Exploring London

As anyone who has ever visited well knows is not remotely possible in a 3-day timeframe. 

Regretfully, that's all the time we had on our recent trip abroad with Collette Tours called Shades of Ireland. This was a 9-day motor coach tour that made stops at many well-known Irish cities and sights (details in future posts) and there were two add-ons.

We added these before and after Ireland. First, came the London Pre-Extension tour and, after touring Ireland, an Edinburgh Post-Extension tour; both consisted of 3 days in each major city. Out of 42 people in the Ireland travel group, seven opted for the London add-on, all from NH — ourselves, friends Randy and Judy, and new friends, Jan, Bob, and Jack. 

The weather wasn't the most cooperative as shown in the photos below. As expected, it rained part of every day. Luckily, we were prepared with brolleys (umbrellas) and/or rain jackets, some days both were required.

London sights: The Globe Theater, Westminster & Big Ben, St Paul's, London Eye

Not only is London the capital of England, but it's the largest and most populated city in the UK. Our stay included a half-day walking tour in which we saw some of the city's landmark sites —including St Paul's Cathedral, The Globe Theater, the Tate Museum, London Eye, Westminster Abbey — which we didn't have time to visit. We received entry tickets to the iconic Tower of London which was explored on our own. 

London's Borough Market is a foodie's paradise

Walking through Borough market was a food lovers delight. This London wholesale and retail market hall is one of the largest and oldest food markets in the city. It has been in continuous operation since 1014 near London Bridge. The present buildings were built in the 1850s. The market mainly sells speciality foods to the general public. Stalls, shops and restaurants are unique in the food that's sold. We met up with our UK friends, Kath and Andrew here. 

One of the most useful things inclusions in our tour package was an Oyster card, pre-loaded with £15 (about $18 USD). This credit-card sized smart card used a payment method for public transport in London. 

Map of London Underground

Traveling the London Underground was our main way of transport

Using the card was easy, just touch-in at the yellow card reader on entry and then touch-out when exiting a station. We learned how to add to it using a credit card at touch-screen ticket machines within the Underground stations. Touching the card when entering or exiting was crucial to ensure that the correct fare was paid. One phrase we fast became very familiar with was Mind the Gap, a caution repeatedly issued to warning passengers to watch when leaving the train, there's usually a distance between the train and the platform.

Our NH friends in the Blackfriar Pub

Campaign for Real Ale logo

Of course, no visit to London would be complete without dining in an English pub. One of our choices was The Blackfriar on Queen Victoria Street built in 1875 on the site of a former medieval Dominican friary and remodeled around 1905. The building was almost demolished during a 1960s redevelopment phase. It's now on the Campaign for Real Ale's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors. This register lists public houses in the UK with interiors of significant historic interest and largely unchanged for at least 30 years, but usually since at least WW II. (The National Inventory was begun by, and is maintained by, the Campaign for Real Ale as part of that organization's mission to protect Britain's pub heritage as well as good beer.) Cheers to that 🍺

Fish and chips with mushy peas and a pint of Guinness and Smithwicks Ale

Of course, a staple menu item in most pubs is fish and chips served with mushy peas, a traditional accompaniment, which we really enjoyed. Mushy peas are surviving remnants of medieval and early British diets and have been called Yorkshire caviar and have been a menu item or over 60 years. This simple and colorful side dish was delicious with the fried cod and more like a condiment, similar to how tartar sauce is included in the U.S. 

Red colors in London included Grenville's jacket 

While there wasn't time to see everything London has to offer visitors. There were some iconic sights we didn't miss seeing like red post boxes, red telephone booths, double decker buses (no photo) and the Royal Guard. (Those familiar bearskin caps were introduced by the British Army following the Battle of Waterloo, June 1815, to make the soldiers appear taller and more intimidating when in combat.)

Despite the weather, crowds attended the Changing of the Guard, Buckingham Palace

It was an overcast, but thankfully rain-free morning when our group made an early morning trek to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard (also called Guard Mounting) which would occur at 11 a.m on our only Friday in London. The formal ceremony in which sentries performing ceremonial guard duties are relieved by a new batch of sentries takes place on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, weather permitting. The ceremonies are elaborate and precisely choreographed.

Our London travel friends (L-R): Jan, Bob, Randy, Jack, Patrick, Dorothy, Judy

We arrived about 9:30 a.m. hoping that the ceremony would not be cancelled. The area directly across The Mall from Buckingham Palace, at the Queen Victoria Memorial, a prime viewing location was already overflowing with spectators.

Old Guards leaving (top) and New Guards arriving (bottom)

During this nearly 2-hour event, The Old Guard (soldiers currently on duty) formed up in front of the palace to be relieved by the New Guard which had arrived from nearby Wellington Barracks. The New Guard was accompanied by a band which played music entertaining the spectators who had come from around the world to watch this event. The band consists of 35 musicians, usually members of the King's Guard regiments, who perform a variety of music ranging from traditional military marches to songs from shows and even familiar pop songs.

Music played during the guard changing ceremony has always been a mixture of traditional and popular music of the day. The band occasionally will branch out with an unexpected tune. It's said that on one occasion in 1920, the band was playing a piece from a popular operetta when a footman arrived with a message from King George V, addressed to the Director of Music, who excitedly read the note to find that it said: “His Majesty does not know what the Band has just played but it is never to be played again.”

Here's a sampling of some of the differing styles of architecture seen throughout London. Most of the modernistic buildings have a nicknames assigned, more on these in a future post.  

Tower Bridge viewed from the Tower of London

This post was a brief overview of how we spent part of our 72 hours inEngland's capital city. Several of those hours were spent touring the Tower of London and Battersea Power Station, both of which will be the subject of future posts.

Fellow Bloggers, while I have not commented on many of your recent blog posts due to various reasons: catching up at home, dealing with a lingering cold and more, most have been read. Time is always at a premium as we all know.