September 13, 2015 - London

We took the Underground “tube” to Tower Hill this morning so we could tour the Tower of London. We crossed the moat bridge and into the the castle.

As we arrived, there was a “Beefeater” guide giving an introduction to the castle and its history. He was not only informative, but quite funny.

We had the opportunity to go inside several of the buildings and see the Crown Jewels. They didn’t allow any photography of the jewels, but I can assure you they were amazing! The largest diamond is over 500 carats, but it wasn’t on display. All of the boys promised that they didn’t take it!

We also toured along where the Royal Menagerie was kept. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, there was a small zoo in the castle where animals that the royal family received as gifts from foreign countries were kept. They even had a polar bear which they received from Norway! Unfortunately, the water in the moat was also used as a toilet and was the bear died from the foul water. In the mid-1800s, the animals were moved from the Tower of London into a zoo created in the city.

In the armory, there were several full suits of armor from the royal family. Henry VIII is shown mounted on his horse, along with the horse’s armor.

It was interesting to see the armor of the Giant and the Dwarf – quite the contrast!

We ended our tour about 1:30 so we could have lunch before Tom, Stephan, and Christoph needed to leave for the airport. It was a great way for us to end our trip to England by sharing time with our former exchange students who are like our kids!
Tobey, Tyler, and I had one last view of the Tower Bridge before taking the tube back to our hotel.

Tobey and I continued on and went to tour Kensington Palace. Tyler went there with Katie, so he decided to skip it. Kensington was purchased for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.Queen Victoria was petite as a young woman and there were several of her dresses on display.
We marveled at her ball gown in the picture below. Try going through a doorway in that skirt! I guess you could use it for a table when you have hor d'oeuvres and drinks and aren’t sure how you will eat them!

She did have nine children, and by the time of Prince Albert’s death, she had lost her girlish figure.

There were also gown from Queen Elizabeth and Princess Diana on display, as well as photographs of the royal family’s fashions through the years.

In another area we climbed the King’s Grand Stairway to the King’s apartment. It was very beautiful!

One of the last rooms we toured was the Gallery. The paintings were beautiful, as well as the ceiling. We both liked the clock above the mantle – it shows London as the center!

After our tour, Tyler met us at the Palace and we had dinner before he headed back to Oxford. We certainly enjoyed all the sights around Oxford and London, but more than that, we enjoyed spending time with Tyler.

We took the tube back to the hotel and finished getting everything ready for our departure on Monday morning. Tomorrow we will leave the hotel by 7:30 so we can commute to the airport for our 11:40 am flight.

September 12, 2015 - London Part B

We had such a full day there was too much to post in one entry so I have a short addendum to Saturday!

While we didn’t see the changing of the Guard, we did walk around Buckingham Palace shortly after the fact. The area was jam-packed with people!


There was also a huge demonstration and march scheduled in downtown London to protest in favor of immigration and just about any other cause you could imagine. They were expecting over 45,000 people to participate and I think they were not far off!
While it may not look like 45,000 people, there were people carrying signs and banners all around the area. We had to find a couple different hop-on locations because of the protest.
Many of the streets were closed and the bus routes altered. One of the other things we noticed while being here is that cars and buses would just as soon run you over rather than stop. They are better in London than Oxford, but pedestrians certainly do NOT have the right of way here!

More tomorrow for our Sunday adventures!

September 12, 2015 London

What a busy day we had! We bought tickets for the Original Tour Hop-on, Hop-off bus tour and spent most of the day doing that. We rode from the hotel to Trafalgar Square and hopped off to look around the area. Tobey and Stephan had a try at riding this crazy bike – the stering is geared backwards and really difficult to ride. For 1GBP they both got 2 tries at it – and if they could have pedaled across the white chalked box, would have won $10GBP. Neither could do it!



We also noted some unusual art just across the street.

We hopped back on and headed to Big Ben and Parliament Square. Here we saw Big Ben, the House of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey.
Parliament Square, Big Ben & the London Eye.
Big Ben

Westminster Abbey


The London Eye

We took the Thames River Cruise and got off at the Tower of London Pier. We saw Shakespeare’s Globe Theater which was originally built in 1598. Fire destroyed it in 1613, it a rebuilt and used until 1642 when Puritans put a halt to theater productions! In the 20th century, the New Globe theater was constructed near the Old Globe’s original site along the Thames.


It was certainly interesting to see the mix between medieval and modern along the Thames River. This is the Shard Hotel – almost 1016 feet tall – 95 floors! A little further along the river is the glass City Hall building – very futuristic looking!

Just before we docked we had great views of the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge.


We got off here and had lunch before catching another of the buses to continue the city tour. We made a few more stops to see Downing Street where the Prime Minister lives, and walked through the Covent Gardens area. Below are some of the sights we went by – it was a busy, busy day!





We arrived back near Piccadilly Circus about 6:30 when the bus finished it route. We took a leisurely stroll and stopped for a drink at a local pub before our dinner reservation at Asia de Cuba. We ordered three starters and four main dishes to share and finished off with three desserts. The food was delicious and the company was fantastic!


We had a great time and caught the Underground back to the hotel about 10pm. Tomorrow we will tour the Tower of London.

September 11, 2015 - Oxford to London

This morning I took one last walk into City Center for another visit to the fabric store – decided on a quilt pattern and needed a little more fabric!

It was a beautiful, sunny day and no jacket was required. Oh, where were you the last two weeks, Mr. Sun???

We loaded into Tyler’s car mid-afternoon and we all headed into London. Tyler dropped the car at the airport and we caught the Tube into the city. After changing trains a couple times, we finally arrived at the Great Portland Street station around 6:30 pm. We are staying at the Melia White House Hotel, just a block from the station which made it an easy walk.

After checking in we went in search of food and found a great Italian restaurant, Giovanni Rana Restaurant, less than a block from the hotel. The appetizer was fantastic and the main courses very good.

Our German boys arrived about 10:15 pm and we all went out for a “sleep well” drink at a pub not far from here. They closed at 11 and were quite adamant about us getting out of there whether we had finished our drinks or not! We came back to the hotel and had one more drink in their bar and visited until almost 1am! It was good to have four of our boys together again!

September 9-10, 2015 - Oxford, England

Today I took a walk to see the next door neighbors, St. Sepulchre's Cemetery!

I walked through the tombstones which date from 1848 when the cemetery opened. The cemetery closed to burials in 1945.


It was interesting to see not just one or two names on some of the stones, but this one had an entire family listed – from 1864 to 1913!

I continued on into the City Center before stopping at the Farmers market in Gloucester Green. Since it was late afternoon, several of the booths were selling produce at a discount. One had two bags of bananas for $1GBP, but I only wanted one bag, so I found another woman who also wanted just one and we split the sale. It was the good deal of a day – 7 bananas for 50 pence (about 75 cents USD)!

Tobey rode along with Tyler to Barnstable today and they got home close to midnight – needless to say, they were exhausted!

Thursday – September 10, 2015

This morning Tobey and I walked to City Center and had lunch at a fish and chips shop next to the market. It was not very good – I am glad we split a meal! We went on to the Museum of the History of Science. What an interesting, free museum!

The museum houses a huge collection of scientific instruments in what is the world’s oldest surviving purpose-built museum, the Old Ashmolean Museum.

The top gallery had displays of mathematical instruments including astrolabes, sundials, spheres and quadrants. They even had one complete astrolabe dating back to 1088!


I was really fascinated by all of the “pocket watches” – pocket sundials – that are at the museum. Some of them date back to the early 1700s, like the one in the picture below.
The museum also had a medieval stone sundial on display in the Basement Gallery, along with clocks, globes, slide rules, and photography equipment.

Tomorrow we head to London where three of our former exchange students will join us for the weekend.