Today we were up early as I desperately wanted to see inside Westminster Abbey. We had our "all you can eat" breaky again at the motel. If your planning a trip to London, the Premier Inn, in Earls Court is brilliant, they are extremely helpful, the bar/restaurant is delicious and it is within walking distance to shops and the tube.
So it was on the tube to Westminster, we were there at 8.45am, however the Abbey doesn't open until 9.30 am so we decided to take a wander down to view the Houses of Parliament.
Panorama of Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament
Westminster Abbey - You can see we were there early, even the lawn mowing man was still finishing up before the crowds arrived!
We decided to go our seperate ways from here, Ashleigh, Kyle and myself to The Abbey, and Grant, Nathan and Marni wandering the streets. It was then, when we turned the corner, we realised, had we stayed at Westminster we would have been the first in line, but instead there was now about 50 people in the queue, with still 25 minutes until opening, and before too long there were hundreds of people standing behind us. This occurs every day, and with tickets £16.50 per adult and £8.00 for children (11+), students and pensioners, it's hard to imagine the money this beautiful building generates!
The queue in front of us!
The centre of Westminster Abbey in and around the Cloisters
The surprising part of Westminster Abbey was the gardens surrounding the Cloisters, very picturesque, and hard to believe, when looking from the outside in, that these gardens are even apart of the Abbey.
The living quarters and vege garden in the Cloisters of Westminster Abbey
After a quick call from Marni letting us know they were in Trafalgar Square, we headed off in that direction. Along Whitehall Street, past Downing Street, past the Household Cavalry, and across where The Mall meets The Strand into Trafalgar Square.
Guard and his horse at the Cavalry
Grant, Nathan and Marni had already wandered through The National Gallery, which they said was amazing, and where blown away by the history and age of many of the paintings.
A quick photo opportunity in front of the fountain and a walk past the street performers, we kept going up towards Oxford Street and then along Regent Street, where I happened upon the Crabtree & Evelyn shop, which I couldn't resist going in to and making a purchase! Then into Foot Locker for Marni to buy a pair of Nike Free Runs, and by then we were absolutely starving!
National Gallery - Fountain in Trafalgar Square
Street performers in Trafalgar Square
Back on the tube from Bond Street to Green Patk along the Jubilee line, where we walked down past Hyde Park onto The Mall and into St James's Park for a salad and a sandwich for lunch. We rested for awhile, and used the free wifi available to upload some photos, and check Facebook. It dawned on us that we had just walked for 6 hours straigh, it was now 2pm, no wonder we were so knackered!
Making the most of our last afternoon in London, I insisted that we had to go to Kensington Palace the home of Queen Victoria and Princess Diana. So we walked on through St James's Park, and across The Bird Cage through the Cavalary, which was excellent timing, as the guards were just changing. Then onto Whitehall and back on the tube at Westminster to High Street Kensington via the Circle Line.
Arriving at the High Street Kensington tube station, we instantly knew we had hit a very upmarket area! The shops were lovely, beautiful little cafés and restaurants, including a Boost Juice (the first we had seen in all our travels throughout London) the kids were stoked!
Here we took a right turn out onto Kensington Street, and we meandered our way along this beautiful street. Our thoughts were confirmed when we saw all the BMWs, Audi's, Range Rovers and Porches.... we were definitely in upmarket town! We turned left and walked along the path in Kensington Gardens until we reached the Palace. Not thinking we could go in, we wandered around to the gardens, where we saw people coming and going through the doors of the Palace. The girls opted to go in, the boys settled down on the lawn in front.
Marni, Ashleigh and I decided what the heck, we are here now let's pay and go in. We were so glad we did!! The love story between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert was well documented on this tour, and it really touched our hearts, some of the quotes where so beautiful - Prince Albert to Queen Victoria "You are my whole existence, and I will love you until my very last breath." You can imagine how overwhelmed we were, it truly was the love story of all love stories, and these quotes continued through out the state rooms. Queen Victoria was crowned Queen in 1837 at 18 years old, and was married to Albert in 1840, their love was so strong that when Prince Albert died in 1861, Victoria was so devastated that she removed herself from public life, re-emerging gradually in the latter part of her reign.
We then entered the fashion rooms which where full of dresses that Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth (current queen) and Princess Diana wore throughout the years. We loved looking at the dresses, and were quite glad to see the three boys sound asleep out on the lawn of Kensington Palace, as we had certainly taken our time!
Kensington Palace
Kensington Palace a Gardens
Once we left the Palace, Grant, Nathan, Marni & Kyle headed back to Kensington Street for a shop, while Ashleigh and I walked through the Kensington Gardens, and I took the opportunity to have my photo taken in front of the golden gates. You will remember these gates from when Princess Diana died, and the floral tributes where placed in front of these gates, another humbling experience for me.
Outside the gates of Kensington Palace
We met the rest of the family along Kensington street, and we headed back to the tube station for a beer, and something to eat. It was starting to get late by now, and we had a couple more hours to fill in before we had to catch the train back to Penkridge. So back to Earls Court and the Premier Inn we went, to pick up our bags, which they had kindly stored for us after we checked out in the morning. Another beer at the Premier Inns bar, and then it was back on the tube to Euston Station to catch our train to Penkridge.
People watching at Euston Station was hilarious. We were trying to work out why everyone just stood in front of the display, and then as soon as the platform flashed up it was like a mass exodus of people racing, and I mean racing, to get their train, even though their train was not leaving for another 20 minutes! So we stood and waited for our platform to come up. Up it flashed, and off the crowd ran. Knowing we had plenty of time, and that we had allocated seats, we were in no hurry, but it is very difficult not to get caught up in what the poms are doing, and before we knew it we were racing along with them all, thinking OMG we are going to miss our train! Phew we made it, found our seats, and then sat for about 15 minutes, until the train actually left, which I might add, left exactly on time at 9.10pm. Grant and I had a little laugh about it, and the kids promptly fell asleep.
The train took us to Stafford, and we had 7 minutes to make sure we got to the last connecting train to Penkridge. I gave Gary a call, and he and Katie picked us up from Penkridge, and we all fell straight into bed, absolutely stuffed, at 11.30pm, after a wonderful three days in London!
Highlights
* Absolutely everything! There was not a moment through the three days that we didn't love! We will definitely be back at some point, as there is still plenty that we didn't get to see!
Lots of love,
Chrissie xx
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