A jolly good time

John and I just rounded out our "year of travel" with a week-long trip to London.  We had a wonderful time--so of course I have a lengthy, photo-heavy post to share...

We left Orlando on a Sunday evening and arrived in London at 8:45 the following morning (yay for non-stop flights).  There, we embarked on our biggest splurge of the trip--a driver to take us from London to Bath with stops at Stonehenge, Lacock, and Castle Combe along the way.  I thought it would be difficult to squeeze all that in while taking public transportation, so I used a Rick Steves' recommendation and contacted Celtic Horizons tours.  It was well worth it, especially since we were bleary-eyed from the flight and time change.

First stop, Stonehenge:

It was very large and very awe-inspiring...and surprisingly located next to a busy road.  I think it would be odd driving by it every day on the way to work, but apparently a lot of people do!

After that, we headed to the village of Lacock.  The entire village consists of a square of buildings dating  from the 18th century or earlier, and was used as a filming location for Pride and Prejudice (the BBC/Colin Firth version) and some of the Harry Potter movies (filmed inside the abbey).  The village is well-preserved and just gorgeous.

Short doors!

Beautiful greenery.

We walked over to Lacock Abbey and toured the grounds and cloisters, which date from the 1200's.  We had been watching The Tudors on Netflix in preparation for the trip, and had just finished some of the episodes where Henry VIII authorizes the dissolution of the monasteries--at that time the abbey was sold to a private owner and essentially demolished, but some of the flooring and walls are original.  The rest was built in the 16th and 17th centuries.  (Disclaimer on The Tudors, lest anyone take this as a recommendation--it's a fun way to brush up on England in the 16th century, but be forewarned there's a lot of s-e-x and gory executions.  Just saying.)

We spotted sheep all over the countryside between London and Bath; here are a few in the fields surrounding the abbey:

After departing Lacock, we headed for Castle Combe.  It is one of the southernmost Cotswold villages and consists of a long picture-perfect street:

Finally, we departed Castle Combe and headed for our final destination--Bath.  I'm a big Jane Austen fan, plus I thought John would enjoy seeing another well-preserved British town, so I added it to the itinerary.  We booked a night at The Ayrlington (another Rick Steves' recommendation), and this was the fantastic view from our accommodations in the Bamboo Room:

Our room was quaintly beautiful (and by quaint, I mean it had a toilet that had to be primed a few times before it flushed and shower controls that took me 10 minutes to figure out.  But isn't odd plumbing part of the fun of international travel?  Well, that and the excitement of possible electrocution every time you try to plug in your hot rollers.)

After dropping off our luggage, we headed out for a walking tour of the town.  After dragging around luggage all day, we decided to leave everything in our room--including the camera.  We walked to the Circus and the Royal Crescent--they are beautiful, and if you want to see what they looked like, best click on the links since I have no photographs!  We stopped in Milsom Place and had a fantastic dinner at Jamie's Italian.  And then we went to sleep at about 8:30 pm because we were exhausted!

Tuesday morning, we headed back over to the village center, stopping to admire the Pulteney Bridge:

Then we went toured the Roman Baths:

Back in the day (meaning around 60 A.D.!!), the Romans built a temple around the baths.  The original baths and flooring are below street level, and don't look particularly enticing now due to the algae (the exhibit pointed out the during Roman times the baths were enclosed so the algae was not an issue).  Also, the pool is lined with sheets of lead and has been found to contain Naegleria--two more reasons not to take the plunge.  There is a commercial spa in town where you can "take the waters" (we didn't during our short trip).

John and I really enjoyed the tour--it's amazing to think that people were walking on those same stones almost 2000 years ago!

We stopped in the Pump Room for a drink of the bath water (algae- and lead-free) from the fountain:

The water is hot and full of minerals--you can try it as is (free with admission) or pay a little extra to have it poured over ice and mixed with strawberry lemonade.  We tested it both ways; John thought it was pretty awful hot: 

I thought it tasted like hot tap water from Blountstown--not great, but not horrible.  On the positive side, it did cure my jet-lag headache!

After that, we headed for the Jane Austen Centre.  The museum is in a Georgian building just down the street from one of the apartments Jane Austen inhabited while she lived in Bath.  I enjoyed all the memorabilia and the 20 minute talk about her life, and the gift shop was fantastic (with a bin of pick-your-romantic-hero pins: "I love Darcy", "I love Knightley", etc.  No "I love Colonel Brandon" ones, though!).  John was in a permanent state of eye-roll during most of the tour.  In preparation, I made him sit through the BBC version of Persuasion before we left home.  He tolerated it up until the point where Captain Wentworth finds out that Louisa Musgrove thinks he plans to marry her, and says that he is bound to her since she is of that opinion--that elicited a "you have GOT to be kidding me" from John, and I think his opinion of Jane Austen has been at a low point since.

Speaking of that, one of my favorite things was a framed letter from Emma Thompson.  She sent some photos and scripts from Sense and Sensibility, along with her handwritten Golden Globe acceptance speech.  In the letter (addressed to the owner of the museum), she said she had once gotten into a discussion about Jane Austen with a coworker who voiced the opinion that Jane Austen was "full of silly ideas" and "devoid of sense" (John's opinion exactly, just better articulated).  Emma Thompson said her first impulse was to punch the woman, but then she reflected that Jane herself would have probably agreed with the woman and then invited her to tea.  I love that.

Next, we toured Bath Abbey:

I didn't take many photographs of this, but there was a beautiful exhibit of paintings and framed embroidery along the sides of the nave.  An artist had taken passages from the gospels, handpainted the verse, and then created an embroidered representation of the passage.  It was really stunning--I haven't been able to find many pictures online of it, though.

We skipped lunch in anticipation of afternoon tea at the Pump Room. Pinkies up!

We collected our luggage from our hotel and then walked (in the rain) to the train station.  John was in favor of getting a cab, but I overheard the girl at the front desk telling another American couple, "I always walk everywhere in Bath, and can't be bothered by the rain."  I guessed we wouldn't get much sympathy (or help in finding a cab), so we ran for it.

We got soaked, but had a 90-minute train ride to London in which to dry out.  We arrived at Paddington Station and took a cab to our hotel--the Sheraton Park Lane on Piccadilly.  This was not anyone's recommendation, but we could stay there for free on points, so that's how we wound up there.  It actually has some lousy reviews on tripadvisor, but I thought it was fine--functional and in a great location.

We had a mediocre meal in the Shepherd's Market (lots of restaurants there, I think we just chose poorly), and went to sleep early.

Wednesday morning, we went for a short jog around Green Park and St. James Park, running right by St. James Palace (we did not see Charles or Camilla, unfortunately), and right in front of Buckingham Palace.  We then showered and changed and headed back to the palace for a very important appointment:

The State Rooms are open for tour in August and September (while the Queen is out of town), so I reserved a spot for us.

The famous balcony:

Photography was forbidden inside--which is sad because it was GORGEOUS.  They definitely have a leg up on the White House.  Although I'm pretty sure the American public would balk at spending nearly a million dollars on a staircase balustrade.

We also got to see two special exhibits--the Royal Family's Faberge collection (lovely)...and THE wedding dress (Kate's), along with her tiara, shoes, earrings, and the wedding cake.  I loved every detail.

Exiting the castle:

After exiting, we walked around the Queen's gardens for a bit:

Then we toured the National Portrait Gallery, picked up some sight-seeing passes, and had lunch at a Wagamama noodle bar.  Then we stopped for picture in Trafalgar Square:

And headed down Whitehall, past 10 Downing Street, Parliament, and Big Ben:

Our final destination was Westminster Abbey.  It was lovely, but no photographs allowed, so I have none to show.  Plus my feet were really hurting at that point, which I think made me forget to take any exterior photos.

We went back to the hotel, changed into more comfy shoes, and then headed to Harrod's for some shopping and dinner.  We enjoyed looking at all the food in the food halls and had dinner in the upstairs Prosecco Bar.

Thursday morning, we headed south of the Thames for a tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.  It's not the original (that one burned to the ground), but it's a faithful replica of the original.  If you plan further ahead than we did (or if you don't mind standing in the yard as a groundling), you can book tickets for a play in the Globe.

We left the Globe and walked a few streets over to the Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret.  This museum is housed in an attic above St. Thomas' Church (which used to be St. Thomas' Hospital).  The operating theatre (which allowed students to observe surgeries) was in use in the early 1800's.

Not for the faint of heart (or stomach!):

The creepy factor was enhanced by the narrow winding staircase you had to climb to get to the attic space:

I didn't take pictures of the actual theatre because it was crowded with a gray-haired tour group (John was amazed they all made it up the stairs) and I didn't want to disrupt.  A woman stood in the middle of the theatre by the operating table and went into detail about the surgeries that would have been performed there--mostly amputations.  She set up the talk with this scenario: "Imagine it is the early 1800's and you have an accident: a wagon wheel rolls over your arm and breaks it."  I will spare you the details, but basically if you lived in the 1800's, you would have wanted to avoid medical care as much as possible.

I'd pretty much lost my appetite after that museum, but we stopped by the Borough Market anyway since we were in the neighborhood.

We settled on a box of organic salads for lunch, and then headed across the Millenium Bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral.

St. Paul's was beautiful, and we did the full climb to the top of the dome, with stops in the Whispering Gallery, the Stone Gallery:

And finally, the Golden Gallery, 528 steps from the cathedral floor:

Can you spot the Globe Theatre on the south bank?

The London Eye:

After St. Paul's, we took the tube back to Westminster and toured the Churchill War Rooms.  My family had highly recommended this, and John and I really enjoyed the museum.  The British government used the underground complex of rooms as their command center during WWII, and the rooms were essentially left as they were at the end of the war--so it's a very realistic portrayal of what things were like during that stressful time.  John especially liked one woman's description of working for Winston Churchill--apparently he was a demanding boss!

For dinner, we decided to pursue some fish and chips, so walked over to The Audley pub.  My family has eaten there, and so has Michelle Obama, so we decided those were good recommendations--and the food was delicious.  Then we caught a cab to get us to the Tower of London at precisely 9:30 pm for the  Ceremony of the Keys.

The Ceremony of the Keys occurs nightly (every night for the past 700 years!) when the Yeoman Warders and the Queen's Guard lock up the tower for the night.  I mistakenly thought they were locking up an empty tower--apparently about 120 people live in the tower, so they were essentially locking the rest of us out.  This experience is free, but you have to write for tickets about 6-8 weeks before travel, and I highly recommend doing so.  The coolest part of the experience is being in the Tower at night with a small group of people; there's something a little spine-tingling about standing next to Traitor's Gate in the dark, with silence broken only by the marching of the Guard.

I didn't bring the camera for that excursion, so our only photos are from my camera--here I am, sneaking back out after the ceremony:

The next morning, we headed back to the Tower of London for a regular tour.  We spent about 3 hours there, and could easily have spent the entire day--I think this was John's favorite part of the trip.

Our "Beefeater" guide:

The White Tower:

Traitor's Gate (not the way you would want to enter the castle):

The Bloody Tower:

We walked under that archway the previous evening, and the Yeoman Warder made sure to point out that the rope holding that iron gate up was just as ancient as the gate itself.  So we all stepped really quickly through that doorway!

After the Tower of London, we headed to the British Museum for a very, very quick tour.  We enjoyed the Egyptian mummies room particularly, along with this guy:

Rameses II, possibly Moses' stubborn pharaoh.  Goosebumps.

We did a little bit of Regent Street shopping on the way back to our hotel.  I had put Liberty of London on my "must-see" list the minute we started planning the trip, so John parked himself in the cafe with a pot of tea and plate of scones while I shopped.

I actually didn't buy any fabric--I didn't go with a specific project in mind, so I got a little overwhelmed among all the beautiful bolts.  Plus the exchange rate made it more expensive to buy there than at fabric.com, sadly.  I did pick up some bias-binding in fun print, though, and a cute needle-case.  I also drooled over all the home furnishings and their wallpapers--so gorgeous.

After that, we hurried back to the hotel to dress up a little, and then went to the Theatre Royal Haymarket to watch The Tempest.  I felt strongly we should see a Shakespeare play while in London, but the Globe was all booked up and Stratford-upon-Avon was too far to travel on this trip.  So when I found out the The Tempest was playing in town, and, even better, was starring Ralph Fiennes as Propero--well, I jumped at that.  It was wonderful!  This was my first time seeing a familiar actor on stage, however, and I think it might have detracted a little--as in, when I've typically seen a play, I just see the actor as the character they are playing, but for the first 30 minutes of The Tempest, my brain just kept saying, "Wow, that's Ralph Fiennes!" :-)

After the play, we had a very late dinner at Noura, a Lebanese restaurant on Regent Street.  We took the waiter's recommendations on ordering different small plates and had a really delicious meal.

On Saturday, we had originally planned to take the train to Hampton Court Palace, but we were starting to get a little trip fatigue and decided to have a lazy day instead.  We went for a morning run around Hyde Park with stops to see the Peter Pan statue and Kensington Palace (the exterior).  Then we went to Portobello Road to check out the famous Saturday market, along with about 75% of London.  Okay, not really, but it was elbow to elbow along the street market and I can understand why pickpockets might do well there.

We had so much fun looking at all the things for sale:

Anna would have loved that dollhouse above.

This is a photo inside All Saints Spitalfields, a clothing store chain.  I didn't love their clothing, but I was deeply coveting their collection of antique sewing machines.  They have hundreds of them at each store--none for sale, unfortunately, just decoration. 

We checked out some china, old leather rugby and cricket balls, maps from the 1800's, and collections of cigarette cards. We passed on all of that, although I did pick up a cute Snow White movie poster for Anna's room and a bag for myself.

We made a last lap around the food section, where John bargained for some grapes:

And I practiced restraint while passing the doughnuts:

My loot (cute bag purchase inspired by Laurie and Missy!):

All that shopping stoked our appetites, so we headed to the Churchill Arms for lunch.  Are those flowers amazing or what?

This pub is famous for its Thai food, so that is what we had--and it was yummy.  And spicy!

We spent the afternoon doing souvenir-shopping at Fortnum & Mason, and then made the misguided decision to try to take a London Eye ride.  For future reference, Saturday night is not a good night to ride the London Eye without a reservation.  So we just took some pictures:

We walked along the south bank of the Thames for a mile or so.  All along the walk, just west of the London Eye, several food stalls lined the sidewalk.  I'm not sure if they are regularly there or just on Saturdays--a wide variety of ethnic foods, from paella in big pans to churros (very different from any churro I've seen) to organic dairies selling their own ice cream.  We tried a few arancini with chutney--odd combination, but good.

Our destination bankside was the Tate Modern, which is open until 10 pm on Saturday night.  The building is as amazing as the art inside--the gallery was built inside an old power plant, so the interior is immense.  We spent a little while looking at their collection of Rothko paintings, along with some by Picasso and Jackson Pollack.  I admit, I've always thought Jackson Pollack's paintings look a lot like something any of us could do with enough space and paint and energy, but the audioguide discussing this aspect of his paintings made me agree he was a genius after all.

We finished the day with a late dinner at Belgo in Covent Garden, at Laurie's recommendation.  Mussels and Belgian beer served in a basement by waiters dressed as monks has to be fun, right? :-)

Sunday morning, we took the train to Windsor (about 30 minutes from London):

Windsor village is adorable--lots of shops and picturesque streets, with the castle looming large over the town.  A beautiful castle:

I really enjoyed Queen Mary's Dollhouse--if you are charmed by miniatures, click here to see pictures of it.  I also loved the state rooms and the photo exhibit celebrating Prince Phillip's 90th birthday (some really cute family photographs in that exhibit), but my very favorite thing was the exhibit of France and Marianne, two dolls giving to Princesses Elizabeth (now Queen) and Margaret.  The dolls themselves (and their car) were on loan back to France, but their clothes were available for viewing and, wow, the garments were breathtaking--all designed by famous Parisian designers of the 1930's.  I haven't been able to find many good pictures online, but here is the description of the exhibit and here is a site with some pictures.  That tiered ruffle dress is just stunning in real life.  And yep, poor John was not particularly enthralled by any of these exhibits, but there were plenty of famous paintings and ancient armory to keep him interested elsewhere in the castle.

One disappointment of our trip was finding out that St. George's Chapel was closed to tourists since we visited on a Sunday--the chapel houses the tombs of some famous royals, including Henry VIII.  It was open if you wished to join worship, which we certainly would have done (with a surreptitious glance around the sanctuary after the service!), but we missed the morning service and were way too early for the evening service.  So we'll have to see that on the next trip!

Mailing some postcards:

More photos of the castle:

We had lunch at Latino Taverna in the village, then stopped at a shop in the village for a Cadbury Creme Egg milkshake for dessert.

We then enjoyed a post-prandial nap on the train back to London.  We went back to the London Eye, after smartly making online reservations but not-so-smartly leaving our camera at the hotel.  The views were spectacular--we went at sunset, which made for a beautiful view of the skyline.  A blurry camera-phone shot:

  For dinner, we took the tube to Covent Garden, then wandered around for quite awhile, got lost, ended up in Leicester Square, and randomly chose a restaurant which turned out to be really awesome.  If you find yourself in Leicester Square environs and want an authentic Italian meal, go to Sartori.  I wish I'd taken a picture of John's pizza--apparently they bake the dough in a wood-fired oven, then cut a slit in the dough, insert the ingredients, and fire it again.  It's very different than a typical stuffed pizza though--very thin crust.

Monday morning--we woke up and went to the Wolseley for an early and elegant breakfast, then headed for the airport and (eventually) home.

So we had a fantastic time, and are very mindful that the above pictures and good times were brought to us (and you) courtesy of Nana's Exceptional Nanny Services.  We missed Will and Anna bunches, but apparently they had plenty of fun without us:

Thanks, Nana!!

And if you are not completely bored, there are even more photos on our Shutterfly page. :-)