View of the Tower Bridge

Phone Booth at the Tower

Fuzzy Hat guarding the entrance to Crown Jewels

Canon at Tower of London

Torture Tower

Lady Beefeater & Len

The Famous Tower of London Raven

White Tower at the Tower of London

Eddie and Andy 

Our guide Eddie- Bad Hair day

A Day for Knights

Day Three

Another early morning and off to the Tower of London.  Today was the first and only day of rain.  We arrived at the Tower of London, just in time for the skies to open up and pour. Our guides had no mercy when it came to group photo ops. Rain or shine it was time for a photo. I also felt that no mercy should be shown when an opportunity to catch our guide when a bad hair day presented itself. We toured the grounds of the tower with Stephen and again got a detailed history lesson on the Tower and it famous inhabitants and visitors. During our history lesson I learned about the tale of the raven.  The story goes that should the ravens that live at the Tower leave, the Tower of London will fall and so will the British Monarchy.  Keeping that in mind I just took a few shots of the raven, but asked them not follow me home.

Then we were off to see the Crown Jewels.  We saw the Greater Star of India approx 600 karats, The Imperial Crown of India (the crown the Queen uses when traveling outside the UK) the coronation scepters, to name a few.  The area where the jewels are kept has more security than Fort Knox. The group had a choice of taking the bus back to the hotel or staying at the Tower.  Being that there was so much to see at the tower we stayed and took a taxi back to the hotel at the end of the day.  You can easily spend an entire day at the Tower of London and not see everything that there is to see. The weather quickly improved while we enjoyed the rest of the day at the Tower.

We met our friends Tom and Christy for dinner and went to a local restaurant  Wolfe’s -which was recommended by our guide Eddie.  According to Eddie it was a few blocks and a 5 minutes walk.  We learned the Eddie’s idea of a short walk and ours did differ. Eddie is young and has long legs; I am not young and have short legs, so I guess that is where the difference lies. The food was great and we spent most of our evening together laughing until we cried. 

It was another wonderful day of adventure in London.  Tomorrow is a Tale of Two Cities and our farewell to the UK.  Luggage pick up is at 7:15 am.  Off to bed with hopes of finding a small crown jewel under my pillow. 

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.

Sherlock Holmes is a Philly Fan

Welcome Dinner - Table decorations

Our Guide Andy & Len

Tube station

London’s calling – Cheers

Day One

Today we arranged for a “Blue Badge” guide Glen Portch to take us to the sites in London we would not see with ABD.  Eight and half hours later, we can say we saw and toured:

Kensington Palace, The Temple Church (Da Vinci Code), Nottinghill, Chelsea, Abbey Road, The White Bell Foundry (Home of the Liberty Bell), Paddington Station- to purchase an official Paddington Bear. Paul McCartney’s home, Diana Spencer's former residence, The Tower Bridge, Royal Albert Hall, the old docks, and few Harry Potter film locations and the site of Jack the Ripper’s 4^th victim.

This was an excellent day and well worth the cost.  We had numerous photo ops and the tour was tailored to exactly what we wanted to see. This was our first experience with London traffic and I fully understand why the tour books strongly suggest that you NOT DRIVE IN LONDON.

Back to the hotel at 4:30 for the beginning of our adventure of a lifetime.

We met Eddie and Andy our guides in the lobby before returning to or room for a brief rest before dinner. A cocktail reception and a get to know you fellow adventures game began our evening. The guides distributed our lanyards (what’s a Disney adventure without special Disney pins) and our storybooks. Then off to dinner which was a sampling of traditional British foods, fish & chips, shepherd’s pie, pork chops to name a few. . The entire room including the tables were decorated in a British theme.  It was a lovely evening, which concluded with our first pins of the adventure.

A Royal Journey awaits us tomorrow. 

 

Cities of Knights and Lights May 2009

The famous Abbey Road

London Telephone Booth

Temple Church - DaVinci Code

Kensington Palace- Princess Diana Apt.

Abbey Road

Tower of London Bridge

Big Ben is the Bell, not the clock

Cities of Knights and Lights

May 2009   (Adults Only)

Wednesday 5-13 into Thursday 5-14.

Our journey began on Wed at 11pm when we boarded our overnight flight to London.

We arrived without any issues (rare for US Air), cleared customs, added another stamp to our passport and we greeted by representative holding an ABD sign with our names.

She quickly whisked us off to our car and off the Renaissance Chancery Court Hotel.

We had decided to come in a day early to adjust to the time change and tour London before the official Cities of Knights and Lights tour began.

Check in was a breeze and then off to our very well appointed room. This is a beautiful Hotel, with all the amenities that you would expect from Disney.

We had been warned to fight the need for sleep and we did.  We headed off to the British Museum, which is within walking distance of the hotel.  The museum is massive and you could spend a day there, we spent a few hours. We particularly liked the Rosetta stone and the Mummies.

We strolled back to the hotel after a Starbuck’s stop. Met our ABD friends from So.Cal Tom & Christy grabbed a bite for dinner and off to sleep for soon another day awaits us in London.