Wednesday, August 12, 2020

November 2019 - London


From Venice we flew to London for a couple of days. 




Our hotel was across the Westminster bridge and we had a pretty short walk to Westminster Abby and Big Ben but Big Ben was closed for 3 more years and covered in scaffolding.



We got in and then explored the city. 





One of the places we came across was this little park in town along with the Diana Princess of Wales memorial walk. 






The park was beautiful but Jeff didn't want to walk through it much. Since he is limited on how long he can walk without his back hurting we have to keep our walks focused. 





While we were walking into the center of town we stumbled upon an Indian festival and decided to check it out. We had Indian food for lunch and went to the international gallery (briefly).






I could've stayed there for hours and there were paintings that were in my art history books that I would have loved to study more but Jeff asked if I could see what I wanted in 15 minutes so we could leave....ha ha (insert eye roll). 






I practically ran through what I could while Jeff sat on a bench waiting for me. At least I got to see some of it. I think he was just done with galleries museums and art. 




We ended up eating dinner in the downtown theater district that reminded me of a lite Chinatown which was mainly restaurants. 












The next day we toured Westminster Abby. I wanted to come here last time we were in town but we didn't get time. It was on one of the lists of things that I've wanted to do. 




They were setting up memorials for Veterans in the grass around the Abby.





Inside the Abby you weren't really allowed to take pictures once you were inside the sanctuary. I took a couple of shots but then put my camera away. I didn't realize that so many people in history were buried in the Abby.  We even got to go up to the shrine and see where some of the ancient Kings were buried and participated in their daily prayer ritual as the priest explained the significance of it. I learned some about the church of England that I didn't know. 








Outside of the Abby on the street were protesters and supporters of Brexit or England leaving the European union. Jeff got pictures with both sides...ha ha ha. 








Another place that we visiting that day was the Tower of London. Last time we came here we were rushing through as it was closing so this time we got to take our time and explore it better. 




We got to see the insides of medieval buildings with furniture that represented what probably would've been there at the time people were living in it. 












The armory was quite interesting. The most amusing was the cod piece of King Henry the 8th on his suit of armor. I guess he was a pretty athletic guy and after a fall off his horse during jousting he gained weight and became much more erratic. 







That night was our last night before we flew home and we went and saw Phantom of the Opera in the theater where it  was originally started. 






It was a small theater and we had great seats. We bought the tickets the day of the performance and got a good deal (especially with Jeff using his handicap discount). It was a great way to end a great trip. 



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