Ceremonial Guards at St James Palace
In the Gardens at Buckingham Palace after an afternoon in the State Rooms - as you do!
London’s burning!! Well, not quite, but if Hyde Park is anything to go by then it could burst into flames at any minute! Dry, dusty and courtesy of the middle-eastern boys playing soccer every where, it didn’t look unlike an immigration detention centre in the South Australian outback. Although more Burkhas seem to be worn in Hyde Park.
We stayed in Marylebone/Kensington area, a little bit like “Little Cairo” or something like that and initially a bit disappointing if you are looking for the London experience. But then again, this is London so I guess that is part of the experience.
Un-perturbed (well, maybe a little perturbed) we ventured out and did the tourist thing – went straight to Madam Tussaud’s. Eyeing off the 4 hour queue, sizing up the number of possible exhibits and physically feeling the weight of the rather hefty entry fee, we decided that like so many world tourist attractions, Madam Tussauds is best viewed from a distance!
However as Richard Harris stated in “The Unforgiven”, people act differently in the presence of Majesty – when faced with similar queues at Buckingham Palace, we did not turn away. Nor were we disappointed. The Summer opening of the palace is well worth it and very well done. For the first time we all made use of the free headphone guided tour and had a great experience. No Royalty but I’m sure my day will come….
After a couple of days we were all really enjoying being back in a big city, although why people choose to live in them is beyond me – oh, yeah, must be something to do with money! Given house prices in London people must make lots of it working there.
Whilst Hyde Park was a bit disappointing we did do some paddle-boating on a lake at Regents Park, found Downing Street, wandered through Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square and Soho, and even went to the theatre……
Being in the West End a night at the theatre seemed appropriate so off we went to see Legally Blonde – The Musical! We didn’t even know it was a musical but sure enough it is – and it is a really good one. Lots of singing, lots of over-acting and some great characters. A true London experience.
We managed to catch up with an old friend (or is that a friend from a long time ago?) who we hadn’t seen for 10 years. Pete was visiting from the North, via Khartoum, Spain and soon to be Cairo (again) but was at his daughter’s in North London. Following his directions we took the tube and then a bus and found a nice suburb and his charming family – unfortunately we missed Trudy and Charlie-Mae so may need to stick to our original plan of visiting Cairo………..
Anyway, it was great to catch up and once again we wondered why we don’t make the effort more often – silly world with it’s silly busy-ness!
We left London happy chappies and hopefully re-charged for the adventure ahead.
We stayed in Marylebone/Kensington area, a little bit like “Little Cairo” or something like that and initially a bit disappointing if you are looking for the London experience. But then again, this is London so I guess that is part of the experience.
Un-perturbed (well, maybe a little perturbed) we ventured out and did the tourist thing – went straight to Madam Tussaud’s. Eyeing off the 4 hour queue, sizing up the number of possible exhibits and physically feeling the weight of the rather hefty entry fee, we decided that like so many world tourist attractions, Madam Tussauds is best viewed from a distance!
However as Richard Harris stated in “The Unforgiven”, people act differently in the presence of Majesty – when faced with similar queues at Buckingham Palace, we did not turn away. Nor were we disappointed. The Summer opening of the palace is well worth it and very well done. For the first time we all made use of the free headphone guided tour and had a great experience. No Royalty but I’m sure my day will come….
After a couple of days we were all really enjoying being back in a big city, although why people choose to live in them is beyond me – oh, yeah, must be something to do with money! Given house prices in London people must make lots of it working there.
Whilst Hyde Park was a bit disappointing we did do some paddle-boating on a lake at Regents Park, found Downing Street, wandered through Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square and Soho, and even went to the theatre……
Being in the West End a night at the theatre seemed appropriate so off we went to see Legally Blonde – The Musical! We didn’t even know it was a musical but sure enough it is – and it is a really good one. Lots of singing, lots of over-acting and some great characters. A true London experience.
We managed to catch up with an old friend (or is that a friend from a long time ago?) who we hadn’t seen for 10 years. Pete was visiting from the North, via Khartoum, Spain and soon to be Cairo (again) but was at his daughter’s in North London. Following his directions we took the tube and then a bus and found a nice suburb and his charming family – unfortunately we missed Trudy and Charlie-Mae so may need to stick to our original plan of visiting Cairo………..
Anyway, it was great to catch up and once again we wondered why we don’t make the effort more often – silly world with it’s silly busy-ness!
We left London happy chappies and hopefully re-charged for the adventure ahead.
A Former London Pub - not sure what that writing says now!
'Allo, my name is Michael Caine.....
Molly waiting for Mr Cameron so she can offer some advice on man made climate change and peace in the middle east
The British Museum - an amazing day out
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