London: Brendon's Birthday

HMS Belfast moored in the Thames by Tower Bridge

Jared and I met Brendon in London for a weekend of Birthday Glory for his big day on Sep 15, 2019.

Destination birthdays are starting to be a bit of a thing in our family - 30th cruise for me, which turned into our honeymoon cruise, and Gold Coast escape for Brendon's 21st... and 22nd... and this year we convened in London!

I would really like to do African safari for Dad's birthday, but that's another adventure for another time.

So, London.

Tower of London from South Bank

Tower Bridge and moi

Day 1: Friday, September 13

We flew into Gattwick with Aer Lingus because we learned our lesson about Southend Airport and we wanted to see if it was any better than Ryan Air. Conclusion: When their flights are on time, yea, it is marginally better.

Food festival happening while we were visiting the Tower of London

I love the tube system in London - you can just tap on with any paywave capable credit or debit card. Such an easy system! However, make sure you tag off or you can get stung - Jared paid £8 for a days' transport and I paid £25 for the same day and the same trains as mine didn't register a tap (although I was sure I was careful!) You can get refunds for any wrong charges, but it is a faff. [link]

There's a really good tour that's included as part of your ticket, where they take you around and tell you some gruesome stories

The train from Gattwick to London was about 30 mins I think and we hopped off on the South Bank just before the tower bridge and walked across.

Brendon and Raukawa were still getting themselves ready, and were staying a distance out of town, so we took the opportunity to leave our things at our Couch Surfer host's place while we had a bit of time. If you've not looked into Couch Surfing, it is a wonderful thing. We've hosted half a dozen different people this year - about one a month - and we have met some truly lovely people. Then hopefully once you know them, it is a bit easier to get free accommodation and stay with them. This was true of our digs in Limehouse in London where we stayed in a modest apartment with a lovely Italian man who'd stayed with us over summer.

We went over Tower Bridge and admired the bridge, and headed to the Tower of London. We validated our London Royal Palace passes by simply presenting the pdf on our phone, and continued on our merry way.

Eventually we met the others and went in. A guided tour starts every hour (I think) and is included in the ticket price. The Beefeater is in costume and shares some of the gorier histories of the Tower and its inhabitants at various points in history - most notably many of Henry VIII's wives.

...And this is the courtyard where a whole bunch of beheadings took place...

A lot of prisoners of higher rank were free to roam around the Tower of London, which is less of a tower per se and more of a palace complex

You get shown where the beheadings took place.

The guys guarding the exterior of the Jewel Tower

We then went through to see the Crown Jewels and then circumnavigated the walls.

I was very interested to know that there was a Royal Menagerie in the Tower of London for nearly 600 years, and there were a number of accidents, so the London Zoo to keep the animals and the people more safe while seeing them.

White Tower - primary residence of royals 

View from the top of the White Tower, after which the Tower of London is named

The best gift is love... swoon/gag

Touristing it up with these crazy cats!

From the Tower of London we went to look at Buckingham Palace, just the exterior and a bit of St James park adjacent.

I was taken aback, as I imagine one is supposed to be, with the splendour and grandeur of the palace. 

I was also intrigued by the gates. There's a Africa gate, a Canada gate and an Australia gate that lead up to Buckingham Palace. 

Up until that moment, I didn't really realise that they gave a shit about their Empire. 

We had planned to meet Jane for a late dinner, and had several hours in between, so we decided to treat ourselves to high tea - with bottomless bubbles - at a very fancy restaurant in the Palm Court, a swanky hotel near Mayfair, I think.

I was intrigued by the reference to Empire in their menu. I (now) understand it refers to a set of books, but even still.... bit antiquated right?

The Serpentine in Hyde Park at dusk.

We then went to meet Jane in [some fancy restaurant] and enjoyed some tasty food and a bit of a boogie.

Day 2: Saturday, 14 September 2019

Saturday started with Kensington Palace. It is a relatively small home, and doesn't really look like a palace from the outside. It was the home of Queen Victoria growing up, and she was militantly drilled there, constantly surrounded day and night, always with an adult at her side, never allowed any privacy.

Most of the displays tell the story of her life, and it has mostly only been used by her.

I was really interested to learn of how distraught she was when Prince Albert died, and how she coped with her grief. I was also delighted to hear about her interlude with an Indian man Abdul Karim, as depicted in the movie 'Victoria and Abdul'. I think it is a really sweet story.

Look carefully and you'll see my true identity

A particularly difficult to understand family tree showing.... nope I still get lost looking at it, even after having it explained.

Stunning likeness riiiiiiight?

Victoria's bedroom when growing up

'Take only photographs, leave only footsteps' is much cheaper than buying photos at the souvenir shop

Brendon and Raukawa in Kensington Gardens

An ice cream in Hyde Park as we walked through cured the 3:30itis.

The Round Pond in Hyde Park

On the way, we meandered over to the Prince Albert Memorial. Reality far exceeded expectations here.

Tribute Statue to Prince Albert, with The Royal Albert Hall in the background

Firstly, these photos don't really do justice to the scale of the thing.

Memorial Statue to Prince Albert

Secondly, the way that the memorial is sculpted , you'd think that Prince Albert has personally conquered those lands himself!

The India corner

Each corner displays a different continent/culture/flavour of the British Empire.

The Egypt/Africa corner

The gilded largess of this creation speaks to a great man. Prince Albert certainly did his bit to further the crown, the royal family and country, and was dearly beloved by Victoria, if not the country as a whole. But this visual extravaganza, in all of its extra glory, cemented a growing sensation that Jared and I have shared since we moved here of 'WTF is all this monarchy nonsense about?', compounded by touring palaces for 3 days.

We proceeded to Leicester square for dinner in a cute Italian restaurant, and a movie (Downton Abbey, a must-see!) past the lions in Trafalgar Square.

I didn't realise that London is basically like a Monopoly board IRL - everything is a stone's throw away. This is Trafalgar Square, a 4 minute walk from Banqueting House. There's some lions and behind the giant phallic pillar is the National Gallery

Day 3: Sunday, 15 September 2019

Jared and I chilled in St James Park by Buckingham Palace, as we waited for the arrival of Brendon and Raukawa.

We used the Horse Guards Parade as a thoroughfare to get to Banqueting House which was the last stop on our tour of Royal places for the weekend.

This is the Horse Guards Building, home to some Royal Horses

London is full of amazing neo-classical architecture, birthed from the design of the Palace of Whitehall in the 1600s.

Across the road from the Banqueting House is where they keep all the Queen's horses and all the Queen's men.

We spent about 2 hours listening to an audio guide and lying on bean bags at Banqueting House learning all about how the building has escaped a fire that had taken down most of the Palace of Whitehall.

I'm pretty ambivalent about art, as I don't really understand the symbolism of it. So I really enjoyed the audio guide that explained all the different levels of meaning for each of the paintings and the difficulties encountered trying to paint the ceiling of such a prestigious building. Read more about it here.

Banqueting House is one of the only buildings left standing from Palace of Whitehall built by Henry VIII

A lot of these pictures were designed to intimidate any would-be guests

We then went to the London Eye. The pods are quite full, so I would like to do it at another time when there are fewer people around, but it was stunning nonetheless.

Fast Pass was worthwhile, as walked straight on rather than waiting an hour in line. September is coming down off the height of business over summer, but it is still very busy.

Loved watching this feat of engineering in action

Jubilee Gardens on the South Bank as seen from the London Eye

Looking West towards London, Whitehall Palace and Gardens to the mid-left of the picture

Looking East from the London Eye

Hungerford and Golden Jubilee Bridges in foreground with Waterloo bridge in midground, and the view North up the Thames

Westminster / South view down the Thames

The London Eye from Westminster Bridge

Afterwards, we strolled along the banks of the Thames towards Westminster and then onto Westminster Abbey. We'd exceeded our energy and money limits at this stage, so attempted to find somewhere to get (cheap) cake for Brendon's birthday, but were sadly unsuccessful.

Brendon and I on Westminster Bridge

Westminster Hall

St Margaret's Church, and the side of Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

Jared and I had a 9pm flight, so needed to get to Gattwick by 7ish, so we set out on a train at 5:30 or so, and discovered, to our obvious delight, that our flight was delayed when we arrived. (That's 2 from 2 Sunday night flights for Jared that have been delayed.) Not being able to depend upon flight schedules does somewhat hamper the enthusiasm about weekend get aways!

It was a really interesting trip. It was unnerving, surreal and slightly underwhelming being so close to what used to the centre of the greatest empire on earth. I don't really know what I was expecting to be honest, but gates as a tribute to different parts of the empire wasn't it. Or the memorial to Prince Albert with all of the trappings of Empire all over it. 

There is certainly the sense that there are some desperately still trying to hold onto the legacy of greatness, even if it is not as current as others might like it to be. There certainly is something grandiose and powerful about London. The architecture, the

London is still spectacular, big-but-small, and with plenty to see and do.