Changing of the Guard

We ventured to Buckingham Palace to view the Changing of the Guard two times during our week in London. The first time we were with our tour guide, who directed us to areas where we could stand and watch the parade into the Palace gates without being part of the huge crowds lined up directly in front of the Palace. I was able to shoot some video of the parade, but, sadly, it will not load onto our blog. 

The second time we arrived at the Palace after the guard had marched inside the gates, but before they completed the ceremony and marched out. Scott got some great photos of the guards both marching into the Palace and during their ceremony. 

London Day 2: St. Paul's Cathedral

A St. Paul's church of one sort or another has stood on the site of St. Paul's Cathedral since the year 604. Fires have destroyed the building twice, the most recent in 1666 during the Great Fire in London. Following the Great Fire officials commissioned the architect Sir Christopher Wren to rebuild the cathedral. The foundation stone was laid in 1675 and was finished about 40 years later. The cathedral stood for several hundred years until damaged by bombs during WWII. Local fire brigades, understanding the significance of this treasure, worked tirelessly to limit the damage from bombings. Even Sir Winston Churchill insisted that the cathedral be saved at all costs. St. Paul's Cathedral is the nation's church and has been the site of many state events. Sir Winston Churchill's funeral was held here, and Prince Charles and Lady Diana were married here. Martin Luther King stopped here on his way to collect his Nobel Peace Prize, and next month the Dalai Lama will receive the Templeton Prize, a world science and religion award, here.

The dome is 360 feet high, making it the second biggest in the world after St. Peter's in Rome. It is actually 3 domes, one inside the other, and weighs 65,000 tons! It is possible to climb to the top, and the views of London are magnificent. Scott, of course, had to do it and so he climbed all 527 steps to stand and gaze at the city around him.

Like other cathedrals in the city, many people are entombed at St. Paul's. Lord's Nelson and Wellington are entombed here, as well as Sir Christopher Wren, the architect.

The inside of this cathedral is fabulous, but, again, no photography allowed. Here are a few more pictures of this beautiful cathedral...

This is actually a photo of  one of our postcards.
You can definitely get a sense of the beauty of the cathedral!

Oh, by the way, did you notice the blue sky in the pictures? Late in the afternoon the clouds finally parted and the sun made a brief appearance. And, yes, we did get to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace although it was still quite cloudy and foggy. I managed to get a little video, which won't load on the free wireless here at our hotel. So, our Changing of the Guard blog will have to wait until we get back home this weekend. 

Of course, after St. Paul's we headed to Harrod's, London's most famous department store. Scott has been quite under the weather this week, and I was not feeling at all well by the time we arrived at Harrod's so I was expecting to just dash inside, look around quickly, and go back to our hotel. Scott insisted on going to the top floor and making a tour through each level on our way down. He did, however, give up on shopping once he discovered a pair of teeny tiny short shorts, complete with frayed edges and worn spots, for f190. That's roughly $370 US!! We did take a couple of pictures though, just to say we were there. This photo was taken in one of the food markets inside Harrod's. Those counters are marble, in case you were wondering.

London Day 2: The Tower of London

Day 2 in London began as promised: cloudy, rainy, and foggy. We arrived at the station to meet our tour at 8 a.m. and by 9:00 we were inside the dreaded Tower of London. Originally built for defence, the Tower became a notorious prison; a scene of torture, hangings, and be-headings. We were treated to a private tour of this complex by our very own Yeoman Warder, or "Beefeater" . There are actually 21 towers inside the "Tower of London", and oh if the walls could talk.

Inside The Bloody Tower we learned the story of two young princes, sons of Edward IV, who were put in the tower by their uncle when their father died. Mysteriously, they disappeared. No one knew what happened to them. It was believed that their uncle had them murdered in order to eliminate them from the line of succession to the throne. With the boys out of the way, the uncle did, indeed, become king. In 1675, while digging nearby, the remains of two small children were discovered at the end of a sealed tunnel. "And the moral of that story", chuckled our Beefeater, "is don't let the uncle babysit!".

There is graffiti all over the insides of towers. Not the 20th century sort, but the sort carved into the stone walls by prisoners with lots of time on their hands and dating back hundreds of years. For some of it, the author has even been identified. Most of what we saw was written in either Latin or Olde English and we could only guess at what it said.
Also housed at the Tower of London are the Crown Jewels. The ones in our picture belong to Queen Elizabeth II. She does, on special occasions, get them out of the tower and wear them. I can't imagine how heavy this must be! Also within this exhibit are the crown jewels from other monarchs including Queen Victoria, many royal sceptres, and lots of gold serving pieces which are used for state dinners. This might be a good time to mention that the Tower of London maintains an active set of guards armed with machine guns and bayonets. While most of it is open to the public, it is definitely more than just a tourist attraction!
Here are a few pictures from inside the Tower of London.....



Traitor's Gate: The Tower of London sits directly on the Thames. Prisoners were brought  by boat to the Tower. The Traitor's Gates were opened and the prisoners were met at the steps up from the water by the jailers.

The White Tower was started in 1078 and competed about 19 years later. At that time it was the tallest building in London.

There is a small colony of ravens that resides at the Tower. No one knows when they first arrived, but legend has it that, should they all leave the Tower, the kingdom will fall. What monarch would want THAT to happen?!! So, the bird's wings have been clipped and there is a Ravenmaster to look after the birds.

Did you know that two of Henry VIII's wives were executed here? In fact, Anne Boleyn, his second wife, was executed in 1536. According to our Beefeater, the execution happened so quickly that she continued to talk for 28 seconds after her head was severed from her body. Ewwww!

Lucky for us, we got out with our heads intact. We left the Tower of London behind us and boarded a Thames River cruiser for a short trip down river to meet our bus. On to Buckingham Palace, and the Changing of the Guard.....maybe. It's still very foggy and drizzly and our guide is quite doubtful that the Changing of the Guard is going to happen today.

London!

Do you recognize this landmark? Of course it's Big Ben, which sits at one end of the Parliament complex. Actually, the clock is NOT named Big Ben, but the chimes in the clock tower are, hence the confusion! Can you see the London Eye in the background? That is actually on the opposite side of the Thames. Note the blue sky!! It's a "postcard day" in London today!! No time to waste!

First stop, Westminster Abbey. This massive medieval cathedral was begun in 1055, making parts of it 957 years old! There are many kings and queens buried here, including Mary Queen of Scots and her cousin, Elizabeth I, who also ordered Mary's imprisonment in England and, eventually, her execution by beheading. You might also remember Mary Queen of Scots from our trip to Edinburgh. There are also monuments to literary giants, including Shakespeare and Dickens, and musicians like Handel. 

Westminster Abbey has also been the site of coronations and weddings of England's monarchs. One year ago yesterday, April 29, 2011, it was the site of the royal wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton. 

There was quite a queue to enter, but we waited patiently and spent a good couple of hours touring the insides. Unfortunately, no photography allowed, except in the cloisters.

I have often read about the flying buttresses on the exterior of the Abbey. Their purpose is to help transfer the weight of the nave. The nave is only 35 feet wide, but it is 105 feet high, making it the highest in England. That's a lot of weight! Anyway, the flying buttresses are actually quite massive on their own.

After we finished the Abbey we meandered past Parliament and hopped a double decker red bus for a general tour of London. We were able to see quite a few parks, a lot of monuments, some famous residences and neighbourhoods, and traffic, traffic, traffic. London is the host city for the Olympics this summer, and I cringe to think what the traffic will be like then. There is an official countdown to the Olympics in Trafalgar Square, and Scott was able to take a photo as we passed by. At of the snapping of the photo there were 88 days, 3 hours, 38 minutes and 49 seconds to go!

Our tour wrapped up back at Parliament. Can you name the current Prime Minister of Great Britain?

Our hotel is about a 15 minute walk from Parliament, so we headed back. Are you noticing the beautiful blue skies in the pictures today? Heavy rain and wind is moving in tonight. It is England, after all. For every day of bright sunshine there seem to be many days of clouds and at least the threat of rain. We are determined not to let the weather dampen our adventure, however. Tomorrow we are booked into a tour that begins at 8:00 a.m. We are taking a private tour of the Tower of London, a boat ride on the Thames, and a tour of St. Paul's Cathedral. We are supposed to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, but it's doubtful that the weather will be cooperative tomorrow. Our tour ends at Harrod's. Can you hear Scott groaning all the way across the pond?!

Windermere

We have been using our free time on the weekends to explore the fells and lakes around us. Over the past few weekends we have visited the deepest lake (Wastwater) and viewed the highest fell (Scafell). This weekend we decided to visit the biggest lake, Windermere. Windermere is also one of the "hot spots" for Lake District tourism. We've been told that the country roads are overrun by tourists in the summer so we decided to take advantage of a nice April Saturday to make our visit. There are a couple of seaside towns alongside the lake, and, with Bowness being the town recommended by our guidebook, we set our sat-nav and headed off for an hour or so drive through the fells.

Bowness is a quaint little town with lots of shops and restaurants, rowboat and small motorboat rentals, and the tamest swans I've ever seen! In fact, they showed no worries about approaching people and gathered in great groups around those who brought food for them. I even saw one swan put it's great beak on a lady's shoulder trying to snatch the bread she was holding and actually trying to eat as part of her own lunch!

 Scott aggravated the swan a bit to distract him from the lady with the bread just off camera!

This area of the Lake District is home to many famous authors, including Beatrix Potter. Her home is near Bowness, and within the town of Bowness is "The World of Beatrix Potter" attraction. Scott was a good sport and accompanied me into this attraction. We watched a short video about Beatrix Potter. It was interesting to see how her home and the animals around here were the inspiration for her stories. A week or so ago I watched a short piece on t.v. about this attraction as well. The narrator accompanied a tour group of families from Japan as they went through the exhibits. It was fascinating to learn that the Japanese know these stories by heart. It seems that the stories are used to teach the children to speak and write English in Japan!!

After riding around the lake on a boat, experiencing the Beatrix Potter attraction, and meandering the streets a bit we headed for home. Sunday's weather was absolutely miserable: heavy rain and wind and cold! After church we grabbed a bite to eat, ran by the grocery, and headed home to wrap up plans for our trip to London this week (not to mention laundry, which is a blog for another day). 

Little Lambs

These lambs seem to eat constantly

It is spring in this area, and that means lambs! A few weeks ago these little lambs could barely walk, and never left their mum's side. It has been fun to watch as the lambs grow older and more adventuresome. Today we saw, again, some nearly newborn lambs, barely able to stand and walk, along with some older lambs. We also came across a full grown sheep who was definitely outside of his pasture. Frightened by our car, he nimbly jumped over a 3 to 4 foot stone wall and back into his field. Who knew?! Anyway, Scott took some pictures of the sheep and lambs in Buttermere today. Enjoy!

Twins

My favourite little lamb! We watched him for quite a while. He never left his mom's side!

This new born had to be moved with a little help from the mindful dog.

Buttermere

Scott had work commitments on Saturday, so our forays out into the English countryside this weekend were limited to Sunday after church. The weather forecast was not the best: high in the mid-forties with an 80% chance of rain, but we decided to make the journey to Buttermere anyway. We live in an area of England known as the "Lake District". The locals are quick to tell you that there is only one lake that has the word "Lake" in it's name. Many, like Buttermere, are both the name of a town or village and the name of the lake.

After about 40 minutes of driving on country roads in between miles of sheep farms and with fells all around, we arrived at the tiny village of Buttermere. In the Lake District fell ambling is a huge past time, and Scott has come to really enjoy his time ambling around the lakes and fells. We parked and set off on a hike around the lake. There are actually two lakes in this area, separated by about a half mile of pastures and the tiny village. We began walking and found, after about two miles or so, that we were hiking around the second lake: Crummock. Our guidebook recommended Buttermere as the more beautiful of the two lakes, and also described the walk as an easy, 2 hour, 5 mile walk. So, we doubled back and followed the trail to Buttermere.

The path to Crummock. A very pretty lake, but not the one we were looking for!

Unfortunately, by the time we reached the lake the dark clouds had moved in and showers were threatening at any minute. No matter! We had already enjoyed almost two hours of hiking! We asked a very nice gentleman, who had some very professional looking camera equipment set up on the lake shore, if he would take our picture. We took a short walk to a waterfall, then turned and headed back through the sheep pastures to the town.

Buttermere

We settled in at the Fish Inn, enjoyed a bowl of lentil and carrot soup and a sandwich, and warmed up with some hot tea. While we were there the heavens opened up and the rains began to come down. By the time we were leaving, little ice balls were mixed in with the rain. As is common in the fells, a few minutes and a few miles away we emereged from the heavy clouds into beautiful sunshine, and enjoyed our ride home. We finished off the afternoon sitting on our balcony watching the activity in the harbor.

This week coming up will be a relatively normal week. Next week, however, Scott has work commitments in London. Of course I'm going too! He has arranged to take a day off and so we will leave by train on Monday, the 30th, and return on Friday. We have plans to see quite a bit while we are there, and I'm certain there will be many blog updates as the week unfolds :-)!