London, England

When we arrived by train in London, we were able to navigate the subway system Tube (with a change from one train to another), then walked a few blocks to our hotel.  Somehow, we were not starving, so we popped into this little pub close to our hotel for a snack before we walked over to Hyde Park, also very close to our hotel.

Quacker Jack and a Hyde Park map

There was a statue for Peter Pan on our walk in Hyde Park.  There are close ties between Peter Pan, the Darling Family, and London.

It is very easy to see how what is now Hyde Park was formerly hunting grounds for the royal family.

 And then, I saw it...Kensington Palace!  I totally wasn't expecting to run into this way...just unprepared and looking like I'd been traveling all day, but there it was. 

Quacker Jack was more excited about seeing some relatives in the pond than the palace.

Seriously could hardly contain myself I'm so excited!!!

We did not tour the inside...who cares about seeing a bunch of stuff that belonged to royals dead and gone...I wanted to see William and Kate!  I wanted to see Princess Diana artifacts!  But, Wills and Kate and George are not home right now.  I believe they are with the Queen at Balmoral in Scotland.  

Outside Kensington

The front gates at Kensington Palace.  Seriously, I was still so excited.

 

After my excitement calmed down, we continued our walk and found a refreshment stand for cabbies.

And a telephone booth

And the Queens Gate to Hyde Park

And this impressive monument

We ended up walking much more than we planned (typical) and found ourselves in one of the main shopping districts.

J found his new toy.

I found Shoe Heaven at Harrods of London.

 Walking home, we saw a very touching monument to soldiers of World War II:

A street view during our walk

Flowers in Hyde Park

We spent some time (not enough) in the Museum of Natural History.  Here is the skeleton of a giant sloth.  Not kidding. 

 We thought we would find Buckingham Palace one evening and were not impressed when we came upon it.  Notice our not impressed faces. 

 We kept walking along, very disappointed in what we'd seen.  Then, around the corner...

Oh, THAT'S the front of Buckingham Palace.  We'd only seen a side entrance.  Much more impressed.  And because we got there just a few minutes before the hour (8pm), we saw a changing of the guard without the crush of people. 

Quacker Jack and Buckingham Palace

Notice how much more impressed I am. 

Yes, these are faces that are impressed.

Imagine my surprise when Prince Harry showed up!  Secret: it's not really Prince Harry...it's my own personal Prince, JSides.  A couple girls asked him to wear it for a picture with them and of course I had to have one made too. 

We spent A LOT of time at The British Museum.  Here are just a couple pictures that might interest anyone as nerdy as we are:

There were so many artifacts from Egypt, I wondered if there are any left IN Egypt.  This is only a few of the million pictures J took.  It is hard to wrap our brains around how much stuff they have there.  We went three different days, spending at least 2 hours each day and didn't even see half of what they have.  Looks like we'll have to make another trip to London!

We didn't realize we'd pass Big Ben and Parliament on the way to Evensong service at Westminster Abbey. 

 Exterior pictures of West Minster Abbey:

London Eye at night (we did not ride it)

The Themes River

We walked over to 221B Baker Street and were very disappointed to find that there is no 221B Baker Street.  J had to settle with his picture with the Baker Street Tube stop.

 London has a very small China Town we found right behind Soho.

Piccadilly Circus

We usually buy a magnet for our refrigerator whenever we visit somewhere.  Surprisingly, we managed to find a London magnet in this store in Piccadilly Circus.   

Royal Academy of Arts

The window displays for all these chi-chi stores are incredible.

 J needed some new dress shoes, so we headed over to my new favorite store, Selfridges & Co.  I could have spent days here, there are so many things to look at.  They have a food hall with every type of food you can imagine, a chocolate and sweets department, clothes, makeup, shoes...it was heaven.  They even have a Champagne and Oyster Bar, where we toasted to the start of Football Season.  It was harder than we thought to not be able to watch the games!

 We went to church on Sunday morning at Saint Paul's Cathedral. 

And had a fantastic breakfast afterwards

We walked around London proper after breakfast and found the London Stock Exchange and saw the monstrosity that is known as The Shard. 

Just a pretty building in the City of London

Since this year is the 100th anniversary of World War One, there is a very touching tribute being set up at the Tower of London.  Volunteers are planting a ceramic poppy, one for each British soldier lost during the Great War, totaling 888,246 poppies.

Not to take away from the somber tribute going on there, but this is our "It costs HOW MUCH to tour the Tower of London?" faces.  We did not tour the Tower, but walked around and enjoyed the tribute to World War One soldiers and the view from outside the Tower.

The Tower Bridge

The muddy and busy Themes River

Quacker Jack and the Tower Bridge

 We found a cute little place for lunch...ham and goat cheese with toasted bread for me, ham and toasted bread with olive oil for him. 

View from our table at the cute little lunch place.

Recreated Globe Theater

Bridge crossing the Themes-that's St. Paul's in the background. 

We saw Paddington Station while we were walking one morning.  We didn't find Paddington Bear, though. 

J and a large lion outside The British Museum

After a week in London, we packed our bags once again, and took the bus from London to Paris.  Our bus boarded the ferry in Dover, England and we sailed the 20 miles or so to Calais, France.  Then, hopped back on the bus and road the rest of the way into Paris.  We are renting an apartment for the week here, and hope to see lots of art and architecture.