Our Adventure away from home.... Part 2

Only Robinson Crusoe had everything done by Friday

~ Author Unknown ~

Welcome back!  I have another post on what we did in London, and then one more post to show you what we did in Paris... and then that's it - no more holiday snaps!

Day 4

While we were in London we were very lucky to get our timing right so that we could do the full Tour of Buckingham Palace which included the Royal Mews, State Rooms inside the Palace and the Exhibitions. So we spent the whole day taking the opportunity to see some of the most amazing rooms in the Palace, places that I have only ever seen on TV.  We didn't take a lot photos during the State Room tour due to the high security of the areas, but we did take heaps while in the Royal Mews.

The Gold State Coach

Look who we found in one of the Royal Paintings - Mitzi's ancestor!

What a backyard!

Our tour around the State Rooms of Buckingham Palace was absolutely amazing.  It was very, very busy but the organisers have everything extremely well organised.  Fantastic day out!

Day 5

Well here are, almost at an end of our week in London, so today was a bit of a wander around day again using shanks pony!  We started off walking through Green Park and ended up outside Clarence House just in time for the changing of the Guard.

Changing of the Guard at Clarence House

From Clarence House we headed off towards Trafalgar Square to see the pigeons only to find out there are no more pigeons in the Square - but there was this rather gorgeous fellow!

The reason there are no pigeons in Trafalgar Square

And also there was this rather amazing bird...

The Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square

From Trafalgar Square it was off to Regent Street and Oxford Street to visit to fantastic stores... Hamleys and Liberty. And who did we meet at Hamleys?

The Royal Family.... made out of Lego!  Totally amazing!!

Lego Royal Family

Mark chatting to the Queen!

They had other Lego creations in the store as well, but the Lego Royal Family were absolutely brilliant!

On the way out I managed to get a cuddle with the Hamleys' bear mascot!

Christmas display at Liberty

We then rounded our day out with visit to "The Vault" at the Hard Rock Cafe.

Another busy day of sightseeing done and dusted!

Day 6

Last day in London.... time to take stock and work out what we haven't yet seen that we really wanted to see.

After going past St Paul's Cathedral to take some outside photos (we forgot to do that the day we were there!), we walked over the Millennium Bridge on our way to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre for a look around.  Unfortunately as the whole place was inundated with school children on tour we decided not to try and get in and do the tour, so it was off on a boat ride down the Thames to our next stop - the Houses of Parliament.

Millennium Bridge

Big Ben

We spent most of the afternoon at the Houses of Parliament including doing the guided tour of the House of Lords and the House of Commons.  Absolutely amazing tour!  We are so pleased that our timing coincided with the opening times of the Houses of Parliament to the public.

Nelson Mandela's plaque in the hall at Westminster

The Weekend

Friday dawned and it was the day that we were to leave London and head off for the weekend and the wedding of Hubby's niece.  We hired a car from London and headed out of the city and onto the British motorways to Essex to visit Hubby's old school, and then to the hotel to meet up with Hubby's family.

The wedding was fantastic and it was absolutely brilliant to meet all the Hubby's family at long last!

Wedding Flowers - aren't they beautiful

Sorry no photos of the wedding festivities, but how about a pic of the gorgeous flower decorations!

Sunday saw us in Hubby's old home town and meeting up with more his extended family, and then Monday after a wander around the town centre it was back in the car to head back to London in time to drop off the hire car and onto the Eurostar to Paris!

So that was our week in London.... next time I will show you some photo's of our four days in Paris.

Til next time, happy stitching

Our Adventure away from home.... Part 1

It's a dangerous business Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no telling where you might be swept off to.

~ Bilbo Baggins ~

So here we are finally... the first holiday post... from our holiday in September!  Well I did tell you that my days and months appear to have flown by way too fast this year!

So onward and upwards and into the breach once more!!

I don't know if we did anything that you would call adventurous on our holiday, but we did indeed go on a big holiday!  Maybe not a big holiday in the sense of a grand epic adventure or grand tour, but we did go overseas and end up on the other side of the world.

And what did we find there?

Day 1

We arrived in London in the early hours of Saturday morning, and after going to the apartment where we were staying in Queensgate to check in, shower and change (we paid for the night before so that we could do the early check in!); it was off to Waitrose's for the essentials - tea, milk and breakkie cereal... it was time to get out and start walking!!

And walk we did.... down to Hyde Park for a wander around, through Kensington Gardens and out of the park near the Australian War Memorial where we stopped to watch what looked like a police motorbike exercise.

Peter Pan Statue

Princess Diana Memorial Fountain

Police Motorbikes - practice or real?

From there we walked through Kensington and stopped off at Harrods for a look see and finally back to the pub around the corner for dinner.

Day 2

Up and at 'em early - funny how you manage to wake up early when you're holidays!!

Another busy day planned starting with spending the morning at the V&A museum.  Amazing place to go and walk around; the exhibitions are just fantastic.  We had a great walk down memory lane while wandering around the "Club to Catwalk: London Fashion in the 1980's" Exhibition - especially for Hubby as he grew up in the UK and remembers the fashions... most of which didn't quite get to where I lived in the hot north west of Western Australia!!

Performance Art at the V&A Museum

From the V&A we caught the tube to Covent Garden where we had lunch at Jamie Oliver's restaurant "Union Jack".  After wandering around Covent Garden we made our way to the Embankment so that we could be in position to watch the last stage of the Tour of Britain cycle race.

Riders in Stage 8 - Tour of Britain Cycle Race

While the race was on we took the opportunity to walk along the Embankment up to the Houses of Parliament where we stood and watched the riders for awhile longer before heading over to Westminster Abbey and started heading back to the Apartment.  Another day over....

Day 3

Monday bought more grey skies.... but no rain luckily as we had decided that Day 3 was the day for our Big Bus Tour of London!  It is amazing what you can see from the top of a big red bus!

Under construction - facade of a new store in London

We absolutely loved the Big Bus Tour of London.  What a great way to see all the sights in one day!  We did get off the bus to visit Paddington Bear at Paddington Station as well as St Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London.  We had planned to stop off at the London Eye but given the grey skies we decided not to as we probably wouldn't have seen much from the top anyway!!

Tower of London

I have been to the Tower of London before (when I went to London back in 1987) and I remember bits and pieces of the Tower and the exhibitions there but the main thing of course that sticks in my memory is the Crown Jewels!  Seeing them again in the setting of the 60th Anniversary of the Queen's Coronation was amazing - they were better than I remembered from the last trip!

While on the Warden's Tour at the Tower of London we were shown where in 1674 the bodies of two children were found...  these bodies were (and still are) thought to have been the bodies of the 2 little Princes in the Tower (sons of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville).  Now when I watch "The White Queen" I can remember that spot in Tower where the two Princes were taken too and later thought to have been discovered nearly 200 years after they disappeared.

And so ends Day 3.... and this post.  Stay tuned for the part two very soon.

Til next time, happy stitching