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| just found this pretty spot while walking around London |
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| Windsor Castle |
From the
beautiful English countryside, we all trooped to cosmopolitan London. Our first
stop was Windsor Castle. Originally designed in the 11th century “to
oversee a strategically important part of the River Thames”, today it is the
longest occupied royal residence in the whole of Europe. Although the outside
is imposing and beautiful, it is the lavish state apartments inside that is an
“unrivalled sequence of rooms” in the finest expression of Georgian taste.
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| St. George Chapel |
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| white swans on the River Thames by Windsor Castle |
The
15th century St. George's Chapel included in the lower ward of Windsor Castle is a
“supreme achievement of English Perpendicular Gothic design.” Fifteen kings and queens of the country are buried there together with a host of other prince, princesses, and other royals. The beautiful
white swans on the River Thames were a special treat and a Thai dinner just outside the
castle capped our day.
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| Thai dinner in London! |
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| watching Nadal @ Murray Mound |
Then
Krishna, my first Apo arrived from California to join us. While Bill and I took
Yeye, who is a member of the Varsity tennis team in her high school, to
Wimbledon, which was fortunately running at the time, Trisha brought Krishna to
Trafalgar Square. Bill, Yeye, and I queued for four hours, from 7 am, to gain
entrance to the Wimbledon grounds, having not been able to secure tickets
prior. It was an experience of a lifetime as we picnicked with 10,000 people
eager to get in, watched Raonic on Court 3, watched Nadal on the Murray Mound,
and bought many souvenir items from the gift shop. I made Bill promise to take
me to the other three major Tennis tournament sites!
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| the queue, a giant picnic! |
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| the golden Green Park |
The
following day the whole gang was complete and we took the tube to Green Park to
begin our day of getting the best sense of London. The Park itself had
exquisite golden and green gates which the girls just loved. Buckingham Palace is right across. Although we missed the changing of the guards, we saw them
parade around the Victoria Memorial in front of the Palace grounds.
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| Buckingham Palace |
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| Westminster Abbey |
After a
myriad of photos were taken, we walked to Westminster Abbey, admired the
architecture, and stayed for a while because of a light drizzle. Just around
the bend from the Abbey we reached Big Ben and could not help ourselves from posing atop a concrete structure on the Westminster Bridge over the River Thames.
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| Big Ben and the Parliament |
Just
across was a huge throng admiring the newest attraction, the London Eye. It was
interesting to find a special post on Westminster Bridge crossing the River Thames
between Big Ben and the London Eye. It carried countless locks, testament to
many lovers’ vows to each other. Too bad Bill and I did not know or we would
have brought our own. Even then, we made a quiet pledge to each other.
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| a lot of locks, a lot of love |
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| London Eye |
Having
completed our whirlwind tour of the prime sights of the city, we brought the
girls to Trafalgar Square. Unfortunately, some sort of new display was being
constructed around it. So, tired from all the running around, we looked for a
good place to have lunch and found Garfunkel.
After a good English lunch, we walked more blocks, found some gelato to
consume, had more photos taken in front of nice looking tourist spots, and went
back to our hotels, happy for having been together in our little London escapade.
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| lunch @ Garfunkel in Trafalgar Square |
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| Japanese dinner |
Before the
girls left for Edinburgh, Bill and I brought them to a very enjoyable farewell Japanese
dinner. They told us about their trip to Camden Market where they spent a hefty
chunk of their shopping dollars. Bill and I were so happy we got to tour Trisha
and her girls around London. We just hope we can do it again, somewhere else in
the world.
But the
other memorable dinner for Bill and me was at Tirage, a fine dining restaurant.
It was a birthday gift from my girls, Claudine and April. This separated the
two parts of our London experience: London with family and London with friends.
The next post will be about the latter.
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| our dinner in Tirage, a gift of Claudine and April |
Some great pics, family time, and a great experiences. Sounds like fun
ReplyDeleteIt was our first tine outside of North America together! Precious.
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