biggerboat's building boondoggle blog
07-12-2018
, 08:47 AM
07-12-2018
, 10:19 AM
07-12-2018
, 10:28 AM
07-12-2018
, 10:42 AM
07-25-2018
, 11:25 AM
07-25-2018
, 11:56 AM
Day 1/2.
We had a British Airways direct flight. We flew business class, which is really first class. Before I get too far into this, this trip was paid for ahead of time and it was first class all the way. 5 star hotel, Wimbledon tickets in the center of the stadium, business/first class airline tickets. Crazy stuff.
Anyway we got these seats that face each other that will flatten out into a "bed". Although this was nice and it was an overnight flight, I didn't get a lot of sleep. But it was magnitudes better than having to sit up all night.
The flight went really well and when we got our bags, we were greeted by our driver. Yeah, a guy holding a sign up with our names on it. LOL.
We landed at Gatwick which turned out to be quite a bit farther from London than Heathrow. We were immediately greeted by the Queen. They love their queen. More on this later
Our driver started talking when we met, and did not stop the entire drive. We made the mistake of telling him we were from Florida, after which he chronicled the two times he had visited Florida in excruciating detail, down to each meal he had at each restaurant he had eaten. The drive ended up being about 2 hours and I don't think he stopped to breathe the entire time.
The first thing that really stood out to me was the London traffic. i'm going to make an entire traffic post later, but it is some crazy stuff.
Somehow Trump decided to visit England the same day as us. Great timing. Fortunately they persuaded him not to go to London but the ripple effect got us anyway (more in a minute).
They HATE Trump there. I mean HATE HATE HATE him. Everyone.
We got into London and our driver informed us that they were about to close down the entire area for protests, Fortunately we got there before the roads closed. There was a huge police presence and the traffic was horrid, although it was always horrid so it might not have been completely trump related.
The first thing of note we saw was the Trump balloon. Ha!
Then we went my Trafalger square. Almost every driver and guide we had mentioned this and talked about Nelson (his statue sits on top of a pole there). I didn't get a good picture of that, but here's a statue of a lion.
Apparently the story goes that when Admiral Nelson died they didn't have anything to embalm him in so they used brandy. Then, in tribute, the sailors would drink the brandy from his body. Don't know how true any of that is.
We got to the hotel and we were exhausted. All we wanted to do was take a nap. We were meeting my sister and neice later in the afternoon and we really needed to get some sleep. Only the hotel didn't have our room ready. Somehow we convinced them to give us a temporary room to sleep in.
We woke up in time to meet sister and niece, who had purchased tickets to Madame Toussad's. It looks really cheesy from the outside, and well, the inside as well. But it was quite fun.
The wax figures are just out everywhere. You can walk right up to them and touch them. I was struck by this for a lot of other places we went as well. Here in the US those would be behind plexiglass with guards telling you not to touch. But you were almost encouraged to touch here.
As stated, they hate Trump.
Although we took a taxi to the place, we decided to try to walk home. London is confusing. The streets go in all different directions and angles. So we constantly had to hold up our map to attempt to figure out where we were at any point in time.
On the way, there was a plaza with a large TV screen showing the men's semifinals with Anderson and I can't remember. It was the fifth set and they were battling to go to the finals. We watched for about 20 minutes of tiebreaking then decided to move on. The whole point of the trip was for my niece to see Wimbledon up close an personal, so she really wanted to watch. But we made the decision to go.
We, of course, had to go to a pub. We found one near the hotel and they had the TV on the match. It was still going. Those guys had been playing for what seemed like forever. Finally Anderson won but neither seemed anything but relieved it was over. This is sort of relevant for later.
We had our first fish and chips. They were delightful. I also wanted a local beer. I had come fully prepared to drink a warm beer, but it was cold. This seemed to be the case more often than not which surprised me.
After a few beers/wines and fish and chips we headed for the hotel.
OMG. It was a suite. I can't describe how over the top it was. Half as big as my house. And, it came with a butler. HA! I've never had a butler. It was absolutely perfect...........................except for the toilets.
We had a British Airways direct flight. We flew business class, which is really first class. Before I get too far into this, this trip was paid for ahead of time and it was first class all the way. 5 star hotel, Wimbledon tickets in the center of the stadium, business/first class airline tickets. Crazy stuff.
Anyway we got these seats that face each other that will flatten out into a "bed". Although this was nice and it was an overnight flight, I didn't get a lot of sleep. But it was magnitudes better than having to sit up all night.
The flight went really well and when we got our bags, we were greeted by our driver. Yeah, a guy holding a sign up with our names on it. LOL.
We landed at Gatwick which turned out to be quite a bit farther from London than Heathrow. We were immediately greeted by the Queen. They love their queen. More on this later
Our driver started talking when we met, and did not stop the entire drive. We made the mistake of telling him we were from Florida, after which he chronicled the two times he had visited Florida in excruciating detail, down to each meal he had at each restaurant he had eaten. The drive ended up being about 2 hours and I don't think he stopped to breathe the entire time.
The first thing that really stood out to me was the London traffic. i'm going to make an entire traffic post later, but it is some crazy stuff.
Somehow Trump decided to visit England the same day as us. Great timing. Fortunately they persuaded him not to go to London but the ripple effect got us anyway (more in a minute).
They HATE Trump there. I mean HATE HATE HATE him. Everyone.
We got into London and our driver informed us that they were about to close down the entire area for protests, Fortunately we got there before the roads closed. There was a huge police presence and the traffic was horrid, although it was always horrid so it might not have been completely trump related.
The first thing of note we saw was the Trump balloon. Ha!
Then we went my Trafalger square. Almost every driver and guide we had mentioned this and talked about Nelson (his statue sits on top of a pole there). I didn't get a good picture of that, but here's a statue of a lion.
Apparently the story goes that when Admiral Nelson died they didn't have anything to embalm him in so they used brandy. Then, in tribute, the sailors would drink the brandy from his body. Don't know how true any of that is.
We got to the hotel and we were exhausted. All we wanted to do was take a nap. We were meeting my sister and neice later in the afternoon and we really needed to get some sleep. Only the hotel didn't have our room ready. Somehow we convinced them to give us a temporary room to sleep in.
We woke up in time to meet sister and niece, who had purchased tickets to Madame Toussad's. It looks really cheesy from the outside, and well, the inside as well. But it was quite fun.
The wax figures are just out everywhere. You can walk right up to them and touch them. I was struck by this for a lot of other places we went as well. Here in the US those would be behind plexiglass with guards telling you not to touch. But you were almost encouraged to touch here.
As stated, they hate Trump.
Although we took a taxi to the place, we decided to try to walk home. London is confusing. The streets go in all different directions and angles. So we constantly had to hold up our map to attempt to figure out where we were at any point in time.
On the way, there was a plaza with a large TV screen showing the men's semifinals with Anderson and I can't remember. It was the fifth set and they were battling to go to the finals. We watched for about 20 minutes of tiebreaking then decided to move on. The whole point of the trip was for my niece to see Wimbledon up close an personal, so she really wanted to watch. But we made the decision to go.
We, of course, had to go to a pub. We found one near the hotel and they had the TV on the match. It was still going. Those guys had been playing for what seemed like forever. Finally Anderson won but neither seemed anything but relieved it was over. This is sort of relevant for later.
We had our first fish and chips. They were delightful. I also wanted a local beer. I had come fully prepared to drink a warm beer, but it was cold. This seemed to be the case more often than not which surprised me.
After a few beers/wines and fish and chips we headed for the hotel.
OMG. It was a suite. I can't describe how over the top it was. Half as big as my house. And, it came with a butler. HA! I've never had a butler. It was absolutely perfect...........................except for the toilets.
07-25-2018
, 02:05 PM
07-25-2018
, 02:08 PM
Great stuff! What was the butler's name? I hope it was really pretentious.
07-25-2018
, 02:32 PM
Wimbledon
We decided to take the tube (subway). The first thing I noticed was these signs. I'm sort of ashamed I had to ask what they were.
Exit signs.
We had to take the Picadilly line to some other line that I forgot the name of that would take us to Wimbledon.
We first had to go down these. Yikes! Tallest escalators I've ever seen. There were two of them. They also call this the underground and it had to be WAY underground.
There was a weird optical illusion. It felt like you were leaning (whichever way you were going) and that the people going the opposite direction were leaning the other way.
Everywhere we went (even the hotel elevators) there was a pleasant sounding lady telling us what was going on. It was amazing how lovely "doors closing" could sound.
We had to take this train. This was actually the way back but I had to take a picture of "Cockfosters".
All the way back the pleasant sounding lady said "this is the train to Cockfosters". It never failed to make me laugh. I'm simple this way.
The tube was quite crowded. I'm sure it gets more crowded than this, but it seemed pretty claustrophobic.
The subway, er, I mean, tube maps were very easy to read. Getting around via the tube seemed pretty easy. After the Picadilly line, we went back above ground and took this train. The cars on this were open so you could travel the length of the train from within. Unlike the underground cars where you were stuck in one car. It was cool looking through all the cars because they moved as the train curved around. Hard to describe unless you see it.
Once off the last train, there was a bit of a walk to the stadium, but not bad.
One thing to mention. It was pretty hot there. Unusually hot and dry weather from England, so most said. More on this later.
We decided to take the tube (subway). The first thing I noticed was these signs. I'm sort of ashamed I had to ask what they were.
Exit signs.
We had to take the Picadilly line to some other line that I forgot the name of that would take us to Wimbledon.
We first had to go down these. Yikes! Tallest escalators I've ever seen. There were two of them. They also call this the underground and it had to be WAY underground.
There was a weird optical illusion. It felt like you were leaning (whichever way you were going) and that the people going the opposite direction were leaning the other way.
Everywhere we went (even the hotel elevators) there was a pleasant sounding lady telling us what was going on. It was amazing how lovely "doors closing" could sound.
We had to take this train. This was actually the way back but I had to take a picture of "Cockfosters".
All the way back the pleasant sounding lady said "this is the train to Cockfosters". It never failed to make me laugh. I'm simple this way.
The tube was quite crowded. I'm sure it gets more crowded than this, but it seemed pretty claustrophobic.
The subway, er, I mean, tube maps were very easy to read. Getting around via the tube seemed pretty easy. After the Picadilly line, we went back above ground and took this train. The cars on this were open so you could travel the length of the train from within. Unlike the underground cars where you were stuck in one car. It was cool looking through all the cars because they moved as the train curved around. Hard to describe unless you see it.
Once off the last train, there was a bit of a walk to the stadium, but not bad.
One thing to mention. It was pretty hot there. Unusually hot and dry weather from England, so most said. More on this later.
07-25-2018
, 02:37 PM
It was actually a staff of butlers, which reminded me of something else I wanted to talk about.
London is extremely diverse. We met people from all over Europe. Many barely spoke english. Most of the hotel staff was foreign (as in not British). One of our butlers was from Spain. We saw a lot of men in turbans and women in hijabs.
07-25-2018
, 02:42 PM
07-25-2018
, 02:52 PM
Wimbledon part 2.
I want to mention that the British LOVE their sports. Everyone was talking about Wimbledon, but they seemed really fanatical about other sports as well. Race car driving, cricket, soccer mostly.
And speaking of race car driving, the first day at the hotel a short thin heavily tatooed guy got on the elevator with us. My niece almost fainted. I had no idea who it was, even after she told me. Apparently it was Lewis Hamilton. We mentioned this several times to Londoners and they were in awe.
He got in this car. I had never seen one before. It's some sort of Mercedes I think.
Back to Wimbledon.
Wimbledon is a complex of courts. Most of them you can just look on to. Center court and another one are big arenas. Center court has a retractable roof.
The area is beautiful. Flowers everywhere. Lots and lots of people. Shops here and there.
Apparently most of the people there didn't actually have tickets to the match. Many of them sat in this grassy area and watched on a big screen.
Our tickets included a table in a foo-foo restaurant within center court complex.
Our table was good for the day(s). We could come and go between the match(es) whenever we pleased.
It was here I was introduced to Pimms. It is sort of a sweet alcoholic tea drink. Phenomenal. I became addicted. I hope I can find it here.
The food was excellent. We had high tea at whenever you are supposed to have high tea. And, we were able to sit and have a drink after the matches which was nice.
Once we had lunch, we ventured to our seats. We had to get in a queue to get to the gangway. Just had to toss out some British words I learned.
I want to mention that the British LOVE their sports. Everyone was talking about Wimbledon, but they seemed really fanatical about other sports as well. Race car driving, cricket, soccer mostly.
And speaking of race car driving, the first day at the hotel a short thin heavily tatooed guy got on the elevator with us. My niece almost fainted. I had no idea who it was, even after she told me. Apparently it was Lewis Hamilton. We mentioned this several times to Londoners and they were in awe.
He got in this car. I had never seen one before. It's some sort of Mercedes I think.
Back to Wimbledon.
Wimbledon is a complex of courts. Most of them you can just look on to. Center court and another one are big arenas. Center court has a retractable roof.
The area is beautiful. Flowers everywhere. Lots and lots of people. Shops here and there.
Apparently most of the people there didn't actually have tickets to the match. Many of them sat in this grassy area and watched on a big screen.
Our tickets included a table in a foo-foo restaurant within center court complex.
Our table was good for the day(s). We could come and go between the match(es) whenever we pleased.
It was here I was introduced to Pimms. It is sort of a sweet alcoholic tea drink. Phenomenal. I became addicted. I hope I can find it here.
The food was excellent. We had high tea at whenever you are supposed to have high tea. And, we were able to sit and have a drink after the matches which was nice.
Once we had lunch, we ventured to our seats. We had to get in a queue to get to the gangway. Just had to toss out some British words I learned.
07-25-2018
, 03:25 PM
Wimbledon part 3
Wimbledon got a little wonky this year. The Anderson/someone match went very very long, so Djokovich and Nadal didn't finish their match. So, we were treated to a little extra.
The end of the Djokovich/Nadal match was probably the most exciting we saw.
I have to admit I don't care for tennis all that much. I never watch it on TV. But seeing it live was quite amazing. Those guys hit the ball so frickin' hard. It is mind boggling.
Nadal is really weird. He's got some crazy OCD stuff going. His water bottles have to go in just the right place. The ball boy has to hand him his towel just the right way. I know this because he yelled at one that didn't. Then he has this weird ritual where he touches his face in different places then grabs his pants out of his butt and some other stuff. He did the exact same ritual every single time before a serve.
But, he can sure hit that tennis ball. Eventually Djokovich won but it was very competitive.
The women's final started (late) about an hour later.
Apparently when the men's semi started the day before, it had been raining so they had the roof on. Also, apparently, the tradition at Wimbledon is that they must keep the roof on throughout the match if the match starts with the roof on. So, the roof was on for the end of this match. It was very comfortable.
However, it was announced that tennis at Wimbledon is an outdoor sport so they retracted the roof for the women's final (and the day after for the men's).
I mentioned that it was hot while we were there. It was ****ing hot in that stadium. Really really really hot.
Right before the women came out, the royal box began to fill. I think my wife almost had a heart attack when Kate and Meghan came out. I have to admit it was pretty cool. They were much closer than I thought they would be. I have a pretty crappy picture because I have a pretty crappy phone. We got better ones but I don't have them yet.
Kate is in a yellow dress. She is absolutely gorgeous. We were able to identify a few more celebs like Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, and we think Oprah. We heard later that Tiger was there but we didn't see him. The second day, Prince William was there with Kate and PM Theresa May.
Much like the was museum, I was taken aback at the seemingly lack of security there. Our bags were barely searched. We didn't see any sort of police around the royals. I'm sure there was, but it sure didn't seem like it.
On to the match(es)
As mentioned, the Djokovic/Nadal match was pretty exciting.
Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber were the women competing. I had never heard of Kerber. Serena just looked tired. Her body language was just not positive. It was pretty amazing that she made it this far so soon after having a baby. But, it proved too much. Kerber was relentless. It looked like to me that if Serena had been 100% she would have been the better player, but I don't want to take anything away from Kerber. She let it all out and eventually triumphed. It was an entertaining match.
The next day the men came out. I need to mention once again that it was unbearably hot. Those royals are some troopers though. Every single man in the royal box had a suit on. Not one took their jacket off the entire time.
Djokovic jumped all over Anderson right from the start. Anderson finally started to get a little competitive in the last set, but by then he just couldn't overcome the deficit. It looked like he was a little nervous, although he might have just been stiff and tired. He had two extremely long matches before this one (Federer was one). Even then, I think he was probably outclassed.
The men's winner gets this big trophy. They give the women a plate.
All of them gave little speeches and they were all extremely gracious.
One thing of note. Although there were line judges everywhere, they didn't have much effect on the game. Any challenge was electronically verified. You could see the exactly where the ball landed when they replayed it on the monitors. It wasn't really a camera shot, it was a simulated recreation. They had the entire court wired up. My first thought on this is that it would have ruined McEnroe's career. Who is he going to yell at?
Wimbledon got a little wonky this year. The Anderson/someone match went very very long, so Djokovich and Nadal didn't finish their match. So, we were treated to a little extra.
The end of the Djokovich/Nadal match was probably the most exciting we saw.
I have to admit I don't care for tennis all that much. I never watch it on TV. But seeing it live was quite amazing. Those guys hit the ball so frickin' hard. It is mind boggling.
Nadal is really weird. He's got some crazy OCD stuff going. His water bottles have to go in just the right place. The ball boy has to hand him his towel just the right way. I know this because he yelled at one that didn't. Then he has this weird ritual where he touches his face in different places then grabs his pants out of his butt and some other stuff. He did the exact same ritual every single time before a serve.
But, he can sure hit that tennis ball. Eventually Djokovich won but it was very competitive.
The women's final started (late) about an hour later.
Apparently when the men's semi started the day before, it had been raining so they had the roof on. Also, apparently, the tradition at Wimbledon is that they must keep the roof on throughout the match if the match starts with the roof on. So, the roof was on for the end of this match. It was very comfortable.
However, it was announced that tennis at Wimbledon is an outdoor sport so they retracted the roof for the women's final (and the day after for the men's).
I mentioned that it was hot while we were there. It was ****ing hot in that stadium. Really really really hot.
Right before the women came out, the royal box began to fill. I think my wife almost had a heart attack when Kate and Meghan came out. I have to admit it was pretty cool. They were much closer than I thought they would be. I have a pretty crappy picture because I have a pretty crappy phone. We got better ones but I don't have them yet.
Kate is in a yellow dress. She is absolutely gorgeous. We were able to identify a few more celebs like Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, and we think Oprah. We heard later that Tiger was there but we didn't see him. The second day, Prince William was there with Kate and PM Theresa May.
Much like the was museum, I was taken aback at the seemingly lack of security there. Our bags were barely searched. We didn't see any sort of police around the royals. I'm sure there was, but it sure didn't seem like it.
On to the match(es)
As mentioned, the Djokovic/Nadal match was pretty exciting.
Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber were the women competing. I had never heard of Kerber. Serena just looked tired. Her body language was just not positive. It was pretty amazing that she made it this far so soon after having a baby. But, it proved too much. Kerber was relentless. It looked like to me that if Serena had been 100% she would have been the better player, but I don't want to take anything away from Kerber. She let it all out and eventually triumphed. It was an entertaining match.
The next day the men came out. I need to mention once again that it was unbearably hot. Those royals are some troopers though. Every single man in the royal box had a suit on. Not one took their jacket off the entire time.
Djokovic jumped all over Anderson right from the start. Anderson finally started to get a little competitive in the last set, but by then he just couldn't overcome the deficit. It looked like he was a little nervous, although he might have just been stiff and tired. He had two extremely long matches before this one (Federer was one). Even then, I think he was probably outclassed.
The men's winner gets this big trophy. They give the women a plate.
All of them gave little speeches and they were all extremely gracious.
One thing of note. Although there were line judges everywhere, they didn't have much effect on the game. Any challenge was electronically verified. You could see the exactly where the ball landed when they replayed it on the monitors. It wasn't really a camera shot, it was a simulated recreation. They had the entire court wired up. My first thought on this is that it would have ruined McEnroe's career. Who is he going to yell at?
07-25-2018
, 03:27 PM
07-27-2018
, 11:36 AM
Sightseeing - Day 1
We hired a guide to take us around central London.
Much like the taxi drivers that gregorio mentioned, the guides there are heavily regulated. They have to take some pretty intense tests on all sorts of historical stuff. After being certified, they get a nice blue medal that they hang around their neck. Many of the sights had some sort of guide restrictions. Some required a guide, some areas prevented guides from stopping so as not to clog up the area.
Most of the places we went were really big and really crowded. As mentioned earlier, though, the English really know how to move people along. Although there were people everywhere, queues (like my British?) never got really jammed up.
Unfortunately I don't have a pic of our first guide handy, but he was a really nice young chap (more British). Definitely our best guide/driver of the trip. Talked when he needed too, didn't when he didn't.
We first walked around the central area a bit.
The guide pointed out a place where one Harry Potter scene was shot. Apprently, in the movie, Ron is against this wall looking around the corner.
We passed by a changing of the guards. Not THE changing of the guards. They have a lot of changing of the guards. These guards were on horses. Pretty cool.
We learned that the guards were actual military folks.
Then, it was on to Westminster Abbey.
Next to that, however, is Parliament and Big Ben. We were reminded several times that Big Ben refers to the clock, not the building. Unfortunately, both the clock and the building were covered with scaffolding. It seems that the tower is sinking and they must prop it up. They were also working on the entire Parliament building as well.
The guide told us some interesting stories about Parliament that I forgot already. Something about knocking on the door and being refused then walking back or something. Someone got beheaded. I dunno.
We went through a square with a lot of statues, the main one being Churchill. They love Churchill (more on this later). We were told many stories about him but this one goes that he didn't want a statue here because he didn't want birds to poop on him. They promised him they would make it bird proof, but I can assure you there was bird poop on him.
Next stop was Westminster Abbey. It is huge. And beautiful.
I don't have many pictures because they don't let you take pictures once you are inside the church part. I got this one before we entered the no pic zone.
It is hard to describe how incredible this was. It is enormous and full of dead people. They are buried everywhere. Some are in above ground stone coffins, some under the floor. They aren't burying bodies there anymore but they continue to put urns of ashes there. Stephen Hawking is the latest.
There are random kings and queens and other royalty in different places. There are also areas for people that excelled at certain things. For example, Hawking is with the great scientists, including Newton. There is an area for writers, a Shakespeare area, and one for military greats.
They have a room with a bunch of plaques and swords and fancy hats that is the order of the Bath. I think this is mostly military people but not sure. When one dies, another gets to pick out a fancy hat to put on top of his space.
The guide told us a bunch about kings and queens. Edward the Confessor, Queen Victoria. Some others. Apparently Henry the VIII's body got bloated and blew up in his coffin.
Our next stop was Churchill's War Room. This is where Churchill ran the war. It was just a bit underground and not really all that protected. One bomb could have wiped it out. They didn't seem to have any grand plan for protecting anything during the war other than turning lights off at night. The random bombs just never landed in a lot of places that would have been really bad. The guide told us one landed near enough to do damage, but didn't explode.
We had some special tickets for this and were escorted right in and met by another guide. He is regarded as the foremost Churchill historian. Not gonna argue because he knew a lot of **** about Churchill. Even our guide was super impressed and excited about this.
The war room area is a series of room that they have plexiglassed in so you can see the rooms, but you can't go in the rooms. Only, we could. The historian had keys to everything. It was really really weird being on the inside of the glass. Here's a really blurry pic of the historian and people looking in on us.
Our first stop was the main war room. Not only did we get into the room, we were allowed to sit IN CHURCHILL'S CHAIR! OMG! It was pretty incredible.
The other rooms were really cool too. One was a map room with different colored phones. One was where Churchill slept.
The historian told us a lot of cool stories about how they could have easily lost the war and how the US helped them and how great Churchill was.
At the end there is a Churchill museum. They centerpiece is the interactive table where you can touch a year, then a month, then a day. Some of the days just tell you what happened. Some trigger some really cool graphics like planes flying across the board or poppies.
I can't really describe how cool this was, but it was definitely, by far, the best interactive display of any museum I've ever been in. If you ever go to England and even if you can't get the fancy guided tour, I'd highly recommend visiting this place.
By then it was getting towards dinner time and our guide was done. We decided to head off to Covent Gardens for dinner.
Along the way we saw some really Englandy stuff.
Mailbox
Litter (say it with an English accent, it's fun) box
Phone booth
I'm not sure what this door is, but I took a lot of pics of it.
Cute English ice cream truck.
Covent gardens is a big complex with shops and restaurants and street entertainment.
We ate a really nice outdoor italian place. Excellent food.
We decided to walk home from there. Even though we had a map, it was quite challenging. Fortunately, we had my young smart niece to keep us from getting lost.
Here's a pic of our foofoo hotel bathroom.
Just a fantastic day.
We hired a guide to take us around central London.
Much like the taxi drivers that gregorio mentioned, the guides there are heavily regulated. They have to take some pretty intense tests on all sorts of historical stuff. After being certified, they get a nice blue medal that they hang around their neck. Many of the sights had some sort of guide restrictions. Some required a guide, some areas prevented guides from stopping so as not to clog up the area.
Most of the places we went were really big and really crowded. As mentioned earlier, though, the English really know how to move people along. Although there were people everywhere, queues (like my British?) never got really jammed up.
Unfortunately I don't have a pic of our first guide handy, but he was a really nice young chap (more British). Definitely our best guide/driver of the trip. Talked when he needed too, didn't when he didn't.
We first walked around the central area a bit.
The guide pointed out a place where one Harry Potter scene was shot. Apprently, in the movie, Ron is against this wall looking around the corner.
We passed by a changing of the guards. Not THE changing of the guards. They have a lot of changing of the guards. These guards were on horses. Pretty cool.
We learned that the guards were actual military folks.
Then, it was on to Westminster Abbey.
Next to that, however, is Parliament and Big Ben. We were reminded several times that Big Ben refers to the clock, not the building. Unfortunately, both the clock and the building were covered with scaffolding. It seems that the tower is sinking and they must prop it up. They were also working on the entire Parliament building as well.
The guide told us some interesting stories about Parliament that I forgot already. Something about knocking on the door and being refused then walking back or something. Someone got beheaded. I dunno.
We went through a square with a lot of statues, the main one being Churchill. They love Churchill (more on this later). We were told many stories about him but this one goes that he didn't want a statue here because he didn't want birds to poop on him. They promised him they would make it bird proof, but I can assure you there was bird poop on him.
Next stop was Westminster Abbey. It is huge. And beautiful.
I don't have many pictures because they don't let you take pictures once you are inside the church part. I got this one before we entered the no pic zone.
It is hard to describe how incredible this was. It is enormous and full of dead people. They are buried everywhere. Some are in above ground stone coffins, some under the floor. They aren't burying bodies there anymore but they continue to put urns of ashes there. Stephen Hawking is the latest.
There are random kings and queens and other royalty in different places. There are also areas for people that excelled at certain things. For example, Hawking is with the great scientists, including Newton. There is an area for writers, a Shakespeare area, and one for military greats.
They have a room with a bunch of plaques and swords and fancy hats that is the order of the Bath. I think this is mostly military people but not sure. When one dies, another gets to pick out a fancy hat to put on top of his space.
The guide told us a bunch about kings and queens. Edward the Confessor, Queen Victoria. Some others. Apparently Henry the VIII's body got bloated and blew up in his coffin.
Our next stop was Churchill's War Room. This is where Churchill ran the war. It was just a bit underground and not really all that protected. One bomb could have wiped it out. They didn't seem to have any grand plan for protecting anything during the war other than turning lights off at night. The random bombs just never landed in a lot of places that would have been really bad. The guide told us one landed near enough to do damage, but didn't explode.
We had some special tickets for this and were escorted right in and met by another guide. He is regarded as the foremost Churchill historian. Not gonna argue because he knew a lot of **** about Churchill. Even our guide was super impressed and excited about this.
The war room area is a series of room that they have plexiglassed in so you can see the rooms, but you can't go in the rooms. Only, we could. The historian had keys to everything. It was really really weird being on the inside of the glass. Here's a really blurry pic of the historian and people looking in on us.
Our first stop was the main war room. Not only did we get into the room, we were allowed to sit IN CHURCHILL'S CHAIR! OMG! It was pretty incredible.
The other rooms were really cool too. One was a map room with different colored phones. One was where Churchill slept.
The historian told us a lot of cool stories about how they could have easily lost the war and how the US helped them and how great Churchill was.
At the end there is a Churchill museum. They centerpiece is the interactive table where you can touch a year, then a month, then a day. Some of the days just tell you what happened. Some trigger some really cool graphics like planes flying across the board or poppies.
I can't really describe how cool this was, but it was definitely, by far, the best interactive display of any museum I've ever been in. If you ever go to England and even if you can't get the fancy guided tour, I'd highly recommend visiting this place.
By then it was getting towards dinner time and our guide was done. We decided to head off to Covent Gardens for dinner.
Along the way we saw some really Englandy stuff.
Mailbox
Litter (say it with an English accent, it's fun) box
Phone booth
I'm not sure what this door is, but I took a lot of pics of it.
Cute English ice cream truck.
Covent gardens is a big complex with shops and restaurants and street entertainment.
We ate a really nice outdoor italian place. Excellent food.
We decided to walk home from there. Even though we had a map, it was quite challenging. Fortunately, we had my young smart niece to keep us from getting lost.
Here's a pic of our foofoo hotel bathroom.
Just a fantastic day.
07-27-2018
, 12:34 PM
Sightseeing part 2
Today we ventured out into "the country". Our guide today wasn't quite as great as the first one. He was knowledgeable and friendly, but a bit pretentious. But, he did go the extra mile to provide a great experience.
First was Windsor Castle. Like everything else, it is huge.....and crowded.
There was quite a long line to get in, but our guide had tickets already and we moved right up to the front.
Although we had to go through security, much like everywhere else we went, it seemed not nearly as tight as what you normally experience here. Just a brief look into any handbags on you are in.
As mentioned, this place is huge. And, you can't go everywhere. The queen actually stays there - in this area.
I always found this whole royalty thing weird. But the English just love them. Not only the idea of royalty, but the practicality of it in modern times. But after seeing what we did, it was obvious that they generate a TON of money for the country. The tourism connected to all things royal is pretty incredible.
Anyway, back to the castle. The first thing our guide pointed out was the moat. That apparently has never had water in it?
Then we got to see another changing of the guards. Again, not THE changing of the guards. But entertaining nonetheless.
Then, we toured the inside. Or at least what we were allowed to tour. I think I got kinda lazy here and didn't take a bunch of pics. Some areas wouldn't let you, though. There was lots of art and armor and rugs and furniture and just old stuff.
Here are some plates.
Again, they really move people through there well. There were thousands of people there, but we never really felt crowded.
After that, we journeyed out for lunch.
Our driver had a special place he wanted to take us. The further out we got, the narrower the roads got. I mean REALLY narrow. By the time we got to our destination, whenever two cars met, one had to back up until he found some sort of area where they could pass. But people were really polite about this.
I saw my first pheasant.
I didn't get a good picture, but once we started getting closer to our destination, the roads were lined with hedgerows. You can't see past them on either side.
Then, we got to an area where the road, through the centuries, had actually sunk below ground. It's hard to tell, but this is land. We are "under" ground.
Then we get to our lunch spot. It was an absolutely charming little village. Maybe 10 houses at most, with a church........and a pub!
The village sits below the actual windmill where they filmed Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. We thought this was really cool.
The houses, of course, were really old. This one was really wiggly.
On to the pub!
The entire village depended on well water. There was a well in the pub. They covered it with plexiglass and made a table out of it.
Again, we ordered fish and chips. Whatever fish and chips they had at the first pub weren't even close to as good as these. They were amazing.
The green stuff is mushy peas. Our guide figured we wouldn't like them so he "offered" to eat mine. He said most Americans hate them. But I liked them.
Then we checked out this church. As with anything, it is really old. So cool.
We had a couple of beers then took a quite long ride home.
By the time we got home, we were hungry for sushi. The only place we found was pretty foofoo and frickin' expensive. I guess because of the decor. Those are jars.
Another fantastic day.
Today we ventured out into "the country". Our guide today wasn't quite as great as the first one. He was knowledgeable and friendly, but a bit pretentious. But, he did go the extra mile to provide a great experience.
First was Windsor Castle. Like everything else, it is huge.....and crowded.
There was quite a long line to get in, but our guide had tickets already and we moved right up to the front.
Although we had to go through security, much like everywhere else we went, it seemed not nearly as tight as what you normally experience here. Just a brief look into any handbags on you are in.
As mentioned, this place is huge. And, you can't go everywhere. The queen actually stays there - in this area.
I always found this whole royalty thing weird. But the English just love them. Not only the idea of royalty, but the practicality of it in modern times. But after seeing what we did, it was obvious that they generate a TON of money for the country. The tourism connected to all things royal is pretty incredible.
Anyway, back to the castle. The first thing our guide pointed out was the moat. That apparently has never had water in it?
Then we got to see another changing of the guards. Again, not THE changing of the guards. But entertaining nonetheless.
Then, we toured the inside. Or at least what we were allowed to tour. I think I got kinda lazy here and didn't take a bunch of pics. Some areas wouldn't let you, though. There was lots of art and armor and rugs and furniture and just old stuff.
Here are some plates.
Again, they really move people through there well. There were thousands of people there, but we never really felt crowded.
After that, we journeyed out for lunch.
Our driver had a special place he wanted to take us. The further out we got, the narrower the roads got. I mean REALLY narrow. By the time we got to our destination, whenever two cars met, one had to back up until he found some sort of area where they could pass. But people were really polite about this.
I saw my first pheasant.
I didn't get a good picture, but once we started getting closer to our destination, the roads were lined with hedgerows. You can't see past them on either side.
Then, we got to an area where the road, through the centuries, had actually sunk below ground. It's hard to tell, but this is land. We are "under" ground.
Then we get to our lunch spot. It was an absolutely charming little village. Maybe 10 houses at most, with a church........and a pub!
The village sits below the actual windmill where they filmed Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. We thought this was really cool.
The houses, of course, were really old. This one was really wiggly.
On to the pub!
The entire village depended on well water. There was a well in the pub. They covered it with plexiglass and made a table out of it.
Again, we ordered fish and chips. Whatever fish and chips they had at the first pub weren't even close to as good as these. They were amazing.
The green stuff is mushy peas. Our guide figured we wouldn't like them so he "offered" to eat mine. He said most Americans hate them. But I liked them.
Then we checked out this church. As with anything, it is really old. So cool.
We had a couple of beers then took a quite long ride home.
By the time we got home, we were hungry for sushi. The only place we found was pretty foofoo and frickin' expensive. I guess because of the decor. Those are jars.
Another fantastic day.
07-27-2018
, 01:15 PM
Our last day 
We were winging it on the last day. No guide.
We decided to take some hop-on-hop-off buses. You buy one ticket and can get on or off as you please. It also included a river ride. They were double decker and we (along with everyone else) always tried to be on the upper deck. Some had guides talking, some had recordings. They gave out earphones to hear the recordings.
Our first guide was about the most droll german you've ever heard. He would say something (imagine stephen wright talking) like "their used to be an old building there...............now there's not". He'll be our inside joke forever.
We drove by a lot of old buildings.
And some new ones
There we people walking around on top of this one
Then we got on a boat and cruised down the Thames.
It was crazy low tide. The tide here in Florida moves maybe 3 feet at most. This was like 12 feet down. Yikes.
People were over on the land trying to find old stuff.
We went under a lot of bridges. Our (much better guide this time) told us all about them. There is London bridge and Tower bridge and everyone thinks Tower bridge is London bridge but it isn't.
I think this one is London bridge, but don't quote me.
I think this one is Tower bridge, but again I could be wrong.
The London Eye. There is some significance to the number of cars or how long it takes to go around or something, but I forgot.
Then it was on to the Tower of London. Another really big and really crowded cool place.
They have it organized into different mini-tours. The first one had torture stuff in it.
One of them had weapons and armor and stuff.
These guys (and gals) are walking around everywhere. They will answer questions and are very gracious if you want a pic with them.
I thought it was cool that they actually live there too.
There is a history of ravens there. Some showed up and the king liked them so they clipped their wings so they wouldn't leave. That started a tradition so when they died, new ones were introduced.
I swear I thought this was one of those animatronic things but it was a real raven. You could walk right up to it. This pic doesn't look like it, but they are pretty big birds. Much larger than crows.
The main attraction is the crown jewels. This was the longest line we waited in, but even that moved pretty quickly.
We weren't allowed to take pictures so this is all I got.
Once inside, you wind around a lot and they tell you the history of the crown jewels. The first one was a spoon. They got better after that.
The last thing on our list was a visit to Harrod's. It is big. And crowded.
Everything in there is really really expensive. We didn't spend too much time there at all. We were told to check out the central escalators, which were pretty cool. Unfortunately, I didn't take a pic. It is hard to describe. Maybe Frank Lloyd Wright meets Salvador Dali? We were also told to visit the food "court" It was cool as well.
Here is some meat.
None of us cared to really stay very long. It was the least good sight we saw the whole trip. But, we had to see it.
We took a cab home and stopped by a neat little grocery store by the hotel. We bought wine and Pimms. The hotel had a little outdoor food/drink area that we stopped in to get some appetizers (we had eaten a late lunch), and have some wine. Then we went back to the room and got super drunk on our last day in England.
Another fantastic day.
We were winging it on the last day. No guide.
We decided to take some hop-on-hop-off buses. You buy one ticket and can get on or off as you please. It also included a river ride. They were double decker and we (along with everyone else) always tried to be on the upper deck. Some had guides talking, some had recordings. They gave out earphones to hear the recordings.
Our first guide was about the most droll german you've ever heard. He would say something (imagine stephen wright talking) like "their used to be an old building there...............now there's not". He'll be our inside joke forever.
We drove by a lot of old buildings.
And some new ones
There we people walking around on top of this one
Then we got on a boat and cruised down the Thames.
It was crazy low tide. The tide here in Florida moves maybe 3 feet at most. This was like 12 feet down. Yikes.
People were over on the land trying to find old stuff.
We went under a lot of bridges. Our (much better guide this time) told us all about them. There is London bridge and Tower bridge and everyone thinks Tower bridge is London bridge but it isn't.
I think this one is London bridge, but don't quote me.
I think this one is Tower bridge, but again I could be wrong.
The London Eye. There is some significance to the number of cars or how long it takes to go around or something, but I forgot.
Then it was on to the Tower of London. Another really big and really crowded cool place.
They have it organized into different mini-tours. The first one had torture stuff in it.
One of them had weapons and armor and stuff.
These guys (and gals) are walking around everywhere. They will answer questions and are very gracious if you want a pic with them.
I thought it was cool that they actually live there too.
There is a history of ravens there. Some showed up and the king liked them so they clipped their wings so they wouldn't leave. That started a tradition so when they died, new ones were introduced.
I swear I thought this was one of those animatronic things but it was a real raven. You could walk right up to it. This pic doesn't look like it, but they are pretty big birds. Much larger than crows.
The main attraction is the crown jewels. This was the longest line we waited in, but even that moved pretty quickly.
We weren't allowed to take pictures so this is all I got.
Once inside, you wind around a lot and they tell you the history of the crown jewels. The first one was a spoon. They got better after that.
The last thing on our list was a visit to Harrod's. It is big. And crowded.
Everything in there is really really expensive. We didn't spend too much time there at all. We were told to check out the central escalators, which were pretty cool. Unfortunately, I didn't take a pic. It is hard to describe. Maybe Frank Lloyd Wright meets Salvador Dali? We were also told to visit the food "court" It was cool as well.
Here is some meat.
None of us cared to really stay very long. It was the least good sight we saw the whole trip. But, we had to see it.
We took a cab home and stopped by a neat little grocery store by the hotel. We bought wine and Pimms. The hotel had a little outdoor food/drink area that we stopped in to get some appetizers (we had eaten a late lunch), and have some wine. Then we went back to the room and got super drunk on our last day in England.
Another fantastic day.
07-27-2018
, 01:30 PM
And, it was time to leave 
We were all pretty hungover. We caught a cab to Heathrow and were pretty much miserable.
Heathrow is HUGE! By far the biggest airport I've ever been in. But the lines were easy to get through.
Once in, we tried to find our gate. It said "to be announced". Apparently this is standard there. They don't tell you where the gate is until an hour before the flight. This isn't good for people like me that "need to know".
But, we had business class tickets and were pointed to a really nice British Airways lounge. Free food and booze only we definitely didn't want any more booze.
Once announced we headed to our gate and almost immediately began boarding. We got on the biggest plane I've ever been on. We got to be upstairs.
We landed in Miami. They won't take you straight to Tampa, presumably for customs or foreign travel reasons.
The Miami airport sucks more than any airport I've ever been in. We had to get our bags and re-check them. Our original flight was supposed to depart at 6:00 PM. When we got to the airport it had been delayed until 9:30. By the time we got through security it had been delayed again until 11:30.
We decided we wanted to screw this and drive home. Since the flight to Tampa right before us was completely cancelled, we thought this might happen to us. So we went to the service desk to see if we could get our bags. There were eight (not exaggerating) people sitting at the desk helping three people. It was like when you see construction workers and only one is actually doing anything. There were 3 people in front of us in line. We waited about 20 minutes. Nobody moved and 1 person in front of us just gave up and left.
So, we went back out security and went to where we had checked our bags in. Another really unhelpful person told us it would take 5 hours to get them.
We ended up just going back through security and hoping for the best. The flight was delayed once again but we did get a plane home that night.
Although we had arranged a ride home, we told him to forget it because we arrived so late.
I rode in my first Uber ever.
We were SO happy to be back in our own bed again. Neither of us had slept well on the plane and we began the day hungover.
We slept like rocks.
Many times I've traveled and thought towards the end of the trip "I can't wait to get home". This did not happen this time. Every minute we were in England was just fantastic. Great sights, great food, and great people.
Jolly Good!
We were all pretty hungover. We caught a cab to Heathrow and were pretty much miserable.
Heathrow is HUGE! By far the biggest airport I've ever been in. But the lines were easy to get through.
Once in, we tried to find our gate. It said "to be announced". Apparently this is standard there. They don't tell you where the gate is until an hour before the flight. This isn't good for people like me that "need to know".
But, we had business class tickets and were pointed to a really nice British Airways lounge. Free food and booze only we definitely didn't want any more booze.
Once announced we headed to our gate and almost immediately began boarding. We got on the biggest plane I've ever been on. We got to be upstairs.
We landed in Miami. They won't take you straight to Tampa, presumably for customs or foreign travel reasons.
The Miami airport sucks more than any airport I've ever been in. We had to get our bags and re-check them. Our original flight was supposed to depart at 6:00 PM. When we got to the airport it had been delayed until 9:30. By the time we got through security it had been delayed again until 11:30.
We decided we wanted to screw this and drive home. Since the flight to Tampa right before us was completely cancelled, we thought this might happen to us. So we went to the service desk to see if we could get our bags. There were eight (not exaggerating) people sitting at the desk helping three people. It was like when you see construction workers and only one is actually doing anything. There were 3 people in front of us in line. We waited about 20 minutes. Nobody moved and 1 person in front of us just gave up and left.
So, we went back out security and went to where we had checked our bags in. Another really unhelpful person told us it would take 5 hours to get them.
We ended up just going back through security and hoping for the best. The flight was delayed once again but we did get a plane home that night.
Although we had arranged a ride home, we told him to forget it because we arrived so late.
I rode in my first Uber ever.
We were SO happy to be back in our own bed again. Neither of us had slept well on the plane and we began the day hungover.
We slept like rocks.
Many times I've traveled and thought towards the end of the trip "I can't wait to get home". This did not happen this time. Every minute we were in England was just fantastic. Great sights, great food, and great people.
Jolly Good!
07-27-2018
, 02:36 PM
07-27-2018
, 08:48 PM
