Jet lag has been brutal, and the 13 hour drive down to Columbia probably didn’t help matters. And I’ve been madly preparing for Cammy’s baby shower, which went off swimmingly this afternoon. But I have a few more pictures from our last night in London!
After the Tower of London, we took advantage of our London Passes to do a river cruise down the Thames. As fun as it was, we had far too much contact with ToaCAs, or Tourists of a Certain Age. These persons are easily identified by their fanny packs, white tennis shoes, London Pass lanyards around their necks, and general air of invitation to any pickpocket in the vicinity. Usually at least 50-100 pounds overweight, their conversation proceeds along these lines: “So how would you like to eat at the Hard Rock Café tonight?” “I’ve never eaten at a Hard Rock. Do they serve hamburgers?” In previous trips to Europe, it’s even been our misfortune to travel directly with ToaCAs. In Switzerland, our comrades had a homing beacon for the nearest McDonalds and Starbucks. In Italy, we’d whisper, “Touristas!” and head a different direction. Despite the ToaCAs on the boat with us, we enjoyed great views of Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, London Bridge, Millennium Bridge, the Globe, the Houses of Parliament, and the London Eyesore.
Tower Bridge
Tower of London from the Thames
London Bridge is pretty ho-hum looking these days
Millenium Bridge. I get dizzy just looking at it, and we opted not to cross it coming back from the Globe.
The Globe from the outside!
You can see that Millenium Bridge kinda ruins the view of St Pauls from the river, too.
Cleopatra’s Needle
The London Eye. We opted not to join the hordes of ToaCAs there because we had planned on climbing to the top of Westminster Abbey to look out on the city. Oh well.
Houses of Parliament and Big Ben! Can’t convey how cool this was, just coming up to it like this.
And we hightailed it back to Kensington to get into Kensington Palace before it closed. Obviously Will and Kate’s private apartment wasn’t open to the public, but many of the rooms were. Besides Prince George and William and Harry, Queen Victoria grew up there.
Kensington Palace! I assume we came in the back way, because this wasn’t as impressive as I’d imagined. But this is only a small part of it–it just goes on and on…
Queen Victoria’s wedding dress
View of Kensington Gardens from William and Mary’s little private dining parlor. The signs in the room said they liked to sit in there and look out at the park when they weren’t entertaining guests. Notice how dead the grass looks? It felt like we were back in Cali.
This is what I imagined it would be like. The Victoria wing is all modernized, but I believe these are all the original paintings and such.
And the next morning we got up at 4 am and came home!