July 22, 2017

A Royal Day

11 miles of walking- countless miles on "The Tube" and the hop on hop off bus and we return to the hotel headquarters exhausted. What a day!

Once a year for 10 weeks Buckingham Palace opens its doors to the State Apartments. Not knowing this was day 1 of this years event I notice on the wall of the subway platform that this part of Buckingham Palace is open. We decide to go there first thing and see if we can get tickets. Setting out in a drizzle we take the subway and walk to the gate- and wait an hour until it opens. Good thing we did because we end up with some of the last tickets left- and have to arrange our day around it so we can return at 3:15.

We jump on the first HOHO bus outside the palace and learn the changing of the guard is at 11 (1.5 hours away) and set off to see the blue line of the bus. Westminster, Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul Cathedral, London Bridge, London Eye and more. Next we return to the Queens Mew- stables. We see horses and carriages that have witnessed royal events since the 1800s. My favorite is the Golden Carriage- it takes 8 amazing horses to pull and is used for coronations- which some day we hope to see two. A great time- but we needed something to drink. We head to a coffee shop.

Lilly loves what I refer to as "junk shops", what she refers to as second hand stores, and what the English refer to as charity stores. She asks a lady in the coffee shop where to go and was given two places- Norburg and Streatham . We can't find them on the subway map and learn they are a 20 minute train ride away- so off to Victoria station to catch the train. We find the "charity shop" in Nordo and it was tiny and un-exciting. We decide to stop off in the other town which is one train stop away. Unable to find anything we go into a pub for lunch. Little did we know there is a "Rave" down the street- some kind of music festival and all the young people were dressed uniquely and drinking prior to the big event, despite the rain. Lilly get photos of these two girls who had glued gems to their face- it was unique foresure and slowly as we ate the town got more and more full. Giving up we set back so we can make the palace tour.

Upon return to Victoria station we have difficulty getting out of the station- next time we go to use our famous 1 day pass on the Oyster care we discover we were screwed yesterday by the little shop- we were not given 1-1day passes but rather 10-GDP in credit- we are lucky we went as far as we did. So we shell out another 13GDP for the day.

The palace tour was extensive but covered only a small portion. We walk away grateful that the White House is a more moderate facility- this thing was gaudy at best. Gold, crystal, huge ceilings, thrones. ballrooms, green rooms, white rooms, blue rooms, filled with old art and gifts received by the royal family for hundreds of years. Most moving for us was a tribute to Diana which was simple and showed her more modest ways with a few things chosen by her sons in memory of the 20

th anniversary of her death. A simple writing desk, a few personal items and beautiful photos. The tour ended in the garden which was also huge- taking 10 minutes to walk out of!

Still in search of junk shops we spend the next hour headed by subway to famous Beattle's Abbey Road. Walking to underground, transferring and going to Abbey Road. Once we finally get there we climb the steps following the "Way Out" signs. At the top of the stairs we are greeting with a sign telling us this is the WRONG Abbey Road! The right one is ironically one subway stop from our hotel!!! Back on the subway and off toward our home. Who would have guessed the stop is "St Johns Woods" not Abbey Road! A five minute walk and we see the famous zebra light posts, the beautiful white Abbey Road Studio. No signs at all but people know it- all there waiting for cars to stop so as to do the famous Beattle's pose in the middle of the street. Why the tours don't go there is insane! We find the shop and Lilly debates what precious items she can get home to the kids.

Back to the Marriott lounge for free food and to rest up for tomorrow.