Thursday, July 16, 2009

The Renaissance Chancery Hotel
Buckingham Palace
Lisa, Len, Christy, & Tom -Buckingham Palace 
Group Photo- Buckingham Palace
Changing of the Guard- Buckingham Palace
Westminster Abbey
Tom & Christy in front of "Big Ben"
Changing of the Guard -Buckingham Palace

Our Double Decker Roadster 

A Royal Journey

Day Two

Today’s events began on our own Double Decker Bus with our London Guide Stephen.  We passed many of London’s landmarks (Trafalga Square, The Royal Courts of Justice) in route to our first stop at Westminster Abbey.  Keeping in the tradition of Disney magic, we bypassed the line with our guide and toured the Abbey.  This is an impressive church and larger then I had imagined.  Unfortunately photography was not permitted. While touring the church with our headsets, Stephen gave us an in depth history lesson on The Church of England. 

Next stop was Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard.  We were positioned in a perfect viewing location. Hats off to the guides!  As the guards marched in our direction there were numerous photo ops. We were so close that as they passed we could have reached out and touched them.  Now it was time for one of many group photos in front of the palace before we boarded our Double Decker Bus for the short trip to Harrods for lunch.

High Tea at Harrods was enjoyable. Lunch was finger sandwiches, scones and pastries, traditional high tea foods.  Harrods is a huge department store with high-end merchandise.  It was so crowded that it reminded me of Black Friday at Macy’s at Herald Square, NYC.  Crowds of that magnitude not being my thing, we went directly to see the Diana and Dodi memorial and shortly thereafter exited the store. We met our guides and some group members and took the tube back to the Hotel. My comments on the tube: The London subway system being the oldest in the world was extremely simple to use and clearly marked.  It was extremely hot on the tube, but was also extremely clean.

Time for a short rest at the hotel before it was time to board our bus, which took us to the theater for The Lion King. The show was great, even though we had seen it on Broadway a few years earlier.  The seats were the best in the house and our special treat was being able to go backstage following the show.  The Assistant Stage Manager took us through the many areas of backstage where costumes, puppets and sets are stored.  It was amazing how much they can store in a tiny area backstage.

Back on the bus for our return trip to the hotel and lights out after a very long and wonderful day in London.

No comments:

Post a Comment