Day 11 - Stamford Bridge,Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, National Gallery

This morning we went to Stamford Bridge the home of Chelsea FC! I was uber excited and tickled pink to be able to see the Stadium. Unfortunately we came too late in the month to see a game, but I shall see one next time I come to London. I was tickled pink at all the merchandise they have and bought my very own jersey finally.

Afterwards we caught the tube to see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. Big Ben was enormous and I didn't know that despite all the bombing during the Blitz it still chimed every hour on the hour.

Walking for a brief moment we entered Westminster Abbey. Inside the Abbey we saw the altar where Prince William and Kate Middleton were married before moving on to the tomb of Queen Elizabeth I. Before we reached her tomb we passed those of her Father King Henry VIII, King Edward the Confessor, Queen Eleanor of Castille, King Richard II, Mary Queen of Scots, and King Edward Longshanks. I literally got shivers up and down my body as we passed each tomb. I never dreamed in a million years that I would be seeing people who made hsitory, people that I'd read and studied about. Looking at Elizabeth I's tomb (which is jointly shared with her sister Queen Mary) there was a sense of peace and accomplishment. Moving on through the Abbey we saw the Memorial to Shakespeare and the tombs of Lord Byron, Charles Dickens, Handel, Tennyson, Keates, William Wordsworth, the Bronte sisters, Sir Laurence Olivier, and many more. My Mum loved the Abbey but felt it was a bit creepy being surrounded by dead bodies. Somehow that didn't bother me and I felt a bit exhilerated being in the company of so many accomplished people. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so I pilfered these from the internet.

Lastly we passed the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior and lit candles for the members of our family who have passed on. Next we headed up Victoria Way to Buckingham Palace. We weren't able to visit anything inside as the State Apartments were closed, so we just took pictures of the Palace and the Victoria Monument outside. Strolling through St. James's Park we ambled to Trafalgar Square and to the National Gallery. St. James's Park was picturesque and pastoral with sweeping willow trees, colourful beds of flowers, swans on the pond, and towering chestnut trees.

 The National Gallery is on Trafalgar Square and houses Renoir, Degas, Raphael, Michelangelo, Goya,Van Gogh, Manet, Rubens, Gainsborough, Rembrandt and many other artists. Pictures weren't allowed inside so here a few pilfered from the internet of what we saw.

Day 10 - Mummies my dear Watson

Today we set out early to the Sherlock Holmes Museum. We decided to skip the tour since it was expensive and only of replicated rooms from the novels. The downstairs shop was cool enough with pipes, hats, syringe pens, magnifying glasses, and secret ink paper. We purchased a hat and pipe for my brother and a hat for myself along with some other curios. I especially enjoy the compass I purchased.

Leaving the Sherlock Holmes Museum we took the tube again to the British History Museum to see some Mummies! The Musuem was featured in The Mummy Returns with shots of the outside along with scenes inside the Mummy rooms. I have always wanted to see Mummies and visit Egypt, so this was the next best thing. We started out on the ground floor in rooms dedicated to sculpture from the different Egyptian Dynasties. Next we moved upstairs to the Mummy rooms. I'll admit I gave a small squeal of excitement as we reached the rooms haha. I was just floored the minute I saw my first sarcophagus. I took over 150 pictures greedily soaking up the Egyptian artifacts. Here are a few pictures. Below is the Rosetta Stone which stunned me. Amazing to think that one bit of stone opened up the secrets of an incredible civilization.

The Rosetta Stone

After the Egyptian exhibits we headed downstairs for some lunch and then on to the British exhibits. The rooms traced Britain's history from Pre-Roman, Roman, and Medieval. They had hordes of gold, silver, and armour that had been buried with important warriors and kings, bits of Hadrian's Wall, and pieces of medieval buildings. It was fascinating to see how Britain changed over the centuries and how previous civilizations influenced it over time.

The coolest bit, however, in my opinion was the Lewis Chessmen recovered from a bog on the Isle of Lewis. The chessmen were carved by Vikings out of alabaster and whale teeth. In the first Harry Potter movie the chess set was used to create the Wizard chess pieces used by Harry and Ron at Christmas. Originally one half of the pieces were red, but over time the dye has faded away due to sunlight and being exposed to air. They believe as red dye became cheaper, and black dye became more expensive, that chess went from being red and white to black and white.

Going downstairs we passed a hall built to house King George III's library. It's massive and reminded me very strongly of the library in Beauty and the Beast. If I had to guess it was probably as wide as an Olympic sized Hockey Arena and as long as a football field.

And now for a few Mummy pictures!

Finishing up our day we saw The Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty's Theatre by Trafalgar Square. It was superb and brought tears to my eyes as always. The singing was polished and the pit band was excellent. The theatre was full of red velvet once again exactly the way I like it!

Day 9 - Albert and Victoria

Today I stupidly forgot my camera at the hotel, so there are no pictures of my own. Consequently this post will be short. Starting out we crossed Hyde Park to Kensington Palace on the west side. Inside we followed the Victoria route to learn about Queen Victoria's early life before Prince Albert died. The castle was stunning with personal artifacts that had been saved. In a meeting room they even had replica clothing you could try on. The clothes were really heavy and all made of velvet, but looked awesome!

Kensington Palace

After following the Victoria trail we did the King's Apartments, Queen's Chambers, and last Princess Diana's trail. The King's Apartments had a neat card game you could play where at the end you spelled a word that told you who you were in the King's Court. Diana's rooms had several examples of gowns she had worn and corresponding pictures. It was neat to see pictures of her happy and alive in the place she'd lived for several years. In the gift shop I purchased Toni's Flying Saucer candies and a few postcards.

Going south we left Hyde Park and continued on to Royal Albert Hall to have some lunch. Pushing on after lunch we went further south to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Inside the Museum it was stunning with classical and contemporary sculpture in the entry way. We started out in the medieval rooms on the ground floor looking at bits of buildings from allover Europe. These were stunning and really showed a good range of the different styles of architecture throughout Medieval Europe. Afterwards we went to the Cast Court which I thought was an exhibit to do with royal courts. It was in fact something completely different! The cast courts was a long room filled with plaster replicas of iconic architecture and art from Medieval Europe. My Mum's favourite was Trajan's column from Rome which is over 35 m tall. It's so tall that they split in two pieces in order to display it inside. My favourite was replicas of Eleanor of Acquitaine and her husband King Henry II's tombs. I got shivers looking at them. Here's a picture from Wikipedia off what I saw.

Starting with the cloesest is King Henry II, Eleanor of Acquitaine, Richard the Lion Heart, and his wife at the far end

Trajan's Column

After the cast courts we went upstairs and did more medieval galleries. They had copies of books from the 12th century delicately illuminated with gold, silver, and bright figures scrolling up the pages. They had halls of jewellery, armour, and objects of daily life. We had just about reached closing time so we browsed the gift shop and studied the statues on our way out. Finishing up we took the tube back to our hotel and got some food for dinner.

Day 8 - Portobello Road, the street where the riches of ages are stowed!

Saturday is market day in Portobello Road, so in addition to the regular stores there are street vendors and fruit 'n veg stalls everywhere! Portobello Road is the largest antiques market and the coolest street market I have ever seen! According to Wikipedia Portobello Road was made famous by the movie Notting Hill, but for me it was made famous by Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

After breakfast we took the tube to Notting Hill and literally followed the herd of people down to Portobello Road. For the first few minutes people stayed on the sidewalks but slowly we bgean to ooze onto the road. The first real store we passed was a shop selling signs. I spotted a few I'd like, but thought I'd wait until the end of the day and see how much money I had left. After the sign shops Portobello Road was officially closed off to traffic so we ranged over both sides looking at heaps of silver toast racks, teapots, spoons, knives, forks, trays, and everything in between. There were stalls with piles of crystal, jewellery old maps, Paddington bears, random antiques, old clothing, and lace. The streets were so packed you had to squeeze through like it was Stampede time in Calgary. My Mum and I browsed a few antique shops that had stuff worth several thousand pounds minimum. I'd never seen so many neat shops. One stall at the end of the market was entirely devoted to old military clothing. They had everything from WWII Russian uniforms to jackets worn by British soldiers spanning 400 years.

We spotted a silver stall that actually had its silver in neat rows and columns so we went and checked it out. The stall had some lovely stuff and my Mum grabbed a toast rack. She was so patient waiting for the stall owner to finish with some very impatient ladies that he gave the toast rack to her at a discount for being so polite.

After grabbing the toast rack we strolled by some musicians playing music in folk fashion. They did a really good version of the Animals "House of the Rising Sun" in a more upbeat fashion. We stopped to listen for a bit and donated some change to them. I really wished that my camera did videos with sound at that moment.

After wandering one mile of the two mile market we stopped in at the Duke of Wellington  for some lunch. We even managed to snag a table we spotted through the window! Excellent food as usual and I became acquainted with a cider called Aspall. For lunch I tried a scotch egg for the first time and am in love with them mmm delicious!

After lunch we did the other mile of the market looked at top hats, dresses and old swords! Some of which I desperately wanted to take home with me, but as they were several hundred quid and the size of me it wasn't going to happen *pout* Reaching the end we turned around and headed back to the tube. On the way we stopped at the same silver stall and purchased a cream pitcher and I went on the hunt for a silver locket. I saw several neat ones, but not one I loved so I left without a locket. However, I did hit up the sign store and got a retro Tin Tin one and a Keep Calm Carry On one. Tired after a day of jostling and walking we headed back to the hotel via tube and walked through Hyde Park a bit.