Ring Around the Country, Part 7

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, June 6-8, 2018

We moved to Epping, just north of London and outside of the M-25 Beltway.  Our hotel is an old coaching stop, which has been updated and was quite nice.  Great room, wonderful employees.  Well worth the stay if you come this way.  The Bell Hotel, Epping is about 1 mile from the final stop on the Central (red) line of the tube.  We started each day with that walk, mostly down hill to the station.  Then a 40 minute tube ride to our first stop.

The Bell Hotel

The walk to the Tube Station

The first day for just to figure out where everything was, so we took a Hop On-Hop Off city bus tour.

 Interesting new building

 The Tower Bridge may look old, but it is a steel bridge built in the late 1800's

 The Tower of London is actually a castle, building began in 1066

 Another new building

 We sat up top on the bus.  This building seemed a bit close...

 The Eye of London

 Westminster Abbey

 Known as the Wedding Cake Church

 These statues mark the edges of London town

 After the bus ride, we took the boat back up to the Westminster Bridge

 Another view of the Tower Bridge

 The Shard

Once we got off the boat, we walked back to our original tube station

Too bad Big Ben is getting a face lift

 The Eye of London

 A reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theater

 Then it was a 40 minute ride back to Epping

Where we went to a pub and Wayne had a beer, while I made a new friend.

 Day two had us going to Leicester Square and meeting up with a walking tour that came included in our bus tour ticket.  This is William Shakespeare.

 I love classical music, and a venue I am familiar with is St. Martins in the Fields, and here it is!!

 I thought it was ironic that Virginia gave London a statue of George Washington.  Our guide said  they sent the dirt beneath the statue as well, as GW had said he would never step foot on English soil again.

 All the McDonald's I've seen here have this automated ordering system.  I'm surprised we don't have that every where in the states too.

 Statues from Trefalger Square.  the one on top is Lord Nelson, and the one on the horse is King George IV.  Our guide said he is the one the nursery rhyme is about.  You know the one, Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie.  Kissed the girls and made them cry. I guess he really had a sweet tooth, and he was a womanizer.

 This is his dad, King George III, the Mad King.  He was also the King in 1776, you know, when we had our little revolution...

 Florence Nightingale

 If you provide goods or services to the Royals for at least 5 years, you can put their coat of arms at your business.

 St James Palace predates Buckingham Palace

 It's guarded too

 Buckingham Palace

 While we were paused on the Mall, police came zipping through on motorcycles and then escorting this group of dignitaries.  No one made the news, so we don't know who was in them.

 War memorial in St James Park

 Our walking guide

 A different type of guard

 Many public toilets have a fee, we have found from .20-.50.

After our walking tour, Wayne and I headed to the Palace to look around.  One of the gates at Buckingham Palace

 The angel of victory

 The queen's front yard

 Then we had lunch, hopped on the tube and headed to King's Cross Train Station where they filmed some scenes from Harry Potter including the ones at Platform 9 3/4.  Becca is a Harry Potter geek, so we had to go!!

We had time, so we stopped for an Espresso Martini!!

Friday was our last day, so we got an early start and headed to the Tower of London.

 Once we were inside the Castle, we headed to the Crow Jewels.  Unfortunately no photos allowed...

 From there we went to the White Tower and the Armor Exhibit.

 Then we walked around, looking at all the stuff, including te Kings bed!

 This is the White Tower.

 After 3 hours, I was on brain overload, so we walked across the Tower Bridge and down the Queen's Walk along the river, to Bill's for lunch.  We also had Espresso Martini's, again!  What can I say...

 Then we walked across the Millennium Bridge, with St.Paul's Cathedral in the background.  And yes, evrytime we went by it, I could here the song from Mary Poppins.."Feed the Birds, tuppence a bag"

 I think these buildings are ugly, but I don't live here so what do I know...

We hopped the tube at the St Paul's station and headed back to our hotel.  Tomorrow we'll start driving again.  We're hoping to do more natural attractions and less big city stuff, but who knows what we'll find!