London Day 5 - Kew Gardens

A Sunday in the park - Kew Gardens. How completely lovely. We are avid Botanical Garden admirers, having the Chicago Botanical Garden 20 minutes from our home. I must admit that in spite of how gorgeous our Botanical Gardens are here at home, the British are one up on us in that regard. See below:

The conservatory - stunning


Inside the conservatory, on the spiral staircase

Awesome

An English Rose


Cedar of Lebanon

Kew Palace

Kristin on the grounds of the palace

Me at the Wishing Well

Kristin in the gazebo

A Wheeping Beech Tree

Inside the Wheeping Beech - it was a completely sheltered and enclosed space. Oh, to be a child again and play in there, what fun we would have!

Holly boughs and berries - and it's not even Christmas yet!

We weren't sure what this plant was; there was no label, but it looked neat.

Swans, swans I tell you, right there in the garden

I have no idea what this bird is. Does anyone know? We loved his fern-like feet.

Kristin by the flowers. At this point, after walking miles and miles in the garden (and actually getting semi-lost - HELP!), our feet were killing us.

Me with sore feet


We thought the town was charming.

In spite of sore feet, we enjoyed our day at the garden and would recommend it to anyone travelling to London. I would love to go there in the spring because they have rhododendron plants there that are enormous. I can just imagine how beautiful they look in bloom.

London Day 5 - Sunday Morning Mass

On Sunday morning, Kristin and I went to Mass at Westminster Cathedral (which gets confusing; Westminster Cathedral is the Catholic Cathedral in London, Westminster Abbey is the famous Anglican church where coronations of English monarchs takes place). We made sure to go to the Mass where their choir was singing (the Solemn Mass, or sung Mass, where portions of the liturgy as sung rather than spoken). It was beautiful.

Westminster Cathedral

The tower of the Cathedral



Above the doorway

After Mass, we walked back to the train so we could head over to Kew Gardens. We spotted "Baby Ben" on the way:

London - Madame Tussauds Wax Museum

Loads of fun! On Saturday afternoon, Kristin and I finished with the Sherlock Holmes Museum, then walked over to Madame Tussauds. There was a bit of a "queue" as they say in England, but it was only 20 minutes or so. It was well worth the wait. I was under the impression that the exhibits would be roped off, for viewing from afar only. Not so! The wax figures are standing about, ready to be examined closely and posed with. Sometimes it got a little creepy, as when a "person" I thought was a fellow tourist standing next to me was actually a wax figure!

Anyway, we had a blast. Besides the figures in the various rooms (each room had a different theme, such as political figures, movie stars, historical figures, etc.), there was also a ride (sort of like a tame roller coaster) where one got to go through a big display on some of England's history. We also purchased three formal photographs that the staff took; one was of me with the Queen! It looked so convincing that I played a joke on my friends when I showed them the picture, and told them "Look, I got to meet the Queen!" (I admitted the truth immediately after, but they all said they couldn't tell at first that it was a wax figure.)

Me with Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart). I took this one for Paul, since he is a "Trekkie".

Kristin with Brad and Angelina. We all think Kristin resembles Angelina a bit.


Kristin with Orlando Bloom. We loved him in The Lord of the Rings.


Kristin with Nicole Kidman (Leonardo DiCaprio and Johnny Depp to the sides).
Nicole looked so real.


Kristin in High School Musical

Me with Spiderman. I took this one for Tyler, who loves Spiderman.

Kristin and Prince Harry. We were surprised by how tall the princes are.

With Prince William

Kristin and her hero, The Bard himself, William Shakespeare

We had the honor of "meeting" Pope John Paul II!

I recommend a visit to the Wax Museum to anyone travelling to London. It was so much fun, especially with a teenager along. The artistry is just amazing.

London Day 4 - Sherlock!

One of the places Kristin and I agreed to not miss on our trip was the Sherlock Holmes Museum. Although we are not Sherlock aficionados, we have each read some of his stories and enjoyed them. (My sister, however, is a true Sherlock devotee, and had suggested this museum to us.)

Here it is:

221B Baker Street!

A beautiful fireplace in one of the rooms

Kristin and me as Holmes and Watson

In the gift shop - Sherlock memorabilia, including among other things, a Sherlock chess set, books, and these darling Sherlock teddy bears

Just because they are so cute - a close up!

London Day 4 - Morning

On Saturday morning we went for our tour of the Shakespeare Globe theater. This was especially exciting for Kristin, who had spent three years in a wonderful homeschool Shakespeare class, saw many, many Shakespeare plays in Chicago and Milwaukee, and loves his works.

The Globe from the outside

A view looking down onto the stage

One of the roof peaks

Another view of the stage, showing the area where the "Groundlings" would stand. You can just barely see Elizabeth in the foreground. The Groundlings were the peasants of Shakespeare's time, who could not afford seats, so stood to watch the play. Kristin and I would do this as well on Monday night, when we were scheduled to see As You Like It.

After this we toured backstage, saw lots of costume and set exhibits, and swordplay practice. We also got to see the costumers dress up Courtney as Ophelia. She looked awesome. After this tour we were looking even more forward to the play the following Monday night.

London Day 3 - Afternoon

In the afternoon on Friday, we went to the Tower of London. We were tempted to take a nap beforehand, but one of our fellow travellers cautioned against it - we might never want to get up until very late! So we went ahead to do some more sightseeing, and were glad of it.

Kristin and I had read a book about The Tower prior to our journey, so had a frame of reference to draw on which made it much more interesting. Here are Scenes From The Tower:

Castle bedroom - how lovely!

Kristin by the guard

Tower raven - we got thisclose


Kristin tries her hand at archery




Kristin and me - goofing off in very heavy helmets!

London Trip Day 3 - Our First Day In London - Morning

We arrived in London very early in the morning (their time). We had much difficulty trying to sleep on the plane. Kristin didn't even bother trying. We found out after we landed the the seats have these little drop-down thingys on the seat back so you can lean your head on them to sleep. Oh well. British Airways is a very accomodating airline. We loved their service.

We boarded our "coach" (don't you dare call it a bus!) with Nigel (Nigel - can you get a more English name?!). He was wonderful, a former policeman and now a totally fun guide. Here are some of the sights we saw:

The Classic Double-Decker Bus

Prince Albert Memorial


Buckingham Palace with Amy in the Foreground


Buckingham Fountain, with some of the others on our tour

Kristin took these shots of British phone booths. She found them charming, plus they reminded us both of the police box in the Doctor Who series (with David Tennant - we just love the episodes with him as the Doctor, but alas, did not run into him in London!):