Traditional Sites of London

It was an early start today because we had to pack our bags and to bring along to the Westminster, Victoria area of town.  We chose to schedule another bag nanny so that we didn’t have to return for luggage – there is still too much to see.   The hotel staff was top notch for the entire visit!  They called a cab for us and we had the most fun driver.  He has been a cab driver for years, supper friendly and sometimes just talked through his own thoughts out loud.  He was so concerned for us that we had a flight this afternoon at 1730 from Lutton airport and we didn’t yet have a plan to get there!  He must have said 4-5 times that if he didn’t have to pick up his Mum (who is 81) today, he would plan a meet-up time to pick us back up for the drive out to the airport.  Finally I just told him we could make room for his Mum!  He said, “that’s what I was thinking!”  He said something else to the tune of she wouldn’t be too thrilled and wouldn’t talk to us!  ;)

After dropping our bags at another little market, we started walking toward the Thames again.  These bag nannies are a fabulous idea!  This time we were seeing the largest Catholic Church in the city (Westminster Cathedral), Westminster Abby, Parliament and Big Ben.  The scaffolding is down and the clock is working!!  That was definitely a highlight today!  

It was so much colder today and we did get rained on a little.  Fortunately, I still had my towel with me.  John and I packed our rain jackets in the checked bags.  After standing around a while in awe of these architectural wonders, we walked by 10 Downing Street (we do not know if the Prime Minister was in) and Church Hill’s War Room.  We did see Churchhill!  

We opted not to get tickets to the War Room this time but that would have been great to see.  The next steps took us into St. James Park.

 Forgot to mention The Eye - it wasn’t open but cool to see.  As GraceLin sang, “I’m still standing.”  If you are movie lovers like our family, you’ve seen this icon destroyed a few times! :)

We were able to see the Horse Guard Parade ground, the flags of the colonies and multiple monuments to World Wars.  The park is beautiful, crowded and filled with birds!  One interesting fact is that King Charles II added the pond, I think, and had duck decoy placed there to entice ducks which became the King’s dinner.  At the end of the park, we arrived at Buckingham Palace (the King was not in!).  That area seemed different than when I was here years ago.  Probably due to security changes, it is somewhat.   I don’t know if everything was extra shiny and decorated for the coronation, which was just a week ago, or not but the gold especially around the palace and Big Ben were extremely shiny.   Even the black fences and gates were fresh looking.  

Did I mention the crowds?  Someone said it is supposed to be a record travel year in Europe!  Most of the week was not this crowded at all!  

We did walk all the way around the Palace grounds to the edge of Hyde Park and then began our way back to find some food.  That turned out to be a little challenging because something had been going on at the Palace and restaurants didn’t have any ‘bookings’ available.   We did find a really nice place, Rail House Café, where they allowed us to sit outside and order from the QR code on a limited menu.  It was a fantastic choice!  The burgers were outstanding as was the spicy hummus flatbread. 

The timing turned out to be perfect.  We gathered our bags around 1400 and called an Uber to the airport.  Security, check in and getting to the gate were so easy and we literally slowed our pace, stopped for snacks and a restroom before walking through the gate.  This plane was a walk across the tarmac and up the ladder on board.  That felt like the old days of going to Grand Rapids!  The flight has been super smooth and we are decending into Naples now.  The temperature is 20*C so yay!  Tomorrow we see Pompei! 

After note:  We arrived alive at the hotel much to GraceLin’s surprise.  I couldn’t tell if she was terrified or so angry she couldn’t speak!  John took up gypsy cab at the airport instead of a Taxi.  He called himself ‘Speedy Gonzalez’ at some point during the drive.  As in a lot of the countries we’ve traveled, there seem to be no traffic rules.   It’s a competition to get there first.  These drivers really are professionals but if felt as though we were in a race.  The driver tried to teach John some Italian along the way!  It’s too bad all I could think about was safe arrival and didn’t take a picture of this ride!