London!

We had a quick but densely-packed 28 hours in London this past weekend:  the kids and I flew (very early!) Saturday morning and met Thomas (who had been at a meeting in Wales) at Paddington Station by 10 am Saturday.

Our first view of the city

There is a statue of Paddington Bear at Paddington Station!

Our B&B was only a 10 minute walk or so from Buckingham Palace, and we luckily arrived just in time for the changing of the guard at 11am.  Many other tourists had the same thought, however!  It was incredibly crowded in front of the palace and along the guards' parade route.  I heard more German, Spanish, French etc. than English in the crowd.  (Including from the Bobbies on horseback who were warning people in English and German to watch their belongings - due to pickpockets I guess.)

Buckingham Palace

Can you believe it was sunny for most of the time were were in London?   We had uncanny luck with the weather:  it clouded up Saturday afternoon, but the first drops of rain fell just as we hit the B&B for the night.  Then, Sunday morning, the rain stopped just as we stepped outside.  

After the palace, we headed to Westminster Abbey:  Wow.

It's an amazing place.  Evidently a church of some sort has been on this site since 616 AD and the Abbey was built in the mid-11th century.  We were not allowed to take pictures inside the Abbey (which I appreciated -- hundreds of tourists snapping photos would have diminished the place.  I took one quick photo in the courtyard, which I think was OK).  I had not realized just how many historically important people -- other than kings and queens -- are buried there!   I saw the burial places of Henry Purcell and Ralph Vaughan Williams, Charles Darwin (some how I missed Newton!), Dr. Livingstone, and the tomb of the Unknown Warrior, among many, many others.

Over the Great Western Door, a series of ten statues was erected in 1998, commemorating 20th century Christian Martyrs.  (Martin Luther King, Jr. is 5th from the left, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer is 7th.)

I would have liked to spend hours -no, days - in the Abbey, contemplating all the shrines and the amazing artwork.  It's still a functioning Anglican church, of course, but I mostly imagined all the umpteen coronations and royal weddings in there (including William and Kate in 2011).   

            The sense of History you get as you walk around Westminster is breathtaking (and probably would be more so if I knew more British history...)   But here's my favorite story, learned simply from our guidebook.  

Queen Elizabeth I (1553-1603) is buried here on one side of the "Lady Chapel" (which is an architectural marvel, especially the ceiling).  Mostly what I remember about her is that she be-headed her rival, Mary Queen of Scots (in 1587).  The fact that Mary's remains were brought to the Lady Chapel in 1612 (by her son, and then King James I) means that these two arch rivals are now lying within a few meters of each other...

OK, I'm writing too much.  Here we are walking from the Abbey, by the Houses of Parliament, and across the Westminster Bridge.

Big Ben, iconic clock tower on the
House of Parliament

We got the best view of London from the huge London Eye ferris wheel.  Booking advance tickets made the already ridiculous prices even more so, but it was worth it to avoid the queues...

The London Underground ("The Tube") is celebrating its 150th birthday this year, and you can tell the system is old.  The trains and stations were mostly small and somewhat quaint in comparison to what I'm used to in Munich, and I imagine I'd find it crowded and stuffy if I had to use it every day.  The kids were quite amused by the "mind the gap" announcement that occurs with every opening of the doors, and is printed along every platform edge.

Saint Paul's Cathedral is also hugely impressive.  The main dome and most of the original building (built in the late 1600's) survived the war, mostly due to some heroic bomb diffusion efforts and round-the-clock volunteer watch which doused incendiary bombs.

 Again, no pictures were allowed inside.  The beautiful and sparkling mosaics in the high ceiling were a highlight, as was the amazing Whispering Gallery in the top dome, 259 steps up from the main floor.                                                                  Somehow I started humming Mary Poppins songs as we approached.  I'm pretty sure these stairs were the setting for "Feed the Birds"... and yes there were lots of pigeons around.

After a tasty dinner at an Indian restaurant (we'd had greasy fish 'n chips for lunch and were still feeling some of it) we walked a bit through the hopping parts of town:  Soho, China town, the theatre district, Piccadilly Circus.

The theatre district

A look into China Town

This statue of Anteros is a popular meeting spot
in the center of Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus has lots of traffic, including many double-deccker buses!

Lots of people around!  And somewhat confusing at times when meeting people head-on on the sidewalks since the Brits head to the left, and the tourists head to the right...

Day 2:

We only had a half-day to spend before we needed to get to the airport, and we chose to spend most of it at the Tower of London.  The"tower" is a palace, fort, and whole series of towers that have housed kings and prisoners since its founding in 1066.  It's listed apparently as a "world heritage site", and is very busy with tourists most of the time.  Luckily we got there just as it opened Sunday morning, and avoided much of the crowds.

The public entrance, just before opening time

Again, the place is teeming with history.  I wish I could remember even a fraction of the British history I think I was supposed to learn as a kid...

There are innumerable narrow winding stairways in all the towers

The famous Bloody Tower, so named in the mid-16th
century since it was believed the two "little princes"
(Edward V and his younger brother) were murdered
here in 1483 by their uncle, Richard, who then
 became King Richard III.

After several hours in the Tower (we could have spend many more) we walked along the river a bit to enjoy the views of the iconic Tower Bridge (which is not "London Bridge", I learned).

It would be lovely to spend a bit more time there, but we did hit most of the high points (and spent a lot of money) so we were quite happy with our little whirlwind tour.

Just a little tired on the way home...