London: Palace Viewing and an old Acquaintance

From Bryan: Tashia wrote this some number of years ago (most likely towards the end of 2018, and the draft has been sitting on the site since at least 2021) and I'm guessing I forgot to add pictures and post it. Oops!

So, we are quite a bit behind on writing these blog posts (from Bryan: ha!), but let's see if we can't crack through another one super quick! Hey, we might even get caught up by the end of the quarter! (Bryan: HA!)

The next morning we slept in a little (for us), and ended up leaving the flat around 8:45 in the morning. We were set to walk a ways that day, so we had some ground to cover!

After jumping on the tube at East Finchley to Leicester Square (that's not pronounced how it looks, btw, so look it up and you'll be surprised!), we hopped over to the Piccadilly in order to get to Hyde Park. Stepping out from the Hyde Park stop was just gorgeous! A quick walk through the park provided many photo opportunities, but Continental Avenue was just spectacular...even if we did walk down the bike path instead of the walking path like we were supposed to...that's right, we're rebels!

We were able to view the Buckingham Palace from the front amidst all the other tourists, but there wasn't much to see beyond the guards and closed gates. So, we headed around the side towards the Royal Mews. As it was getting late, we decided to stop at a little bakery before heading into the Mews. Of course, we picked the one with the overpriced scones and juice, but what do we expect from a shop directly across from Buckingham Palace.

The Royal Mews were super interesting and I was looking forward to them, especially because I just love horses! Sadly, there weren't any there to see, but we were able to get a look at all of the carriages and historical vehicles used by the Royal Family.

Near the Royal Mews was the Buckingham Palace Gift shop, which we stopped in thinking we could find some neat souvenirs. Turns out, they had completely decked out the place for the Royal Wedding, so we didn't find much. News flash, London, we picked the date for our anniversary trip WAAAAAYYYY before those two decided to get hitched. :P

From here, we headed down Victoria Avenue on the search for something for lunch. We found a place called Bill's and grabbed some sandwiches (We shared some mushroom toast and then Bryan went for the ham hock and cod sandwich while I enjoyed a chicken BLAT sandwich).

Continuing our stroll, we made it to Westminster Cathedral where there was a man singing outside. Sadly, I didn't know the song or I would have joined in...probably not. The Cathedral was beautiful and we probably took way to many photos of it, but "When in London", eh?

Just down the street from the Cathedral was Westminster Abbey. We took one look at the line and decided to skip that for the day, especially as they were having everyone remove and store their bags and were searching everyone (today's day and age, huh?). It would have taken us HOURS to even get to the front of the line. So, we perused from afar and continued on our way.

I'm glad we did because our next stop of the day was the Jewel Tower, which had absolutely no one waiting in line. Granted, I didn't even know the place existed until we stumbled upon it, but still. Apparently the Jewel Tower was where the King Edward the third kept his personal treasure and such. There was a moat around it, people! This was the first characteristic representation of a palace that I'd seen yet! So neat! After a fire, the treasure was moved elsewhere and the building became the place of parliamentary record storage followed by a place to store and test official weights and measures (yep, they had a whole department for that!). The things you learn these days! Wowza! It was a cute little excursion and Bryan even got a bottle of Ginger Liqueur there, so we came home with our own treasure. (Bryan: I have made many a mule cocktail with the liqueur in the years since, but I still have a small amount of it left. It's hard to want to finish off the bottle when you know you can't easily get more!)

Just across the street was the Parliament Building and Big Ben, though both were covered in scaffolding and being repaired or upgraded at the time. My one site I wanted to see, Big Ben, wasn't visible because of a bunch of scaffolding. Them's the breaks, kids. But it was still neat to see the buildings themselves, plus, we walked by a group of people protesting Brexit, so that was a new experience as well!

Even though Big Ben was covered in scaffolding, we were able to jump on a bus that took us across the bridge and when I turned back around to snap one more photo, you could at least see the clock face, so not all was lost. We also got a good view of the London Eye, though we decided not to go on it this time around. Maybe next time we will be more touristy, but Bryan and I were on the hunt for the less traveled locations. (Bryan: I think this was actually on a future day... that post will be coming eventually. Famous Last Words).

After the short bus trip, we took to the streets to find the Churchill Museum, which is when we passed by yet another protest in the streets. Now, I wasn't exactly sure what this one was about, but it definitely made me want to go to the other side of the street for sure! There were clearly two separate groups and they looked to be just on the edge of getting violent, which was probably why there were policemen nearby also. It didn't help that there was construction on the sidewalk we were on either, but we kept moving and made it to the museum.

Can I just say that Churchill's Imperial War Museum and Cabinet War Rooms was so freaking cool?! I didn't even know anything about it (I guess it's a good thing I left the planning to Bryan, he found all the super cool sites for our trip), but it was so interesting! An underground bunker where all the plans were made, people were housed, and documents were stored during World War II. There were so many documents and so much information that we probably could have spent all day just in this museum! (Bryan: I did good!)

We had to split, though, because Bryan had a date! :) Bryan has been playing this online game for YEARS! But he's never met any of the people he talks to, so he set up a meeting with one of those players since we would probably not be in London anytime soon. So, we headed to Trafalgar Square to meet Randal! I had no idea what he looked like, and we didn't have any signal in London, so it was basically a case of "stand among the dozens of people hoping this one random person finds you even though he's never met you before in his life." Luck was on our side and Bryan and Randal found each other and we headed to a nearby pub to grab some drinks. I believe it was called The Chandos, but I know that Bryan grabbed a Rolling IPA and I enjoyed a Strawberry Lime Rucmeisters Cider. Man, do I wish that cider was here in the US! It was delish! If we didn't have to go grab some dinner after, I might have stayed and ordered another two or three of those...

After catching up on each other's lives, B and R decided we could head out to grab some dinner. Randal took us to this place called Pizza Express and we split a risotto appetizer and some pizzas. A couple things we noticed while here was the difference in paying the check and the difference in the presence of the wait staff. In the US, you give the waiter your card and they run the card on their machine in the back. In London, your card never leaves the table. You signal that you're ready to pay your check and they bring their card reader to the table, so your card never leaves your presence. It's so simple and seems like a perfect way to decrease the instances of identity theft. In addition, the wait staff basically leaves you alone unless you call for them, which is very different from home. We are used to the staff coming over every few minutes to ask how things are going or if we need anything. In London, it's considered rude to interrupt the diners' meal, so they don't interact with you unless you call them over. It's a very different viewpoint!

We chatted as long as we could, but Randal had to eventually leave to catch the last available tram to his home, so we paid and headed back to the frat to rest up for the next day. Of course, wouldn't you know it, Bryan meets this man he's communicated with for years and we forget to take a photo to mark the occasion. I promise you it happened, though! I was a witness!

From Bryan: As I was picking out photos I found a few that didn't have a natural place within the narrative. And since I forgot to take any pictures at the end of the day anyway, let's finish out with the leftovers!