United Kingdom June 12, 2016

Slept in a little, had breakfast, finished packing, got a taxi to Heathrow International Airport.  We moved quickly through security, except for Dave.  In the states he is TSA approved so he never worries about liquids in his bag.  This does not hold true outside the states as he sadly found out.  After a thorough examination of his bags he caught up to the rest of the group.  It was an uneventful two hours in the airport and 11 hours in the air and not one single round a bout.  So glad to get home.  Jet lag was not as bad as when we returned from Taiwan but it was still painful. 

View from London Hotel Room

United Kingdom June 11, 2016

Our last full day in London.  Back in May we had bought tickets for Hampton Court Palace, Symphony Concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Fireworks. Our initial plan was to get to Hampton Court early and spend the entire day.  As Saturday drew nearer there were a few things we had not been able to see or do so we decided to just spend half a day at Hampton Court and squeeze in one more museum in the morning.  Dave and Shelly opted for The British Library which houses the Magna Carta, while Dick, Wade and I went to the Imperial War Museum.  We were worried that an hour and a half would be too much time but we could have stayed several more.  We spent most of our time in the WWI exhibit and ran through the WWII and Holocaust exhibits.  The museum was extremely detailed with artifacts and explanations.  It was fascinating to see and read about the events, weaponry, and politics pertaining to both wars. 

After the museum we headed to meet Dave and Shelly at a designated intersection.  As usual, our maps were insufficiently detailed and we were not able to get to the exact location.  Dave and Shelly had the same experience.  Luckily we crossed paths looking for the intersection and were able to get to the train station on time to catch a train to Hampton Court Palace without further delay.  The train's last stop was a station a mere five minute walk to Hampton Court.  No taxi necessary. 

Hampton Court Palace is located 15 miles up the Thames from downtown London.  The five hundred year old palace of Henry VIII was originally the palace of his minister, Cardinal Wolsey.  Being a clever man, the Cardinal, gave the mansion to the King so he wouldn't be jealous.  It worked for a while.  But when Cardinal Wolsey could not convince the Pope to allow Henry's divorce the King sentenced him to death.  The Cardinal died prior to the execution.  

It took us a few minutes to get our tickets and to get oriented.  The place was huge.  We decided to have lunch at the cafeteria and then started our tour.  The palace was surrounded by beautiful flower gardens.  It even had a vegetable garden that in it's day fed the 600+ daily residents and guests.  It even had a maze.  Our tickets allowed us to go in the maze but by the time we got to it, it was closed. 

 The palace itself is a series of several separate buildings.  Some were the actual living quarters of Henry VIII and others.  Other buildings had been renovated to include exhibits about Henry VIII and his wives.  We also toured the massive kitchens, chapel, and inner court yards. 

King would address visitors in this room

 This was a wine fountain for one of his parties to impress whatever royalty was coming.  Each lion's mouth would have wine coming out. 

Resting

 

 

At 6:00 pm everything inside the palace closed to tours for the day.  Outside on the grounds the "Festival" was just beginning.  People came with tables, chairs, umbrellas, food including wine glasses and wine, and anything else needed to have an elaborate picnic while they waited for the concert and fireworks.  There were a few trucks and wine vendors set up to accommodate the guests.  We ate Argentine Empanadas, water and cookies. 

The concert started at 8:30 pm and lasted until 10:30 pm.  It was an amazing concert!  We had two extra tickets to the concert since Travis and Carla were not traveling with us.  Shelly was visiting with an employee of the palace.  He mentioned how much he and his wife would love to go to the symphony that evening.  Wade suggested she offer him the tickets.  She was able to find him, present the tickets and he quickly called his wife to let her know they had tickets.  They were thrilled to be at the concert that evening.  We enjoyed learning more about them during the evening. 

Because the concert let out so late we did not return to the gardens to watch the fireworks.  Instead we headed back to the train station and watched the fireworks from the bridge over the Thames.  We caught the 10:54 pm train and made it back to London before midnight. 

United Kingdom June 10, 2016

Did not have as early a morning because our first top was Westminster Abbey and it did not open until 10:00 am. On our walk to the abbey we passed Big Ben and the British Parliament Buildings.

 I just like the street view from here.

The London Eye

 Churchill

 David Lloyd George

 Ian Christian Smuts

 Gandhi

  Lincoln (in background) and Nelson Mandela

Westminster Abbey is the most famous English church in Christendom.  It is the sight of royal weddings, coronations, and burials since the 11th century.  It contains the period 100 years of English history - 3000 tombs, the remains of 29 Kings and Queens, and 100's of memorials to poets, politicians, scientists, and warriors.  Some of those buried here include, Lord Byron, Lewis Carroll, Shakespeare, Handel, Charles Dickens, and Lawrence Olivier to name a few.  The chapel itself is not nearly as big as it appears on television.  It is quite narrow and surrounded by hallway after hallway of smaller chapels, memorials and tombs.  

 Westminster Abbey

 Back of Westminster Abbey

After going to church we paid a visit to the Prime Ministers house on 10 Downing Street.  The street itself was blocked off by machine gun carrying guards.  They would not let us in for tea (not that we tried). A little ways down the street we encountered additional guards.  These guards were more traditional and not quite so threatening.

 From 10 Downing street it was a short walk to Churchill War Rooms.  The war rooms were used during WWII by Churchill and other political and military leaders as a command post.  The underground rooms were located close to Downing Street and under the Treasury building.  The various rooms are connected via narrow hallways.  Much of the exhibit is just as it was left when the war ended.  It was fascinating to walk through it and imagine what went on.  Very claustrophobic.  The rooms were designed to protect the occupants from the Nazi bombings.  In fact, a direct hit may have caused the building to collapse crushing those below.  In addition to the fear of being crushed the possibility of flooding from the river was ever present. 

 Entrance to war rooms

 Churchill's main bedroom

Cabinet room with maps

Dave yelped another restaurant for lunch.  It took us a minute to get our bearings but we were able to locate "Pickles" sandwich shop.  The sandwich was really good but they had no pickles.  

From the luxurious backstreet commoner sandwich shop we proceeded to the slightly more elaborate Buckingham Palace.   The palace was a grand building with ornate fencing and gate.  It does not offer tours and the closest we could get were the outside gates.  

 Entrance to Palace Courtyard

 The Palace

 Courtyard center monument

 Palace gate

 Palace gate

 Palace guards

 The real palace guard

Next we walked along the side of Hyde Park which goes on and on and on and on. We stopped at the park for just a moment to say we had been in the park.  

 Wade thought this lead to the Ministry of Magic.

Doesn't this look like a wizard?

At the end of our walk along Hyde Park we found the LDS Hyde Park Ward/Visitor Center.  The building hosts three functioning wards and doubles as a visitors center.  It is right next to a community college that brings in many investigators from all over the world.  The brief break from walking, the cool building, and the only refrigerated drinking fountain we found in the whole country were a nice rest stop.  

After our nice rest stop, we continued our walking journey to the Victoria and Albert Museum.  It was on the way to Harrod's Luxury Store. The store is 7 stories tall with everything and anything you would wish for.  The owner of the store was the father of Dodi Fayed, Princess Diana's boyfriend and so in the basement there is a memorial to the two of them. We picked up some fudge at the store that we enjoyed when we got home.

After a quick dinner we had one more stop to make.  The brothers all remember hearing their dad recount stories of his preaching to bystanders, drunks, and hecklers in Hyde Park.  Somewhere in our journeys we learned of a location in Hyde Park called Speakers Corner where people were able to have present their ideas.  This sounded a likely spot for where their father, Howard, may have preached.  The taxi dropped us right next to a concession area with Speakers' Corner written on the facility.  We were sure things had changed considerably since Howard was there.  Again, it was fun to imagine the scenes from 65+ years ago. 

Another taxi took us back to the hotel and the boys took a quick stroll and brought back Ben & Jerry's ice cream from the Tesco market.  Tesco market is the British version of 7-Eleven.  Another good day done.  Only 1 more day in London before heading home.