Day 2—Sept 16th London (Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square)

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Day 2—Sept 16th London (Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square)

Up at 7 am (after Geoffrey texted me at 4am and I spent 10 minutes answering him). The Mayflower Hotel backs directly onto the Earls Court Station and our 2 rooms look directly on to it. The rumbling of the station was sufficiently masked by the squeaky, whooshing noise of the fan which was running full bore and couldn’t be turned off.

Breakfast was adequate and the kids loaded up their tummy’s.

Got to Tube station just after 9.30 and off to Green Park Tube. Walked down Queens Walk to Cleveland Row and then past St James Palace. Continued up Pall Mall (Monopoly comments by kids), then left and over to St James Square. At this point we discovered that it is closed to the public on Sundays, but a very nice person let us in. Local residents may apply for a key, and they can then use the Park as a “private” garden on weekends. The “local” was from Sydney, and she has live nearby for the last couple of years. She couldn’t turn another Aussie away so gave us a brief tour !

We then walked over to the Mall. This is closed to traffic on a Sunday, so some great photos ensued. Headed West to Buckingham Palace, arriving at 10.15 for the 10.45 am changing of the guard. Got a good view from on top of the Queen Victoria monument. The “show” was okay, but the crowds were packed and most of it takes place inside the grounds and are difficult to appreciate from that far away. Christopher used the new video camera to record every second and we now think he is going to be a documentary maker.

We then walked around St James Park, which includes Black Swans which were a gift from the “Swan River Colony”. We had lunch of 5 Hot Dogs, 3 waters and 4 Ice-creams(33 pounds). We then headed south to Westminster which we discovered is closed on Sundays. Then down Abingdon Street, past Westminster and then a brief look at the Thames. Walked back around Westminster and on to Westminster Bridge and had a 180 degree look around Big Ben.

We then headed up Parliament Street, past Downing street, and past a demonstration about deaths in Darfur, which we then got to also see on the BBC that night ! We stopped for a refresher at McDonalds. Teas, Coffee, Sprites and a few Muffins.

Next stop was Trafalgar Square. We must have arrived at about 2pm and spent at least an hour and a half looking at the various statues and fountains. The Nelson Monument and Lions proved very popular. Kids of all sizes climbed all over them, and eventually so did we ! Actually, I just looked at the 41 photos I took in Trafalgar Square. We arrived at 2.26 and left at 4.09, very relaxing watching the crowds race by.

From there, we headed north up to Pall Mall. Made friends with the local Skinheads, who all thought I should buy them a beer and let me take a photo of them. (Tanya panicked, as only Tanya can.) Instead, I declined their offer, and instead photographed the Eros statue, and then got the hell out of there.

Tubed back to the Hotel and showered and changed before going a hundred metres down the road to Zizzi’s restaurant. Nice Italian. We split a “garlic-bread” pizza, 4 cokes, 1 beer, 1 cidar, 2 Lasagnes, 1 Spag Bog and 1 Pizza, between us all(47 pound). Thomas was asleep at the table before it arrived. The Ping of his Game Boy woke him though. He then decided he wanted to share mum and dads pizza, instead of his spag. I ended up getting a bit of everybody’s dinner.

Home by 8.45pm and all asleep (except for me, I had to charge all the batteries so we were sorted for the next day) by 9pm.

PS. Yes, I do know that Chris Judd has announced he is leaving the Eagles. Thanks to all that kept me up to speed !

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Photos

Nelson's Monument
Can't get any more "Londony" than adding a Red Double Decker Bus as well !!

Trafalgar Sq
Aimee was drinking before this one ?