tomorrow, we had a very full trip.
Here are some photos from today
The Albert Hall
The Royal Mews
The Gold State Coach, real gold guilding, built in 1762,
weight: 8000 pounds, drawn by 8 horses, shown here with only 4 horses
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_State_Coach
over the top?
St James Park
St Martin in the Fields church
Trafalgar Square
The blitz walking tour at St Paul's Cathedral
yeah... soggy
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