Ireland & UK Blog

London Day 18 - Crossing the Pond Homeward Bound!

12/17/2019

Tuesday, 17 December 2019

We fly to Boston for two nights, and then continued on to Cleveland on the 19th.
(on the Boston leg, the 116th anniversary of flight, no less.)

Gerri was able to get some time in Boston to explore the sights, Tim hung back with a raging cold.

Paul Revere's midnight ride - a lead-in event to the start of the American Revolution. The church where the signaling lanterns were lit.

We arrive back to Cleveland, just in time for the Holidays.

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London Day 17 - Canary Wharf

12/16/2019

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Monday, 16 December 2019

This is London's new downtown, a part of "Docklands", on the Isle of Dogs, east of central London. Canary Wharf is a powerhouse of financial/publishing/media business spaces in multiple towering buildings that grew out of Britain's former mega dock and warehouse district that boomed in the 19th century. Several large skyscrapers went up from 1991, with many more going up after the century's turn.

Rick Steve's: "Don't expect Jolly Olde England here. The Docklands is more about businessmen in suits, creatively planned parks, art-filled plazas, and trendy cafes and restaurants. But there are also traces of its rugged dockworker past. You'll see canals, former docks, brick warehouses, and a fine history museum. Most impressive of all, there's not a tourist in sight."

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A view of the old and the new - waterway structures from the past (still operable) and lifts in the background raising new buildings. The capsized boat is likely just enthusiasts sailing hard and having a minor oops.

Lunchtime anyone?

For those on the job, there's never enough time...................flowers in early Winter, it's a Britannia thing.

City wildlife.

We finish our walking tour at the Museum of the London Docklands.

Out into the night....lights.

We take in a Docklands' restaurant before we depart for home on the Underground. Moderately priced and good eats.

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London Day 16 - Day Off!

12/15/2019

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Sunday, 15 December 2019

Today we're feeling, so far, we put a really good "dent" in seeing London. We decided to rest up for one final tour tomorrow, before the flight back across the pond to America.

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London Day 15 - Cambridge

12/14/2019

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Saturday, 14 December 2019

Cambridge is a university city on the River Cam 55 miles (89 km) north of London. 158,434 reside here including 29,327 students. Cambridge became an important trading center during the Roman and Viking ages, and with archaeological evidence of settlement in the area as early as the Bronze Age.

The University of Cambridge was founded in 1209. The buildings of the university include King's College Chapel, Cavendish Laboratory, and the Cambridge University Library, one of the largest legal deposit libraries in the world. The city's skyline is dominated by several college buildings, along with the spire of the Our Lady and the English Martyrs Church, and the chimney of Addenbrooke's Hospital.

We rode the underground to LIverpool Station (just under an hour), and boarded a Greater Anglia train (about an hour) to reach Cambridge, then walked a mile to the University.

...in 1575

Yay, a Saturday market...

A not so Winter Wonderland - but that's fine with us.

At Christ's College...

Cambridge University, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

We watched punting on the Cam...

The Eagle Pub

Nightfall comes...

Hmmm, should we take dinner here...

Two and a half hours, and we were home in London again.

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London Day 14 - Westminster Abbey

12/13/2019

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Friday, 13 December 2019

We began the day after arriving in Westminster by strolling on the Westminster Bridge.

The London Eye, or the Millennium Wheel, is a cantilevered observation wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames. The wheel is the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom with over 3 million visitors annually. The building next to the wheel, County Hall, is largely unremarkable - from 1933, once the seat of London government - housing various tenants.

Hungerford and Golden Jubilee bridges

More sights we took in before our entry time reservation to the Abbey.

Westminster Abbey

Construction current main structure began in 1245, ceased in 1269, and was resumed in 1376 and largely finished by 1399.

Photography was generally not allowed within the main church, and it was loaded with sights.

Since the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066, all coronations of English and British monarchs have been in Westminster Abbey. There have been 16 royal weddings at the abbey since 1100. As the burial site of more than 3,300 persons, usually of prominence in British history (including at least sixteen monarchs, eight Prime Ministers, poets laureate, actors, scientists, military leaders, and the Unknown Warrior).

The burial practice spread to include generals, admirals, politicians, doctors and scientists. Scientists include Isaac Newton, buried on 4 April 1727, Charles Darwin, buried on 26 April 1882, and Stephen Hawking, ashes interred on 15 June 2018 - all within a few paces of each other.

We then continued touring up Parliament Street past 10 Downing to take in more historical sights, and sounds - here are the "Horse Guards" and Old Admiralty Building.

Moving further north, we arrive at Trafalgar Square and see Nelson's Column, a long view of Big Ben, and the two lions. The Square's name commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, the British naval victory in the Napoleonic Wars over France and Spain that took place on 21 October 1805 off the coast of Cape Trafalgar.

The Trafalgar Square Christmas tree is a Christmas tree donated to the people of Britain by the city of Oslo, Norway each year since 1942.

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London Day 13 - Rest Day

12/12/2019

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Thursday, 12 December 2019

Today's weather is wet and blustery, and we just had 4 days of strong touring, so today we declare rest day #2 for London. The itinerary included sleeping in, home cooked meals, Netflix, and Gerri walking down to the train station to purchase tickets for a tour of Cambridge in a few days.

Rainy day in London is a painting by Behshad Arjomandi which was uploaded on December 26th, 2018.
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/rainy-day-in-london-behshad-arjomandi.html

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London Day 12 - Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, Churchill War Rooms, Big Ben, 10 Downing Street

12/11/2019

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Wednesday, 11 December 2019

Rick Steves: This is the spectacle every visitor to London has to see at least once: stone-faced, red-coated (or in winter, gray-coated), bearskin-hatted guards changing posts with much fanfare, in an hour-long ceremony accompanied by a brass band.
The most famous part takes place right in front of Buckingham Palace at 11am. But there actually are several different guard-changing ceremonies and parades going on simultaneously, at different guard locations within a few hundred yards of the palace. All of these spectacles converge around Buckingham Palace in a perfect storm of red-coated (or grey) pageantry.

Rick suggests various strategies to get a more intimate view of the proceedings (aka find smaller crowds, while still seeing a lot). We began at St James Palace, proceeded across St James Park to Wellington Barracks, and then crossed behind the crowds in front of Buckingham Palace for the long view on the end of the ceremony.

Crossing the Mall, in front of Buckingham Palace and arriving at St James Palace (to the right).

Indeed, a smaller crowd is found.

"Crowd control"

The show begins...

Wellington Barracks - fresh troops going on the watch.

Onto the Churchill War Rooms - Rick Steves: This excellent sight offers a fascinating walk through the underground headquarters of the British government's WWII fight against the Nazis in the darkest days of the Battle of Britain. It has two parts: the war rooms themselves, and a top-notch museum dedicated to the man who steered the war from here, Winston Churchill. The 27-room, heavily fortified nerve center of the British war effort was used from 1939-1945. Churchill's quarters, the map room, and other rooms are just as they were in 1945.

Interesting placard in the War Rooms - they took every effort.

A panorama of Parliament Square - with Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the Supreme Court, and the Houses of Parliament in view.

Is this Big Ben? (Okay, Ben is actually the bell within, the tower is Elizabeth Tower, but most everyone calls the whole kit and caboodle "Big Ben") Or are the Brits prepping to launch a rocket from next to the House's of Parliament? Okay, Big Ben/Elizabeth Tower is just getting a life extending renovation.

We walk 2 blocks north along Parliament Street to say hello to the Prime Minister at his residence, 10 Downing Street.

Hmmf, security prevents us from just dropping in and sharing a cup of tea with Boris.

A couple of noteworthy monuments:

Going home, waiting for our train at a transfer point.

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London Day 11 - British Clipper Ship "Cutty Sark", National Maritime Museum, and Greenwich Observatory

12/10/2019

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Tuesday, 10 December 2019

Riding the Underground, 2 transfers, and an hour twenty later, we arrive in Greenwich just a short walk to the famous clipper ship. Cutty Sark is a British clipper ship. Built in Scotland in 1869, she was one of the last tea clippers to be built and one of the fastest, coming at the end of a long period of design development, which halted as sailing ships gave way to steam propulsion.

The video tour begins...

Wood planking over an interior steel framework....................................that's alot of tea!

As a museum ship, we see much effort was expended to tell the story.

We saw meticulous preservation/restoration on an old ship with some unfortunate fires in recent years.

Beautifully maintained woodwork....................................grey colored steel structure added for support.

Representation of where cargo is brought down through the decks - in this case, wool, hauled from Australia after the shift from the tea trade. Also, a nice, original collection of the captain's tools.

From stem to stern, Muntz cladding over timber planking over a steel skeleton. Muntz metal is a form of brass with about 60% copper, 40% zinc and a trace of iron.

Near the bow, we checked out a neat collection of figureheads.

Onto the National Maritime Museum...

We spent much of our time here in a special exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. Many interesting exhibits held our attention for some time.

We then walked up a long climb to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.

Gerri is checking her I-phone coordinates against the Prime Meridian, Longitude Zero (although the real, actual, zero is roughly 125 yds east of this line).

Many historical spaces and equipments are on display here.

Also, within the museum spaces are the amazing John Harrison clocks. John Harrison (1693 – 1776) was a self-educated English carpenter and clock maker who invented the marine chronometer, a long-sought-after device for solving the problem of calculating longitude while at sea.

Development versions:

To the left, the H4, with which John Harrison proved that time-based determination of longitude was practical. To the right, a time piece, 135 years later, as used on the clipper Cutty Sark.

We also watched a series of planetarium presentations, adjacent to the observatory, before we left for "home".

A night time view of Canary Wharf, across the Thames River - we'll pay it a visit in a few days for our final tour in London.

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London Day 10 - Historic London: City Walk Part 2, Tate Modern, & Touching the Void

12/9/2019

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Monday, 9 December 2019

Today we finish the "City Walk (Rick Steves)", tour a large repurposed powerhouse - the Tate Modern - a gigantic museum of modern art, and catch a London play.

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We start our walking tour at the the Royal Exchange, the site of London's original stock exchange, founded in the 16th century. The actual building has burned down twice, with the current version from the 1840's.

The golden Gresham Grasshopper can be seen on the Royal Exchange's weathervane. This commemorates the founder, Sir Thomas Gresham, whose crest it is featured on.

A large elaborate refreshments bar just inside the entrance.

Next, to the Bank of England, established 1694 - and a visit to a little museum, the Bank Museum, of course.

Mega scale awesome architecture...

Below right:
The Monument to the Great Fire of London, more commonly known simply as the Monument, is a Doric column, situated near the northern end of London Bridge. In commemoration, it stands at the junction of Monument Street and Fish Street Hill, 202 feet (62 m) in height and 202 feet west of the spot in Pudding Lane where the Great Fire started on 2 September 1666. Constructed between 1671 and 1677, it was built on the site of St Margaret, New Fish Street, the first church to be destroyed by the Great Fire.

Now on London Bridge:

The original, or "Old London Bridge", 1209-1831, ...
(not counting possible Roman spans and follow-on lesser bridges)

"New London Bridge", 1831-1967, as it now appears in Lake Havasu, Arizona...

"Modern London Bridge", 1972- , ...

Tower Bridge as viewed from London Bridge - yes, shocking, but true, these two bridges are entirely different bridges, they look absolutely different and have vastly different histories.

Old spires, with new spires.

Another look back over Central London...

Tate Modern is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group, and based in the former Bankside Power Station, in the Bankside area of the London Borough of Southwark. Tate Modern is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the world.

It's now very dark outside - time for taking in the city lights:

We closed the evening by catching another London play:

Wiki: Touching the Void is a play written by David Greig, based on the book of the same name by Joe Simpson. The play portrays the true story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates climb of the 6,344-meter west face of the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985.

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London Day 9 - V & A Museum Tour, Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park, & Double-Decker Bus Ride

12/8/2019

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Sunday, 8 December 2019

The facade of the V & A looms. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is the world's largest museum of applied and decorative arts and design, as well as sculpture, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

The tour begins...

Original 400 hundred year old wood structures preserved and on display.

Wooden house façade, built by Sir Paul Pindar, Bishopsgate, London, England, UK, about 1599-1600.

These plaster-cast versions of famous Renainssance statues by Michelangelo and others allowed 19th century art students who couldn't afford a rail pass to study the classics (Rick Steves).

Whimsical sentinels.

Finishing with a viewing of the entrance, of course.

How the entrance lobby chandelier appeared to us - apparently the lights burned out.

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On to Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens - over 600 acres, established 1536 as Royal hunting grounds and then opened as a public park in 1637, the largest of four Royal Parks that form a chain from the entrance of Kensington Palace through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, via Hyde Park Corner and Green Park past the main entrance to Buckingham Palace.

The Winter Wonderland festival has been a popular Christmas event in Hyde Park since 2007.

The Albert Memorial - Queen Victoria's memorial to her husband, the Prince.

Hyde Park's Speakers' Corner has acquired an international reputation for demonstrations and other protests. We came upon some heated, but friendly, debating going down.

Peace descending on the Quadriga of War - sculptor Adrian Jones - 1912.

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We then boarded an offering of a famous London double-decker bus, finding a perfect front row seat to take in the sights of central London in December.

The sights inside were exceeded by those outside.

St Clement Danes is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster completed in 1682 by Sir Christopher Wren. Wren's building was gutted during the Blitz and not restored until 1958, and adapted to its current function as the central church of the Royal Air Force.

Another good long day of touring is in the books (I believe we just missed our train)...

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