Day 3 – 18 April Monday
We are on the 7th floor in an older style hotel, The Thistle Marble Arch, on Oxford Street, very close to Hyde Park. The room has everything for our comfort, it is a bit noisy (we are in the middle of London, what else could we expect) but we didn’t hear a thing last night, we were out to it.
By 7.30 am we were showered & down for breakfast in a huge restaurant where they served a smorgasbord.
We decided to “walk the streets of London.” Everything is so close – we walked through the famous Marble Arch into Hyde Park. It’s good to see so much green in the middle of London – we missed the daffodils but we came across some lovely tulips & other spring flowers. The walk was beautiful, we delighted in seeing the old buildings, statues & the magnificent gates on a “balmy” (very smoggy) morning. Of course, like all good tourists we headed through Wellington Arch & Green Park to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards – we were there about an hour earlier – but SO MANY people there, thousands, we were lucky we got a reasonable spot to see the guards marching by, not the actual changing of the guards. There is also a lot of temporary construction scaffolding & structures built for the filming of the royal wedding next week. There are police everywhere.
Next along Birdcage Walk through Green Park & St James Park down to Westminster Abbey, what an impressive building. Such ornate carvings & stonework, it is so large. There were hundreds of people lined up to go in the north entrance, so we skipped the chance to stand in line for a couple of hours & kept on walking to Westminster Hall & the Houses of Parliament, with Big Ben on one end. A few Morris Dancers were protesting against the dropping of the May Day holiday outside Parliament, another very impressively carved & ornate sandstone building with elaborate gilt work on the top of the towers. We also had a peek at the old Jewel Tower, formerly part of the old Westminster Palace. Then off across Westminster Bridge to the south bank of the Thames & a cheeseburger at a cafe over the water next to the bridge. Continued along the Thames past the London Eye (a huge ferris wheel), there were hundreds lined up here as well. Back across the Golden Jubilee footbridge & up to Trafalgar Square & Nelson’s Column, it is so much taller than I expected.
There are so many black Mercedes limos, red double-decker buses & London cabs, plus the odd Lamborghini & Bentley sports cars. There are also lots of crazy people on bicycles mingling with all the traffic, I’m surprised we didn’t see anyone get knocked over. There are so many people walking on the streets, all nationalities & languages.
Next, up to Piccadilly Circus & the theatre area, then up Regent Street past some very expensive shops, the high end of London town, onto Oxford Circus. We had a look in the Ferrari shop & for a pittance you could buy used engine parts from old Formula 1 Ferrari race cars, like a used motor for 47,000 British Pounds. We followed Oxford Street back to the Thistle Hotel, past Selfridges then Spencer & Marks before getting back at 5pm. A bit of blogging & a snooze, then off for dinner & we had a look at Selfridges Food Hall on the way. We ended up at Hog on the Pound, an old English pub for some fish & chips and a pint of ale. When in England do as the English. Unbelievable, Ron got sunburnt in London!!! (I forgot my hat)
Trekkin 