London - Part 5 - Catching up with Nadia (22nd - 25th April)

The next day (Sunday) we drove up to Cambridge to meet with one of our friends, Nadia, who we hadn't seen for four years.

It was awesome to drive through the picturesque countryside and great to catch up with Nadia.

The drive

Driving

Catching up with Nadia

Nadia cooked an awesome roast for us and had made a cake the day before in a cake making class, and we couldn't let it go untested.

The Roast Dinner

Nadia and the cake

We stayed at Nadia's until 9:30pm and drove back to Julian's, arriving just before midnight.  The next day we were up at 5:30am to head to the airport to return the car and fly home.

We arrived back in Copenhagen at 11am and caught the train to Malmö.  We got home at 1:00pm, had quick showers and then raced to school to pick up the kids.

It was a crazy busy weekend but a lot of fun and great to have a break and catch up with friends again.

Thanks to Rebecca and Andrew for having the kids for the WHOLE weekend, Julian for putting us up and being an awesome tour guide for Saturday and Nadia for the excellent roast and cake :)

We'll have to head back to the UK soon with the kiddies.

London - Part 4 - Buckingham Palace and Harrods (22nd - 25th April)

The main roadway to Buckingham Palace was closed for the London Marathon, so we needed to detour through St James Park.  Despite the number of people walking through the area, there was plenty of wildlife - squirrels, swans and ducks:

Squirrel in a tree (its in the fork between the right branch and lower branch

Squirrel!

After passing through the park we came to the Palace -

Outside Buckingham Palace - the metalwork is gates for the marathon

Buckingham Palace

The Gates

Beefeater Guard

Us at the Palace

Internal Palace Gates

By now we had been walking for about ten hours and had walked over 20km so we were getting tired, but we had one more stop, Harrods - a very famous and prestigious shop in London

Lego model of Harrods

Harrods

The main reason we came to Harrods was to see the "My first Harrods" pets.  Each of my children was given a My First Harrods plush toy - Alana had My First Harrods Cow, Cameron has My First Harrods Kitten ("kitty") and Tomas has My First Harrods Puppy ("Woofy").  It was almost surreal seeing a big stack of them:

Kitties and Woofies!

Mohamed Al-Fayed was the chairmen of Harrods until its sale to Qatar in 2010.  Mohamed was the father of Dodi Al-Fayed who was killed with Princess Diana.  There is a tribute to them on the bottom floor, showing Dodi and Diana dancing under the wings of an albatross, titled Innocent Victims:

Innocent Victims

There is also a wine glass from Diana's last meal and the engagement ring Dodi had purchased the day before their death:

Memorial

After leaving Harrods we caught to Tube back to Julian's house and collapsed.  It had been a long day and we were exhausted.  We got take-away Thai food and played board games until we were too tired to continue and headed to bed.

London - Part 3 - Borough Market and South Bank (22nd - 25th April)

Our next destination was the South Bank of the Thames to check out many of the main sights of London.

First we headed to the Borough food markets for lunch - it was packed but the food was tasty and filling.

Borough Market

Inside the market

After finishing lunch we continued to the South Bank across London Bridge and came across this monument:

The monument

Base of the Monument

We didn't really know what the monument was to, it was just titled "The Monument", but luckily Kristine's camera takes such high resolution photos I could zoom in and tell you that it is a monument designed by Sir Christopher Wren commemorating the Great Fire on London in 1656.

We then passed the Globe Shakespeare Theater, which was celebrating 400 years of Shakespeare.

Globe Theater

We passed the Millennium Bridge:

Millennium Bridge

We stopped at a tourist shop and since the picture from the tower wasn't bad enough we posed for a scary Paddington photo:

That's just scary

South Bank

I saw this bin, and while I think the quote works well, putting it on a bin gives it a completely different meaning:

Lovely bin

Looking back along South Bank - the sloping building is the "Cheesegrater" and the "Walkie Talkie" is on the right

The St Peter's Dome, and the Cheese Grater

Big Ben and the House of Parliament

The London Eye

There was a festival on just under the London Eye - The Udder Belly Festival:

Udder Belly

We then walked down past the National Gallery where they were hosting the Feast of Saint George and the under the Admiral's Arch:

Admiral's Arch

I almost managed to convince Kristine that the smaller second arch was the Arc De Triomphe..

Not really the Arc De Triomphe

We then headed down towards Buckingham Palace where they were setting up for the London Marathon:

Down the road towards Buckingham Palace

Statue of Captain James Cook

Monument to Artillery

We had to take a detour through St James Park to get to the Palace and then on to our last destination.

London - Part 2 - Tower of London (22nd - 25th April)

I couldn't remember much of the Tower of London from my trip in 1995, besides the Traitor's gate, so I wasn't really sure what to expect.

The first thing was the complete contrast between the 'new modern London' with its glass buildings and the ancient castle:

Tower of London

The Tower of London was built in 1078, used as a prison in 1100 until 1952.  It has also served as a royal residence and the royal mint.

The entrance - The Middle Tower and the Byward Tower (behind)

First we passed through the Middle Tower, which was the original entrance after  passing the first moat and drawbridge.  There was then a secondary drawbridge and moat leading to the Byward tower which held arrow slots and later gun ports.

Byward Tower

Passing through the Byward Tower we walked under two portcullis gates and murder slots.  This led us to Water  Lane, which was reclaimed by Edward I  in 1275 by building wooden piles to push the River Thames back.  

Water Lane

To our left was Mint Street, where the royal mint was held until 1810.

Mint Street

Our first stop was the former royal mint down mint street.

Julian considering stealing the boxes of 'coins' from the mint

In 1279 the King (Edward I) realised that there were problems with his currency - it was being destroyed by people clipping the edges of coins to melt down and sell.  In order to try to save the value of the currency he moved the mint inside the Tower of London and remade the currency with additional protections like ridges on the edge of the coins.

Next stop after the mint was the Medieval Palace.  This was where Henry III (1216-72) and his son Edward I (1272-1307) visited for pleasure.

First was St Thomas' Tower, and the remains of an old medieval fireplace:

Fireplace in Thomas' Tower

Edward I bedchamber recreation

Edward I's oratory - little chapel over the water

Stained Glass in Medieval Palace

By tradition Henry VI died here Day 21st 1471

View of Tower Bridge from the Tower of London

In the centre of the Tower was the White Tower, the original part of the Tower.  We didn't have enough time to go in it, but we got some great shots from outside:

The White Tower

The Tower of London mythology holds that when the ravens leave the Tower of London the tower will fall.  In typical English caution, they have now caged a few of the ravens and only let one out at a time.  There are still wild ravens but this ensure the tower is safe..

Raven cages

While we were walking along the walls between the towers we suddenly heard a shout and drums and a man walked out to the centre of the yard calling that the Tower was safe and would never fall:

The Tower is secure!

Then suddenly someone to our right shouted out and waved a sword, "The tower will fall!"

The tower will fall!

Really, I mean it!

One of the towers housed details of the only time the tower was breached.  In a very British manner, the peasants revolted and insulted the nobles.  "Your mother was a hampster and your father smells of Elderberries!"

Oh my, the insults!

Ok to be fair, the peasants then dragged the archbishop outside and killed him, but it was the insults that really stung.

I also got roped into trying a guard hat - it was chained down to the desk and the chain wasn't made for people of my height so I had to hunch a bit.  Sadly, this picture ended up on Facebook before I could delete it...

I feel like Sergeant Colon from Guards! Guards!

Our next stop was the Crown Jewels, however photos were not allowed in those areas.

Once we passed the Crown Jewels we walked around the courtyard and past some amazing cannons:

Cannon

Our last stop was Traitor's Gate:

Traitor's Gate

Once we finished up at the Tower we headed to the Borough's Market for lunch