The weather was sunny this morning when we woke up, a surprise for us to have two sunny days in a row, being we had heard about all of the foggy, rainy days that you can have in London.
We ate breakfast in the hotel, it was quite good, although there were some items on the hot buffet that we had not considered as breakfast items, like baked beans. The toast was good, as well as the ham, and also some type of boiled egg, similar to a sunny side up egg, but well done, and in the shape of a small circle. There were also some pastries that were quite good.
After breakfast, we ventured out to the “tube” for a trip over to the Westminster area. We came out of the tube stop right at Big Ben and Parliament House.
The streets were closed, we found out that the London Marathon was being held today, we had not even know. This might have been part of the reason we had a little difficulty finding a hotel when were were looking a couple of months ago, a lot of the race participants probably booked rooms before us.
The race finish line was at Buckingham Palace, so a lot of streets in the area were cordoned off for the race route. We had no idea the race was that big, there were supposed to be over 34,000 participants. The size and location of the race finish line did cause us a to have to fight the crowds in that area, but it was not too bad.
We wondered over to the “London Eye”, a large wheel with “pods” attached to it. Each pod appeared to hold about 25 people. From afar, it just looks like a giant bicycle wheel. The Eye continuously rotates at a slow speed, taking about 30 minutes for the one rotation you get for your admission price.
We purchased our tickets and took our “rotation”. Everyone gets on and off at the bottom, as the wheel continues to rotate.
The views were very nice. We were glad it was a clear and sunny day, and not the typical London Fog weather.
When that was done, we ventured over to Westminster Abbey, which was closed to tourists today since it was Sunday. We just took pictures of both the Parliament Building and the Abbey from the outside, and then it was off to Buckingham Palace.
It was a longer walk to Buckingham Palace than normal due to the barricades used to outline the race route. In addition, we really had to fight through the race crowds. Once we got to the Palace, we walked the grounds in front of the Palace, and took photos. It was nice to see and photo from the outside.
Apparently, the Queen was in residence, the British flag was flying above the Palace, which, according to the locals, is the sign she is there.
Then we took the tube over to Piccadilly Circus, which I guess is similar to being in Times Square in New York.
Next, it was off to walk to Trafalgar Square to see the monument to Lord Nelson.
We then rode the tube over to the St. Paul’s Cathedral, which was also “closed” to tourists because it was Sunday, but they did let you inside to sit in some chairs at the rear of the church so you could at least see the inside of the Cathedral.
It was quite spectacular, and while we were there, they rang the church bells there for about 30 minutes, for reasons unknown.
We had seen a couple of tour buses with signs in the front window indicating they were there for an official “christening”, so that might have been the reason for the bell ringing. We wondered if it was a special “tour”, or if it was just a large family brought in on buses.
We walked back across the Thames River, and walked the riverwalk on the south side. We stopped in a couple of Pubs, and had a beer with the locals, who were out in large numbers, either because of the race, or because it was such a sunny day, or both. Out of the wind, it was nice, probably in the low 60’s, and it was funny to see some of the clothes the locals wore. Although we were not cold, we still had on long sleeves and at times a windbreaker coat. The locals acted like it was a 75 degree day not a 63 degree day. I guess they are just used to colder weather.
We wondered along the riverwalk past the H.M.S. Belfast, a WWII Royal Navy Cruiser that is permanently on exhibit, and ended up at a Mark’s and Spencer Simply Food Store, where all of the items they sold were prepared foods, ready to eat or warm up, but sold in single servings. Sort of like the old sandwich vending machines, but with salads, meat, pastas, almost everything you need, but sold in small containers. We bought some cheese, ham and crackers to have a light dinner in the room while we did our final packing, and drink our last bottle of wine from home.
We walked back to the room and relaxed before packing. We also realized that we could actually see Big Ben from our window, and so we took photos as the sun was going down and the light on the clock tower came on.
We will be going to bed early tonight, we have a 5:30 am wake up call waiting on us, we have to be on a train to the Gatwick Airport at 7:00 am to begin the long trip home. It must be time to go, the forecast is for rain tomorrow, so we need to get out of here while it is still nice, and we don’t experience the typical London weather.