London Sights with Colin

Dear All,
Well, I am lucky I have any feet left. Yesterday, Colin and I met at Morden Station at 8.30 am and headed to Central London for the day. We took a map from a 'Big Bus' which takes tours around and murmured something about joining it later (£22.20 each) but decided to bust that up later on lunch, then we set off for a long day 'on the hoof'. Buckingham Palace was nearby and that meant photos and more photos, but we were disappointed that the guards were Irish reserves (or something) in berets and green uniforms - no red jackets and busbies! The changing of the guard was at 11.30 am and by 11 am you couldn't get near the Palace fence, so we gave that a miss. However, we did see some mounted horsemen come through, and a couple of Royal cars arrive.

1) Colin and myself with that well-known background! 2) Can you see the mounted horses arriving for the changing of the guard? 3) A sight you wouldn't have seen pre-terrorism days: armed police at the Palace Gate (see the big rifle the one on the left has!)

We headed off across Green Park (no flowers?) and along Picadilly Street (?) to Hyde Park and Kensington Park, whcih we traversed with much pleasure (flowers, lakes, green grass, green trees, comfort station!). There we viewed the 'Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain'. At first we were disappointed it was so low key, but it grew on us. A notice explained that it rose quietly at the top with pure London water (recycled?) and flowed in two streams to meet in a calm pool at the bottom. We noticed some turbulent stretches on the way!
1) That is the memorial - that low circle. 2) A little child enjoying the water near the bottom of the memorial. 3) This notice explains it all. You can enlarge it by clicking on it.
We went to Kensington Palace and looked across 'Round Lake' (a very imaginative name!). Since our feet were weary, we sank onto one of the deck chairs you can see in the distance, beside the Palace! Immediately, a chap came up for the fee! We rose and continued on our way, murmuring something about being 'ignorant Australians'! We did not go inside, but looked at the formal garden and a couple of very 'civilised' squirrels who had obviously not heard that it was bad for wild creatures to eat human food!

1) You will have to enlarge this to see the palace or the chairs! 2) The formal Garden 3) the squirrel - and a stranger's leg!

Lunch at a nice little Indian Restaurant followed, then back along the road a LONG way. As we grew wearier, we looked carefully at some bus stop information and discovered a No. 52 bus went towards Victoria Station (where we wanted to go) so we caught the next 52. Alas, it went 3 stops then halted and the driver announced 'This bus stops here and goes no furtherl. All off please!' We struggled off - and onwards, ever onwards! Eventually we ended up in Oxford Street and every man and woman and child in London was on the footpath - mostly going the opposite way to us. We went up a side street and Colin bought a little map of London (we had travelled a most circuitous route, we discovered) and then we saw the Oxford Circus Underground, so we descended (into Heaven, in this case) and caught a train to 'Embankment' from where we could view the London Eye and go to the Houses of Parliament.

1) We saw some expensive dwellings - longs streets of them - on our walk. A nearby Estate Agent has similar dwellings advertised for £2/3/5 million a-piece. 2) Where possible we took the park paths. Lovely! 3) We passed the Albert Hall. 1) The London Eye - like a huge Ferris wheel with enclosed Gondolas. It turns VERY slowly and you get wonderful views, but it is very popular and we didn't have time to queue for tickets and then seats! 2) Statue of Lord Bartle Frere - after which, no doubt, Queensland's highest mountain is named. 3) My photo of the Houses of Parliament was not good, so you are seeing Big Ben (nearby) instead!
Colin and I didn't leave London City till about 20 to 8 pm (still sunny) having checked out Westminster Abbey and Westminister Cathedral (for Mass times for Sunday). Apart from lunch, we walked almost all day! Then more off the train to get home. As the stories go, 'Footsore and weary but happy they returned home ......' 1) Don't enlarge this one - you might see more of the scrawny neck! Can you imagine why we were sitting in the foyer of a hotel for a cup of coffee - not our main motivation for entering the hallowed precints! 2) A very nice photo of Colin. 3) Outside Westminster Cathedral after Mass today. Today we met for Mass at Westminster Cathedral. Afterwards we went to see the Tower Bridge and London Tower before heading off the the Convent in Monkleigh Street for a lovely lunch. I'll bore you with some of the photos.
1) The only Beef-eater I saw was camera-shy, but you can see his uniform. 2) This is the infamous Tower from a camera-friendly angle; 3) This is the nearest we came to the inside of the Tower - we simply didn't have the time to go in, and Colin had been in before at a cost of £16, so it would not be justified to rush through! 1) A rather nice view of a glass construction they call 'The Gherkin' - there were nice gardens in the foreground - if you can enlarge the picture. The road on to the Tower Bridge is in the background. 2) I am sitting on the edge of a rather extraordinary fountain, with the Tower Bridge in the background. 3) Colin in in fron of what would be a good view of the London Tower (and of Colin) if the light had not been all wrong for the photo.
Enough! Time is running out and I must organise myself to go early on the plane to Lourdes in the morning. I don't imagine I will have access to a computer there, so you may have silence until next weekend. I am looking forward to Lourdes and will be travelling with a plane load of pilgrims, so no doubt I will get to know some and will be able to join in many activities. Love to all for this week. Rita