Tag Archives: London

Day Five: National Portrait Museum

Today is our last day in London and we took the Tube to the National Portrait Gallery, which happens to also be at Trafalgar Square.  Genny was really excited to see some of the artwork her teachers have talked about in her art and history classes.

 

Art work outside the National Portrait Gallery

 

Trafalgar Square with Big Ben in the background

 

Our second stop for the day was the Imperial War Museum.  It displayed artifacts from various military conflicts such as both World Wars and the Falkland Islands.

Artillary guns from World War I

 

Tank

 

Genny with a military Jeep

 

Military vehicle

 

Dummy

 

World War I plane

 

Military planes

Later we took at trip past Picadilly Square to the original Hard Rock Cafe, but ended up eating elsewhere after we were quoted a 2.5 hour wait.  I did get the chance to pick up a few souvenirs, however.

 

Hard Rock Cafe London Shot Glass

 

Day Four: Tower of London

This morning we set out to ride The Tube, London’s subway, to the Tower of London.  For whatever reason, our passes weren’t to be active for another hour so we opted to walk.  It wasn’t the most direct route, and took us over two hours to accomplish.  At one point, we got caught up in some sort of sensitive police matter.  A two block stretch of the street we were walking down was suddenly shut down and swarmed with police.  It was either an excessive money drop at a nearby financial institution or a prisoner transfer to the local jail.  I’m more inclined to believe the latter, but have no way of knowing for sure.  After all the hub-bub died down, we continued on, stopping briefly at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

 

St. Paul’s Cathedral

We then trudged on until we finally arrived at our major destination of the day, the Tower of London.  For the first time in my life, I had to pay to use the toilet (50 pence or about 75 cents).  We spent about 2-3 hours wandering through the huge castle.  We climbed numerous narrow, winding staircases and saw a ton of relics dating back several hundred years.

The King’s Throne

 

The Lost Palace

 

Some of the houses inside the Tower walls

 

The Rack

 

One of the Ravens at the Tower.

 

A replica of an elephant once kept at the Tower.

 

Various calvary armor

 

Child sized armor.

 

Large and small armor

 

Location of several beheadings, including Anne Boleyn.

 

Dragon made of armor

 

Artillery at the Tower

 

King’s Bedroom

The Tower is situated on the River Thames.  Anchored on the opposite bank is a war ship that can be toured.

Anchored ship.

We then finally got on the Tube and made our way to Harrods Department Store.  We took a couple hours to see what all the fuss was about.  Genny and I opted to try one of their cafes…the Godiva Chocolate Cafe.  No, that’s not sunburn on my poor girl’s face.  That’s windburn.

Genny eating the chocolate garnish from her milkshake.

After Harrod’s we got back on the Tube and went back to the Tower of London where we met our guide for the Jack the Ripper tour.  He took us around to all the key spots of the still unsolved serial murder case from 1888.

Day Three: Windsor Castle

Woke up this morning to no hot water and a cold shower!  Guess a pipe broke and everyone in the hotel was without.  After our English Breakfast buffet, we headed out for the day.  Our big attraction for the day was Windsor Castle, but along the way we made a stop at Abbey Road Studios.

Abbey Road Studios

 

Abbey Road and Grove End Road

 

Abbey House

 

And drove past the Sherlock Holmes Museum on Baker Street.

Sherlock Holmes Museum

 

An hour later, we found ourselves at Windsor Castle, arriving just in time for the changing of the guard.  We then toured through St. George’s Chapel, The Shakespeare Exhibit in the Library, Queen Mary’s Dolls House, and the State Apartments in the castle.

Windsor Castle

 

Arrow Slit in the Outer Wall

 

St. George’s Chapel

 

Castle surrounded by the moat

 

Courtyard inside the castle walls.

 

Waterfall into the castle moat

 

Clock tower

 

Changing of the guard

 

Flowers on the moat path.

 

The moat.

After lunch in Windsor, we headed back to London to ride the London Eye.  One revolution of the Ferris wheel takes about 30 minutes to complete and gives a bird’s eye view of London over the River Thames.  Afterwards, we saw the London Eye experience in the 4D theatre.

London Eye

 

View from the London Eye.

We then crossed the river and walked to Trafalgar Square for a few minutes of picture taking.

Trafalgar Lion

 

Trafalgar Square

 

Day Two:  Harry Potter Studio

Today we ventured to Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio for a tour of the original props and sets from the movie series.

A few of the chess piece statues.

 

The Yule Ball

 

The various wands used in the movies.

 

Potion Lab

 

The Burrow set

 

Hogwarts Express

 

A triple decker bus.

 

The Potter Cottage

 

Giant Spider from the special effects department

 

Sign on the door of the apothecary.

 

Scaled model of Hogwarts Castle.

 

After returning to the hotel, we walked the few blocks the British Museum where we browsed through the exhibits on Egypt, Assyria and Greece.

The British Museum


Some of the many tile mosaics

  

Part of the Egyptian Exhibit

Day One: Arrival in London

We’re here!  We left last night from Phoenix and flew directly into London Heathrow Airport.  Spent almost a hour and a half standing in line in customs before we set out on our bus trip to the hotel.  We took a tour of the sites in the West End of London, getting a visual of all the historical buildings and locations named in those Regency Period novels.  Places along the way included the Natural History Museum, Harrods Department Store, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and Picadilly Square.  Tomorrow we spend the day at the Warner Brothers’ Harry Potter Studio.

The wall surrounding Buckingham Palace.

 

Harrods Department Store

 

Westminster Abbey

 

Buckingham Palace

 

Trafalgar Square

 

Big Ben