London - August 20, 2010

We made it! Vacation officially started on Thursday at 12:30 when we picked Alan up from work. Off we went to the airport where Lauren dropped us off and we were on our way. While waiting for our flight to JFK, we ran into my cousin Kari and her step-daughter who were flying to Vermont. It’s always fun to get those unexpected surprises. (Kari….sorry we didn’t see you after the flight. That connection was supposed to be too tight!)


After hurrying to the next terminal (about 30 minute walk), our flight to London ended up leaving 90 minutes late. Had to wait on the pilot. Always a valid excuse. The flight itself was pretty smooth. We probably got about 5 hours sleep total which wasn’t too bad for a 7.5 hour flight. We arrived in London around 8:00. Took another hour to get through customs but FINALLY we found our car and were on our way to the hotel.  Today's weather is overcast and cool.  Probably around 70 degrees.  Comfortable in long pants and t-shirts.

Rubens at the Palace is directly across from Buckingham Palace. In typical European fashion, the rooms are small, but comfortable. There will be quite a few people from our cruise staying here today and tomorrow.

Our room wasn’t ready so we left our luggage and headed out. First stop was for breakfast. Omelets and French fries. Not sure the connection, but that was the offering. Very good on both fronts.



We then decided to tour the Royal Mews first since it was across the street. The Royal Mews is where the royal carriages and horses reside. They are beautiful in all their glory. The staff that maintain both actually reside on premises.

We have tickets to tour Buckingham Palace tomorrow, so we headed around to the front of the palace to Victoria Square. Beautiful statue/gathering place. We headed down through St. James Park (picture Central Park) and enjoyed the scenery and people. We saw more varieties of ducks than we knew existed.

The Palace.

Guard on duty at Buckingham Palace



At the other end of the Park is the Horse Guards Museum. As the name suggests it houses the Royal Horses for the changing of the guard and other royal duties by Her Majesty’s bodyguards. We actually didn’t go in the Museum, but got the following picture of one of the guards on duty.

Next was the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms. This was fascinating. It is the actual rooms used during WWII by Winston Churchill and the Ministry of Defense built and fortified in the basement of this particular building. Bombings were occurring all around them above ground and they miraculously were never hit. Most had been restored with original furnishings including maps. Pictures are not allowed in the building however outside this building was a Spitfire from WWII.

Our last stop for the day was Westminster Abby. An absolutely beautiful church. More sarcophagus’ then the church’s we toured in Rome. The stain glass within is beautiful as is all the marble.

We’re now back at the hotel and getting settled. Dinner was wonderful and I seem to have the pictures out there, maybe not exactly lined up.  I'll keep working on it. Much more to see tomorrow including an evening ride up in the London Eye.