Our Royal Day

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

My primary goal for this day was to get an overview of the amazing city of London.  So we hopped on our Hop On Hop Off bus and started the journey.  When we got to Westminster Abbey, we hopped off.

Big Ben is actually the nickname of the bell in the famous tower.

The tower's name is Elizabeth Tower.

First things first, we needed to find a place to eat.  We came across this charming little bar/restaurant...so old London...and ate breakfast.  Jacque is quite particular about her eggs and tried valiantly to explain that she wanted them cooked hard...hard enough to bounce off the floor.  Then when she saw our lightly cooked bacon, she stopped the waitress to ask that her bacon also be cooked hard.  We were quite anxious to see the state of her plate, but thankfully it was cooked to her liking.  (We'll never know if the chef spat on it though.)
Then we toured Westminster Abbey, home of William and Kate's wedding...and a lot of dead people. This is the final resting place of many a royal, writers, poets, and even an occasional actor.  When visiting Italy on a prior trip, we saw so many cathedrals that after awhile we would murmur to each other, "It's just another church." (Although they all were truly amazing.). While in the abbey, we took to murmuring, "It's just another dead person."

Westminster Abbey

I had to ask how they had seated all the guests for the royal wedding, as there were not many seats in the Abbey.  A very friendly guide explained that they have special risers built for such occasions and the seats will go up to half the height of the walls (truly nose blood seats).  She told us that they seated approximately 4,000 people this way for The Wedding.
Speaking of asking questions.  The Londoners are wonderful!  Whenever we seem perplexed, with our map in hand, someone will stop to ask us if we need help.  So sweet!  So I've been developing a plan as to tell the locals from the many tourists here.  So far these are the the hints I've gathered:
Tourists--carry maps (us!); look lost (us again!); wear funky clothes and the occasional LONDON t-shirt or sweatshirt (us...John & I were freezing and needed something warmer...oooo a tacky tourist stand...we think we'll invest in sweatshirts!)

These three are obviously locals!

Locals---may be dressed in business attire; anyone walking a dog is probably local; walking with a look of confidence...like they know where they're going.
After the abbey we headed to Buckingham Palace to meet with the queen.  It seems they were about to have a jolly fancy garden party.  So we saw the guests lined up for miles...or so it seemed...in their royal finery.  So many lovely hats!  I thought I must shop for a large fancy hat while in London, but to my avail, there's no room in my luggage.  Drats!

Buckingham Palace

guarding the queen's residence

The queen never showed up to see us..so rude...so we ventured on.  We stopped in at the Royal Mews since we had a few minutes to wait for our bus (ahem!  I mean Royal carriage!).  The Royal Mews is an acting stable for the Royal horses and garage for the Royal Carriages.  They were truly amazing to see up close and personal. We saw the carriage Diana used for her wedding day, the Gold Carriage used for coronations and jubilees, and many others.

I think this was Princess Diana's carriage...

or was it Kate's???

just another Royal acting royal!

this is the carriage used for coronations and the jubilee

Back on to the bus to continue the tour and to get acclimated.  I was most excited to get my first glimpse of the Tower of London (my number one goal of the stop in London).  We will spend time there tomorrow, but it was nice to get a first taste.
Now...where shall we eat?  When inquiring about great food in London (England...great food??), Indian food was recommended to us by Jan and Janelle.  So we think....why not?  When in England, eat Indian!  This is a very cosmopolitan city.  We've been served by waiters/hotel staff etc. from Spain, Italy, Mexico, and India...never British.  So why should we restrict ourselves to eating local food?  We ask at the desk for a recommendation and they send us to Thalia.  Yum!  Yum!  Yum!  Every dish was excellent!  When we got ready to leave, a gentleman who had been seated near us asked if we were American.  How could he have guessed??  We look and sound so British!  Anyway, he was asking because he was the brother of the owner of this restaurant, and another brother of his (how many brothers in this family???) owns a restaurant in San Francisco.  And he tells us we must try ___.  And if we must...we MUST!
So we end our fabulous day with a cocktail and a debriefing about our excursions.  Suddenly John erupts with, "Ooooo, I just burped curry!"  We all enjoy a good laugh.  And on that note, our wonderful day comes to a happy ending.