Ferry on the Thames

We took the ferry from Kew gardens to Westminster pier. The boat ride took about an hour.

We passed under many of London's bridges, all of them were different and interesting.

The London Eye.

Big Ben.

Westminster Abbey.

Kew Gardens

The wisteria was blooming while we were there.

London was at least 3 weeks ahead of Toronto.

It was also time for the bluebells. They had acres of them planted in the grass.

We only had time for a quick walk through the glasshouse.

They had a walkway in the trees.

I wore him out with all the walking. We were only at Kew Gardens for a few hours. I could easily have spent a few days there.

After the gardens we had a very nice dinner at the Rose and Crown.

Windsor castle

We wanted to see a castle.

So we picked the biggest castle we could find.

These are known as 'murder holes'. When an enemy is trying to attack the castle you can pour boiling oil down the holes to keep them away from the gates.

The moat is now a lovely garden.

This is the motto of the Order of the Garter, which translates: 'Shame to him who thinks ill of it'.

St. George's chapel.


We had a very nice lunch at the Crooked House.

It was very crooked. It was difficult to capture its crookedness in a photo.

Borough Market

We had lunch at the Borough Market one day. There was lots of delicious food everywhere.

Rodney is at the end of this long line. They were cooking very tasty Spanish sausages. It was worth the wait.

It was hard to capture a sense of the place with the crowds of people.

Tower of London

We spent an enjoyable morning at the Tower of London. There was an exhibit on Henry VIII, there are banners on some of the towers.

An informative sign, if you happen to require a beheading, or a coffee.

There is a legend that there must be ravens at the Tower or it will fall into the hands of their enemy. There is a raven keeper, and they have their own kitchen which prepares all their meals.

We took a great tour with one of the 'beefeaters'.

This is one of the Royal Palaces, as such it has this symbol for Queen Elizabeth. We saw them all over London, and I couldn't help thinking how they would have to change ALL of them when the next king takes the throne. What a big job.

St. Martin in the Fields

We stumbled upon St. Martin in the Fields, since it was right next to the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square. I have heard lots of recordings by Neville Mariner and St. Martin in the Fields, so I had to go in (I'm assuming this is the same St. Martin in the Fields, I could be wrong).

There was a group rehearsing a Vivaldi piece, so we sat and listened for awhile. The acoustics were amazing. The window in the church was quite interesting.

Platform 9 3/4

As Harry Potter fans we had found out that they had 'something' at King's Cross Station for platform 9 3/4. We were passing through the station on the underground anyways, so we decided to get off and take a look around.

After looking for quite a while, due to some construction and the fact that they put platform 9 3/4 in between platforms 8 and 9, we finally found it.

It's a luggage cart bolted to the wall. Just for tourists like ourselves. What do you expect?

St. George's Day

The Saturday we were there happened to be St. George's Day.

I didn't know such a day existed.

The kids love the story of St. George and the Dragon.

In Trafalgar Square they had a stage set up with a free concert.

A few people were dressed up in their St. George's Day apparel.

London marathon

We hadn't realized we were in London on the same weekend as the London marathon. This is Saturday when they were setting up the finish line by Buckingham Palace.

Fortunately the places we went to see on Sunday were not on the race route. It ran right along the river near most of the famous landmarks. We were up at the British museum that day. After lunch we came back to Buckingham Palace and saw some of the last finishers, the time clock reads 7 hours 12 minutes.

A tired and happy finisher walking through Green Park.

Canada in London

In Green Park we stumbled upon the Canada memorial.

I wanted to slide down it too. I liked the maple leaves all over it.

I think in the summer time it has water pouring down it.

A Canadian waterslide.

There was also a lovely Canada gate.

Too bad we don't have nice gates like these in Canada.

Here and there

I loved the double decker buses. I hadn't realized how crazy the drivers were. We saw this older model when we were walking around. We ended up taking the buses quite a bit, mostly because we liked to sit at the top. We had to stare at the maps at the bus stop for about 10 minutes each time to figure out which bus would take us where we wanted to go.

The British love the colour red. Red buses, phone booths, mailboxes. The Red coats.

A leaf detail carved in the side of a walkway. I think that's the difference between the old world and the new world, the details.

A real highlight of our trip was a dinner at a restaurant called Chimes. The food was delicious. We also tried their cider, and the elderberry and gooseberry wines. I could have happily spent our entire trip in this restaurant.

Too much walking. Too many paintings. Too many historic sights. Time for a nap in Green park.

The British Museum

Rodney in front of the British museum.

A photo of myself in front of the British museum. A few years ago we took a trip to Paris. When we returned home we discovered we did not have any photos of myself in Paris, because I am the one who always has the camera! We made sure that did not happen again this trip.

The inner courtyard. A long time ago they had a garden in the centre. It didn't grow very well, and they decided to build the reading room, a large circular library in the middle, and they put in a glass ceiling. The British Museum is free, and as such was very crowded.

The reading room had a special exhibit which we did not see. The exhibit covered all the bookshelves.

We joked about all of the 'stolen treasures' we were seeing. These are the Elgin marbles, a collection of marble statues originally on the Parthenon. They were removed in 1801 by Lord Elgin and brought to Britain.

The low light and crowded conditions made it difficult to take pictures. We rented an audio tour and saw the highlights of the museum. It was so vast it was hard to take in at one time. We stayed for a few hours and then retreated to a nearby park to clear our heads.