Here's Tuesday!

Okay - we're still a day behind but yesterday was REALLY long and today not terribly better. We're off to Oxford tomorrow but should be back early so will hopefully catch up then. Here you go!

London – Tues. June 3
Gayle: We’ll try to put something quick together, as we’ve changed THE PLAN again. We’re headed to Oxford tomorrow (Thurs.) and will have a very early morning train to try to catch a semi-planned tour. So where were we? Oh yes, Tuesday. This was our first full and big day in London. We had an incredible night’s sleep in our new hotel and really didn’t want to get up! Yet, there were places to be seen!

We started with a quick breakfast in the room and made up sandwiches for lunch. As we’d taken photos of Big Ben (which are actually the bells inside the tower) and Parliament, our first stop was Westminster Abbey - & boy was it an incredible place to start. The initial things you notice are the enormous size and stunning architecture. The audio guide was included, and we listened to the majority of it. We both agreed early on we could spend at least half a day here. There are crypts memorializing most every British king, queen, close family members, and other plaques and such dedicated to others who have impacted the world and Great Britain. It really hurt that we couldn’t take any photos in here, but that would have taken literally all day. One of most recent and remembered occurrences at the Abbey was the funeral of Princess Diana.

Ok – time for Kara to take over as I jump in the shower….

Kara: I agree that Westminster Abbey was by far one of the most stunning places I’ve ever visited. We had planned to go to The Guard’s Museum on our way to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard. The night before, we had discussed maybe cutting this out as we had a lot on the plan and might need to cut it down some. We took a leisurely walk from the Abbey towards Buckingham Palace along “Birdcage Walk” which passes right along the edge of St. James Park. We started to see signs for the Guard’s Museum as we neared Wellington Barracks and discussed again whether or not we should go in. Then, we noticed there were guards out in the front of the Barracks drilling so I stopped to take some photos. The additional royal guards had musical instruments in their hands, and we quickly realized they were going to be warming up here before heading off on parade towards the palace. We staked out prime spots right at the gate where they would exit. When they broke in to “Copacabana” we both started laughing. I hope you all could see the video and enjoyed it. When we get home to a good Internet connection, I’ll upload the other videos we took to my Flickr page so you can see those. We both got video of them playing both Copacabana and the Theme to “Star Wars”. As they exited the gate we were truly right on the edge of the sidewalk, which I hope also made for some good photos (haven’t had a chance to really look at them yet but will try to post a few if we can).

We walked/ran the rest of the way down Birdcage to try to get a look at the action at Buckingham Palace. The Rick Steve’s travel guide I had said something about a lot of yelling and shouting and standing and moving and he was right – the ceremony itself really isn’t all that exciting – at least what we could see of it wasn’t. I’m really glad we got to see the Guard like we did – it was much more entertaining. I realize as I’m writing this I didn’t get a picture of Buckingham Palace, but I wouldn’t have done it justice. It was quite beautiful though.

Gayle: I’m cutting in comments here, as Kara got a ton written in the last few minutes. Kara & I are both huge lovers of music in addition to being band geeks – and yes – there is a difference! I too was really glad we got to see the band playing outside of the formal ceremony. After that I really didn’t care about the official changing of the guard.

Kara: As we continued walking (we left during the ceremony and went around the crowd) we were looking for a tube station and perhaps a “loo” which we both wanted to find. We couldn’t find either of what we wanted but ran smack into the Hard Rock Café. While they couldn’t help us with the tube station, we could get lunch and a bathroom. So we had a nice, relaxing lunch in the Original Hard Rock café. It definitely hadn’t been a stop on the plan – but that’s why we make plans – so we can enjoy the other things that happen along the way by accident.

Gayle: Okay, we’ve eaten at enough Hard Rocks in our day that the novelty ran out long ago, but hey, it was food we were guaranteed to like and there was that whole “loo” situation! We both got salads, but most of you who know me even a little, know I’m a lover of dessert. I really wasn’t thinking about getting any as it was so warm out, but the special of the day was banana pie. Now I like (not love) banana pie, but it’s tough to find in restaurants, so I’ve got to take advantage of such opportunities. The pie itself was nothing special – tough pie crust & banana pudding with bananas. But here’s the special part, they topped the whipped cream with fresh strawberry sauce. Now I like, not love, strawberry-flavored things. (It’s not a fruit I will eat straight.) And if I’d known it came with the sauce, I would have asked to not include it. But wow would I have been wrong. Wowza that sauce was awesome! (Mae – I took a picture just so you can replicate it!) It was by far the best thing I’ve had to eat on this trip and that is totally sad.

Kara: We left Hard Rock and still couldn’t get to a Tube station to get to Hyde Park. The problem was we wanted to see (I wanted to see) the Diana Fountain which is in Hyde Park almost to Kensington. No tube stops really allow you to do that easily so we decided – probably wrongly – to walk through Hyde Park. This is an absolutely beautiful and HUGE public park and since it was a beautiful, sunny, 80 – 85 degree day it was quite busy. The walk was nice and easy – very flat – but quite long. Unfortunately, the Diana fountain wasn’t really all that exciting to see. I appreciate the approachable, usable nature of it, and how that represents how she was perceived by the people so architecturally I get it, but it’s not a “site” you really need to visit unless you want to play in the water.

Gayle: Note to those visiting London soon (Adam, Marissa, Madison, Briana, etc.), Hyde Park is GIGANTIC. I would NOT recommend walking the entire thing. We definitely regretted this all too soon. But it’s the perfect spot to hang out, have lunch, paddle boat, play Frisbee, etc.; you get the picture.

Kara: After seeing the fountain, we headed down to Kensington Palace. There are three separate exhibits to see here – Diana’s dresses, the King’s and Queen’s apartments, and an exhibit on the place of debutantes and debutante balls in London history/society. All were interesting, but the audio guide in the King/Queen apartments was really long in a few places and kind of boring. The rooms also were quite dark (they keep it that way to preserve the fabrics). However when you combine full stomachs, a long walk, heat, and a dark room the only thing I think either of us wanted to do when we came out was take a nap.

Gayle: Actually, I wanted to jump in a fountain….

Kara: But, none of that – we had one more stop to make – Harrods! We tubed up to Knightsbridge and exited nearly in the door of Harrods. We walked through several of the halls including going up to Pet World on the 4th Floor (Amanda – tell Dippy and Fluffy that I’m sorry I didn’t find anything for them). We both did load up on a couple of things for ourselves and gifts for friends and family back home before we got on the tube to head back home.

Gayle: Although one of my favorite bags in the world is from Harrods that I got 9 years ago and still use today, I actually bought nothing for myself. Shocking! Harrods is always overwhelming and we were just too hot & tired to put in that kind of effort.

Kara: Now Gayle and I have been best friends for more than 16 years now, and we’ve shared a lot. However, I don’t think I’ve ever been as close to her (literally!) as I was on the tube on the way from Knightsbridge down to Waterloo station. There had been many delays on the London Underground system during the day and you could tell they were straining to keep up. If any of you are thinking about coming to the 2012 Olympics here, you might want to think again if you have any issue at all with claustrophobia. The tubes here are already packed and it’s not even a busy tourist season yet. I don’t know where they plan to put all the Olympic events, but in our opinion, this is NOT a city ready to host a games – and particularly not if you’re traveling with someone in a wheelchair or who requires extra assistance or has any mobility issues.

Gayle: As for our experience trying to get home on the tube, I was physically closer to some of those people there than guys I’ve dated! Ewww.

Kara: We arrived at Waterloo station and for the first time on this trip got completely turned around. By this time I was “pua” (a reference to our Hawaiian vacations – look it up in any Hawaiian – English dictionary). However, we turned around a few more times before I finally convinced Gayle to let me hail a cab and get us home. We were literally one roundabout and a street from home but we were so completely turned around I’m not sure how long it would have taken us to get there. We grabbed a sandwich at Subway and came back to the room to relax and head off to bed.

Gayle: I’m still ticked that I got turned around and couldn’t get us home. Waterloo station and the surrounding streets make no sense whatsoever.

Well, we’ve got an early train to catch tomorrow morning and with any luck we’ll have a double installment tomorrow night in order to get caught up with this blog. Hope you laughed at least once; we sure have!