This morning we caught the tube from Holborn Station, which is about 5 minutes walk away, to Leicester Square on the Piccadilly line. It is a short trip, but saves a lot of legwork! We bought Oyster cards online before we left home, so it is easy to swipe our way through without the hassle of buying tickets and having change.
We headed towards Trafalgar Square and admired the famous lions from a distance .There is some sort of event being prepared for so that nobody can get close to get the iconic shot of climbing on the massive animals.
We popped into St Martins in the Fields Church. It is a lovely place, with a really peaceful feeling. It is opulent without being ostentatious. People were praying and one man was sleeping in the side aisle, snoring softly away. He was fully sleeping, laying down, curled into a comfortable position! We went down into the crypt, which is now a cafe and had a coffee. It is a pretty cool coffee shop, with the stone ceilings and granite floors.
Continuing down Whitehall Street we passed the Household Cavalry Museum, with the guards on horseback out the front. We then passed Downing Street, but there is no access to check out number 10. There were a lot of police with very big guns. The cabinet rooms are here as well, but we couldn't see too much going on.
We continued on our way towards Westminster and Big Ben, pausing to admire and take in the crowds that gather to tour this part of the city. Big Ben is big, in the way you expect a tower with a clock on top to be. The buildings around here are pretty spectacular, with their ornate designs and general old, massive structures.
We lined up to see Westminster Abbey, after first popping into St Margaret's Church, the small church on the Abbey site. It was a short wait, a hefty charge - 20 quid for me and 17 for the student. There was a big crowd. The Abbey is a beautiful building and very large, built in a Gothic style . As we entered and got our complimentary head set (generous!), we took in the size and scale within. There are a lot of people all trying to see the same thing and you just generally go with the flow. There is history here, but not much religion. It is about the royalty and the aristocracy who can afford to pay to have a memorial stone or, even better, a statue dedicated to themselves. The big space is divided up into smaller chapels. There are tombs for the kings and queens, with chapels for the special ones. The history you hear on the headset is quite interesting and parts of the Abbey are beautiful. After about an hour we were done and came out into the sunshine.
There were thousands of people in the area, enjoying the beautiful day and all the history this area offers.
We walked through St James Park, stopping for an ice cream from Jude's, as we are our way towards Buckingham Palace. There were more people, looking expectantly at the guards, but they weren't doing anything more than standing still. We continued around to the Queen's Gallery and bought tickets to go inside, 10.50 for me and 7.00 for the student. The exhibition was ok, but as most of the galleries in London are free, it did seem expensive.
With time to spare we walked though Green Park and caught the tube, getting off at Knightsbridge to go to Harrods for a look at the iconic shop. There were a lot of people here too, mostly just looking and enjoying the experience. We went up the Egyptian escalator, which is quite impressive, although the statue of Di and Dodi at the bottom is a bit weird. We walked through the delicious food hall and bought some dates. There is so much great looking food there, but we had a dinner date and needed to keep moving and save our appetite.
We tubed home, freshened up and tubed out again, this time getting off at South Kensington. We had a short walk to the Builders' Arms to meet a guy Ken used to work with and his wife. They are a Kiwi/WA Wheatbelt couple but have lived all over the world. They now live in a great house in Kensington, a posh neighbourhood with posh neighbours. We had dinner at the pub, noisy on a Friday night and then went back to their house for a drink and conversation where we could hear ourselves (so old!). It was a great night and they were great company. We tubed back with some interesting characters. We had left in the evening in the throng of working commuters, all rushing through the tunnels like mice. At midnight they were the end of the night people, after a few drinks, in varied states of sobriety. There was still enough people that we never felt unsafe, more entertained. It didn't take long to return to Holborn and make the short walk home.



Steps 16,803
Kms walked11.4