We started the day by attempting to go the Carter's Cafe near our hotel but it was Sunday and it was closed again. We were headed to the Buckingham Palace area so we figured we would grab food when we got there. That would turn out to be a big mistake but more on that later. Buckingham Palace was farther then our trip yesterday so we took the Underground instead. We had a bit of trouble buying a ticket and just assumed we were dumb tourists but turned out the machine was broken. Switched machines and all was well. Even early on a Sunday there was a train almost immediately.
When we got off the train we came out beside Westminster Abby. It was at this point that I realized what felt different about London. My experience has always been at the 30 foot level with cameras pointed down on festivities like weddings, funerals and coronations. Now that we're here we're seeing everything from street level. At first I thought there might be something royal related as there was security everywhere but it turns out that the London 10k was taking place. This was going to have an impact on us finding breakfast.
As we got closer to Buckingham Palace there was more and more race related things going on. It looks like a great place to have a run. They are able to close off the streets entirely and the streets themselves are very wide. We attempted to go to a café that Kerry had found online but it and everything in the area was closed. It was Sunday so perhaps this was normal but we think the race had an impact on thing. We passed by Duck Island Cottage which is the head quarters of the London Historic parks. Looks like a great place to retire.
Buckingham Palace turned out to be a bit of a let down. There would be no changing of guard ceremony today and the palace itself is quite simple in comparison to some of the churches we had already seen. There were some rather impressively sized statues of Queen Victoria and people riding lions in front and the overall scale of everything was enormous. We did get to see some horses out for their morning stroll. Nothing formal. Looked like the stable people getting them out for a walk.
Next up was Big Ben. I'm glad they had finished with the refurbishing and that the scaffolding was all cleared out. The clock goes off every 15 m minutes plus extra bells on the hour. The Thames appears to be quite high where we are right now. The water comes up to the walls of parliament and there doesn't look to be much room for it to come up any higher. The water is also quite brown but the local tourist website insists "the Thames is one of the cleanest rivers through a major city in the world".
It was at this point that we finally found food near the London Eye. All those royal servants must have either cafeteria's or catering because there were no shops in the area. There weren't even any cars so I'm not sure where they all park. We stopped in at a cafe and a bakery and checked out the gift shop of the Shrek Adventure which is a interactive walk000 through show of Far Far Away. We didn't go in. Pounds are expensive as is all of London. Kerry and Melissa did stop for morning margaritas.
We wandered around the area for a bit more which was made difficult due to the run. It was not easy to get across it in most places. In some ways this wasn't a bad thing because we probably got to see more detail than we would have if we could have just walked right through. We walked by what I'm assuming was an academy for younger cadets and saw them practicing with their big hats and army fatigues what looked like the changing of the guard. We also got over 35,000 steps and walked 23 km. We should have got a run medal.
Once we got away from the run we started getting into a very high end shopping area that included Lock & Company. Melissa informed us that it's the oldest hat company in the world and has made hats for many famous people. It's also where they filmed parts of "The Kingsmen" which is a spy movie. Melissa's son Josh was planning on coming back here tomorrow to have a hat made as his high school graduation gift. They will use some sort of medieval sizing tool to measure his head.
Yesterday we had stopped at Waterstones book store for Callie which turned out to be coffee shopped sized compared the one we happened upon today. It's the largest bookstore in Europe and was 5 floors of books and 8 miles of shelving. The rest of the family took a nap on the 4th floor while Callie and I explored the books. They had a couple of cafes and what appeared to be a lounge that you can probably rent out for special events. Callie found one of her favorite books and likes buying ones with different covers than we get in Canada.
It was mid afternoon and we had missed lunch so we took the opportunity to stop in a local pub. We found the White Horse Pub which explains why there were photos of white horses everywhere. There was a stand up pub on the first floor and a restaurant on the second with a dumb waiter to the kitchen above. We ended up being the only ones there so the waitress ended up talking to us about how when it gets quiet she can overhead some interesting conversations. We added my story about a long lost uncle in Amsterdam to her catalogue.
We finished off our day with a trip back to the Underground on a double decker bus. I got confused on the direction we had to go and ended up at a different line than we intended but it still went back to the stop near our hotel. We had purchased a day pass in the morning which made it easy to get on since they've got to an electronic card like we have in the lower mainland. You've got to be very careful walking up stairs on a double decker bus. No time to wait until you get seated. London was a fun trip!
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