GregD

Once back in the car we ended up at a shopping center at Starbucks for some frosty beverages. We also managed to grab a small carryon size suitcase for all the extra items we accumulated and to make the packing to go home easier.

We had plenty of time left with the car and after our drinks and time in the store with AC we had cooled down enough to be up for more adventures, so off to Stonehenge we went!

My stepmom, who grew up in England, jokes that Stonehenge is just a bunch of rocks, and doesn’t get the appeal, so of course we were sending messages back home that we were off to see rocks!

It was a nice drive there, and once we arrived, a weather front passed through and the temperature dropped significantly so being outside was much more enjoyable.

While being a bunch of rocks, it really is interesting to see, and then when you find out that they moved these stones over 400 miles to get them there makes it that much more impressive. There is more to the site than just the rocks too, so there is quite a bit to see and do.

They have a map of the whole area and what is involved.

We had some fun with the pictures too

We wandered the gift shop and found some fun souvenirs

Sadly, our final day was drawing to a close, so we headed back to London.

We got the car back to LHR in one piece and headed back to the hotel via the Heathrow Express. The trip back was just as easy and soon enough we were back at the hotel for packing…..worse day ever….again

1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Nice car! Hubby and I were wondering how you would do driving, great to hear it went well!

It was a nice car. I have a thing for Alfa's so when that was sitting in the lot I was really excited. The driving really wasn't bad. My GPS goof was that I was in the wrong lane at one point and basically took an exit instead of staying on the highway. 

The roundabouts are what required the most concentration to go left around them, and not right, other than that, it was relatively easy.

Tuesday was our final day in London, and arguably the day that The Boss was looking forward to the most. Today was the day we had rented the car for our trip to Highclere Castle. If that name isn’t familiar, it’s the castle that Downton Abbey and many other films, shows etc were filmed at. This was a big adventure day too because I got to get a crash course(thankfully only figuratively) on driving on the other side of the road.

Planning for this day was quite some work. Getting the tickets to the castle was the easy part. We also chose with our admission, a picnic lunch to go with our tour. What became fun was trying to figure out the rental car. All of the places close to the hotel did not have any available cars for the day we wanted. We also wanted the car for as much as possible for the day. I had set times of 9am-9pm. This also limited choices, because other close places did not have after hours drop offs. Renting from Heathrow became our only option at this point.

One added bonus was this gave us the opportunity to have a low stress dry run by using the Heathrow Express to get there and back without the additional stress of first time use, bags etc etc.

I can say that using the Heathrow Express is the way to go! For those not familiar, it’s an express train ride from Paddington Station to Heathrow airport. It takes 15 minutes to get to the central station between terminals 2 and 3, and continues on to Terminal 5. The train runs appropriately every 15 minutes. If you know you want to use it, you can pre-book online and if you do it far enough in advance, tickets are as low as 15£ and kids are free. Far cheaper and faster than an Uber.

Once at Paddington Station it’s very easy to find the right train. Just follow the purple dots!

Don’t forget to….

The train was fast and comfortable. Once at the central station, we followed the signs to terminal two. As you head up the escalators, you pass all the bus stops adjacent to the main terminal entrance. We needed stop 7 which was the shuttle to the Enterprise lot on the perimeter road.

I had reserved a premium automatic car since it was only 20£ more than their standard automatic. Which gave me the choice of a Mercedes C class or similar.

Waiting for me was this fun car. An Alfa Romeo Giulia. Sadly it was only the Q2 and not the Q4, which has a really fun engine in it.  A 2.9L twin turbo V6 with 505HP. Oh well, this one still had some pep in it, and handled very nicely. 

 
 

I quickly got used to driving on the opposite side of the road, and after one GPS good we were off!

After about an hour we arrived at the castle and despite the heat, The Boss was thrilled.

The Castle is just amazing!

We got to wander all around the grounds and gardens.

After exploring outside, we grabbed our picnic box. I came beautifully presented 

Inside

Menu

Following lunch we toured inside the Castle. Photography is not allowed as the Castle is still the home of Lord and Lady Carnarvon. If that name is any familiar, this is the same family that discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun. There is an exhibit in the castle dedicated to this. 
 

Since I can’t show you pictures here, just go watch Downton Abbey. Nearly all of the interior scenes are filmed in the castle and you can see how amazing it is.

We could have easily spent all day here, but it was approaching 106 degrees so we needed to cool off. We piled back in the car in search of some frosty beverages and more adventures.

 

Dinner that night brought us back to St Charles Place, this time for Italian. 
 

Some melon wrapped in prosciutto and some pizza really hit the spot on this hot night!

Lunch brought us to a pub seen earlier this trip, and we just had to make a stop!

The location doesn’t have anything to do with the history of the stories, it is just themed around them, and there is a collection of items and memorabilia.

It helped that the food was good because they were out of some of the beer I wanted…..I made do with a second choice though.

The Boss has a chicken salad

I had a beef pie….probably not the best choice on such a hot day…but oh well.

The kids ended up with Mac and Cheese

 

We were fully sapped from the heat today so we headed back to the hotel for showers and some AC.

Monday morning came and so did the heat. So what did I have on the schedule? A 3 hour walking tour!!! This tour was titled palaces and parliament and we got to see quite a bit of things.

We met our guide in green park which currently isn’t very green, and began our tour. Our guide was very funny and charismatic. He had plenty of “true stories” to tell about working with a catering company and has apparently worked at events the Royals were at. He and I were joking back and forth during the tour, as well as the kids, so we all had a great time. This wasn’t a private tour, but we seemed to engage with him the most.

Our first “house” we saw was Spencer House….yes, that Spencer. 

 

we headed to Buckingham Palace to see changing of the guard. 
 

 

The ceremony was altered due to the weather. Our guide had proclaimed that he had no idea what they just did, but it was very different from normal. We all still liked the pomp and circumstance, it’s not like we know any better.

After this we headed into St James’s Park, which offered some shade and welcome relief from the heat.

We met some of the residents there, and took in the scenery.

We then moved to St James’s Palace

As we headed for Admiralty Arch, we passed this monument of the previous King and Queen Mother. Apparently the birds do think too highly of him.

 

Duke of York Column

 

Then we passed Admiralty Arch on the way into Trafalgar Square.

We used the water in the fountains to cool off. The water is treated and safe for doing so.

We got a picture of the kids with the Lions

Fun factoid, the bronze for these lions and plaques on Lord Nelson’s monument were made by melting down the French weapons after they were defeated by the British.

At this point it was getting really hot!! 
We headed down Whitehall and Parliament street. We stopped for a picture with the horses at The Household Calvary Museum

We passed 10 Downing St

And ended in Parliament Square Garden, which gave us great views of Westminster Abbey 

The Statue of Winston Churchill

and the Houses of Parliament, and the tower that holds Big Ben

Thankfully, the tour ended here because we were starting to crisp up in the sun, so we headed off in search of lunch.

 

After some recharging and procrastination Lydia had chosen to try a ramen place for dinner. We chose Bone daddies Ramen Bar in St Christopher’s Place. This was a fun and lively street with lots of restaurants, anchored by a shopping center. It was right of the Bond St Tube stop, so very easy to get to.

We forgot to let the camera get its first bites, but we did get one of Johnny shoving his face full of Ramen.

The kids both got a chicken Ramen. The Boss got what’s called the T22, which is Pulled chicken, cock scratchings™, onion, beansprouts, nori, spring onion, shiitake mushrooms + Clarence Court egg

I got the classic Tonkotsu which is Chashu pork belly, spring onion, bamboo, beansprouts, burnt garlic + Clarence Court egg.

It was a nice night out, so we took our time enjoying it before the impending heatwave came through.

38 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Trust me, Hubby would way rather have had your afternoon tea. Lol

After looking at your pics, if I ever go back to London, I really need to block off time to go to Windsor Castle. 

Windsor really is stunning! I had blocked off a whole day, but we really didn’t need it. It’s about 2 hrs to go through the castle, longer if St George’s Chapel is open.

After lunch, we wandered a bit more, then headed back to London for some more exploring. We booked anytime train tickets which gave us great flexibility.

Once back in London, we headed back to Borough Market for some grazing, only to find it closed. Many of the other things to do were also closed as well.

We ended up wandering along the Thames. 
we boarded The Golden Hinge, a full scale replica of the first English ship to sail around the world.

Its quite tight below decks….No Star Class accommodations here!

We saw Shakespeare’s Globe Theater 

We crossed the most hated bridge in London, the Millennium Bridge.

We also came across the ruins of Winchester Palace.

 

At this point in the day, everyone was running out of fun, so back to the hotel we went.

After our trip through the castle, we headed into the town of Windsor for some lunch and ended up on a tiny street and chose Clarence Brasserie and Tea Room for an afternoon tea.

 

While it’s no afternoon tea at The Savoy, this did hit the spot and was very tasty.

 

 

For the airplane nerds out there, I believe this was one of the many A380’s that flew overhead.

Sunday we woke to head off to Windsor Castle. We walked over to Paddington Station from the hotel which was very easy and went to purchase our train tickets. Everything we read said the journey is about 45 minutes, so when the option for First Class tickets showed up for 35£ round trip for all of us we said why not. If you do this journey, don’t bother with the first class. You do have to change trains in Slough, which we knew, but the ride to Slough was only about 18 minutes, so it’s not really worth the extra expense, not that it was much, only about 7£.

The seats were nice though….

Once you arrive in Windsor. As you step out of the station, you are already facing the castle walls, and it’s a short walk up the hill to the visitors entrance.

Here we are walking up the hill. You exit the castle there on the left, the visitor entrance is further up.

You do go through airport style security, which is understandable, and then you are clear to enter. All the tickets come with a multimedia audio guide which is very informative, and helps you navigate the castle and grounds. 
 

Shortly after getting you multimedia guide, they have this layout of the castle. As you can see, it’s huge! Only a very small part is actually open to the public.

 

 

it’s hard to see here, but the Queens standard was raised on the flagpole, which means she was in residence.

Grounds keepers have been replaced with robots.

 

St George’s Chapel

Interior courtyard.

We were not allowed to photograph anything inside the castle, but needless to say it was amazing! You get to see state apartments and ceremonial rooms, where the current Queen hosts dignitaries, historic rooms of Charles II and so much more. There was no changing of the guard ceremony that day though.

 

 

At this point we were all very hot, sweaty and tired so we headed back to the hotel to rest and recharge. There might have been a bit of time traveling too..

That evening when we were ready for dinner, we wanted to try one of the Indian Restaurants so we found one that was highly rated on TripAdvisor. It’s called The Rajdoot  on Paddington St. Nearly 2000 ratings and it’s 4.5 stars, so how bad could it be? 
 

We hopped on the tube and headed off. We had a nice table outside, and we were not disappointed by the food. Like idiots of course we ordered WAAYTOO much food! It was delicious though and if anyone heads across the pond you should check it out.

We had meat samosas and chicken pakoras as a starter.

 

Mains included Chicken Biryani, Chicken Tikka Masala, and their Rajdoot special 

of course there was Naan, that didn’t make the photos.

with full bellies we ambled back to the hotel and called it a night.

 

After lunch we were off for some more exploring. We headed back to Regent St and made it to Hamleys. Along the way we passed The Palladium Theater, where Beauty and The Beast is. This is a favorite of The Boss.

Other sights….

We ended up at Hamleys!

spot the baby hippo that’s coming home with us!

After our tour ended we headed off in search of food. Our thoughts were, let’s find one of the REALLY old pubs in the city and eat there. A quick Google search later brought us to here.

This pub is called The Lamb and Flag. It’s been a pub since the days of Charles II. Known as the “Bucket of Blood” for its prize fights in earlier days. The inn has been host to such historic figures as Samuel Butler the poet Dryden (who was attacked by rogues outside the pub) and Charles Dickens, who worked nearby.

The view outside the pub

Our meals

Fish and Chips

 

Lamb Sausages

 

Meat Pie

With our bellies full, we headed off on more adventures!

20 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

 toy stores won. lol

More on that to come too

Sorry, this will be a long one!!!

We woke Saturday ready for a long day. We are all Harry Potter fans so we had a Harry Potter walking tour scheduled. While not as impressive as the tour to the studios that @Lovetocruise2002 and her family did, this was still a lot of fun. It was also a good way to see more of London. The idea of the tour was to see some of the sites that inspired J.K. Rowling when she was writing the books as well as areas that the movie was filmed in. @Lovetocruise2002 check with D13 and see if can recognize some of these places.
 

We met our guide along the Thames River in Minerva Square. Fans should get the reference there. 

We all got together in front of this statue…..look familiar?

Our guide was fun. He asked everyone if they were fans, and what house we were in. Of course we all knew our houses. Johnny and I are Gryffindors while The Boss and Lydia are Hufflepuffs. Our guide sorted us all into houses because during the tour there would be questions and challenges and points would be awarded. Thankfully we had a Harry Potter ringer during trivia on the cruise because we had lots of banked knowledge.

Once sorted we were off. First stop was Borough Market. This area was used in the movie, and was also really great to walk through. We had made plans to try to get back here for some food grazing, but unfortunately it never panned out.

Here are some Of the amazing stalls.

In this area, was the filming location for The Leaky Cauldon. In book three when Harry rode the Knight Bus and it stopped outside The Leaky Cauldron, this is the location that was used. Obviously the Taco Restaurant was removed digitally

 

This building on the third floor was used for all of the filming of the interior scenes.

As we continued our walk, we got to take a boat ride on the Thames, which was fun, to get to some other locations.

Some fun trivia. J.K. Rowling had requirements for the studio before they could buy the rights to make the movie. The first one was that all of the actors had to be British, and all of the filming had to be in the UK. That brings us to this location. Does this remind them of anything?

How about here?

For those who aren’t up on their trivia like a certain D13. This is where the scenes where Harry, Hermione and Ron had to break into the ministry of magic, as well as where Harry used the phone booth to enter in movie 3. They digitally moved that overpass to try to “confuse” and disguise the filming locations, but people are smart and easily figured these out. Just like Borough Market, and a few more.

Interesting thing to note. In the books, the first time Harry goes to the Ministry of Magic (Government building/politicians work here etc for the world of magic) Harry gets to use the visitor entrance which is via the iconic red phone box. When he has to break in at a later time disguised as a ministry worker, he has to use the “employee entrance” which if you read the books/saw the movie was by “flushing himself” down a toilet. This gives you some insight to how J.K. Rowling viewed the world…visitors get a phone booth, politicians flush themselves down the toilet……

The next location was across from Trafalgar Square.

This should scream Gringotts Bank to you! Interesting story. Remember back when J.K. Rowling demanded that everything be filmed in the UK? Well the original scenes in Gringotts were actually filmed just down the street, in a building that houses the Australian Embassy. The producers had to get special permission, not only from the Embassy, but from J.K Rowling to film there. They were only able to film there for the first movie because the Embassy did not give them permission for later films. The producers ended up taking thousands of photographs and rebuilt Gringotts on the studio lot.

Our next location was this little street.

J.K.Rowling worked in a building here and walked this alley daily. This became the inspiration for Knockturn Alley. They attempted to film here, but it was too narrow, so again thousands of photographs were taken, and this area was built on the studio lot for the movies.

Next up, this street was the inspiration for Diagon Alley

 

This street is lined with small local shops and bookstores. Local rules will prevent any changes to this, so you won’t see a national chain type store on this street. Some more trivia for those not in the know. J.K. Rowling had sent the first book to many publishers and was turned down by all of them. When the publisher who actually did publish the book received the manuscript, the publisher didn’t actually want to read it, so he gave it to his daughter. 3 hours later she came back to him clamoring that she loved it and wanted to know where the second book was!
 

The first thing that the publisher did was tell her that nobody will buy the book if she uses her full name and see that it was written by a woman. Sexist, I know, but that was the reality when the books came out. They were thinking along the lines of J.R.Tolkien and T.S.Lewis. J.K. didn’t actually have a middle name, so she used the initial for her Mothers name. Unfortunately her mother dies before the first book could come out. The publisher only did 1000 copies for the first edition, and we all know what happened next. As a “lesson” keep an eye out in local book stores for new first edition fantasy books from unknown authors. You may end up rich! A first edition Harry Potter book recently sold for over $300,000!!!

Our tour ended here

We have not seen the show yet……but we will. This show takes place 19 years after the events in the last book, and is in two parts totaling about 6 hours!

Sadly, we didn’t not make it to Kings Cross Station…..the crowds there get really busy, and it was getting hot, and we were hungry and the kids were getting restless.

Thanks for reading this long one…..more to come!!

After coming down off The Shard, we had all run out of fun and were pretty tired. After spending the week in temperate Norway, we were not ready for the heat of London. At this point we were past the time the hop on and hop off busses were running, so we headed to the metro station to grab some metro passes. We approached two of the workers to inquire about the visitor Oyster cards (subway passes) and the reduced rate card for Lyida. (11 and under ride for free, 12+ students are 1/2 price) The two workers looked at Lydia and said, she looks 11 to us, and to just get two adult cards and call it good. We said works for us, and we now had our transport arranged for the rest of the trip. 
 

The underground (subway) in London is very good and easy to navigate. Trains are quick(though there have been some delays due to the heat) and all of the magic attractions are within zone 1 and 2 which are the cheapest fares.

We returned to the hotel tired and weary. Pizza delivered to the hotel hit the spot for us that night!

Man, this London trip has been busy!! Also the wifi in this hotel is terrible, so that is not helping. The results on my laptop are even worse!

 

so anyway, we were at the Tower of London up to closing time, we hung out in that area because we had tickets to go up to the observation platform at The Shard. This is a 72 story building, and is the tallest in the UK. The observation deck on the 72nd floor is 800ft up! You take two elevators to get to the top. Each ride is 30 seconds. Once at the top. You have 360 degree views of the city, and it’s open to the air. There is seating all around, and a bar as well. 
The Shard

The kids being goofballs before heading up

Views from the top, Tower Bridge 

St Paul’s Cathedral 

The London Eye and Houses of Parliament 

 

 

After lunch we headed across the bridge again over to the Tower of London. This fortress was larger than I thought and we explored all over the place. We saw some of the carvings that the infamous “guests” left in the walls and eventually saw the Crown Jewels. They don’t mess around in there with their no photography policy. There were many teenagers who got yelled at for simply having their phones in their hands.

Traitors Gate

Johnny was ready to defend the fortress!

We didn’t try messing with these guys…

We were in awe as to what was inside here.

 

After we got off the bridge, we were pretty hungry. 
 

This sign lured me in. Like any typical male, I didn’t read the whole thing at first and was disappointed when I walked in.

 

Despite my disappointment the food was good. This place is called The Vault and is built into the bridge pier.

We got fish and chips, and we are firmly on the side of malt vinegar  @JLMoran

There was also a burger and some nuggets.

The Boss found her new favorite drink

 

 

We hopped off the bus at Tower Bridge and explored the area. 
You know you are in Europe when you see this live in an amphitheater. If you know, you know!

 

Not sure of the significance of the monkeys, but we had to get a picture.

We headed into the bridge, and started up the stairs. 206 stairs, and this one made sure to count every one to give us status updates.

Once at the top, we headed across the upper walkway. There is a glass floor to let you see down.

 

This one said NOPE to that floor

 

This one loved that floor

The views were expansive!

Here was a neat view. This is inside the tower, looking up.

After the bridge we got to explore the engine room that housed the old steam engines that were in use up to the ‘70s until they were replaced with electric motors.

 

Some fun things we saw on the way to the bus.

Nothing says “we are an international tourist destination” when they have to put this on the roads to remind everyone that the direction cars come is different than everywhere else.

 

We also like to find highly rated local restaurants to try out when we travel. It’s a good thing there are so many……

Next stop Tower Bridge

Okay, backtracking a little bit here. So where we left off, we had caught our ride up to London to the hotel. We dropped our bags and headed out into the city to explore. We started with a hop on hop off bus tour and headed to the direction of Tower Bridge. We got to see many sights along the way. We drove down Regent Street with all its shopping. Johnny’s ears sure perked up when he heard about the 7 floors of toys at Hamleys! We saw some of the West End and Soho. Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. Westminster, Houses of Parliament, the clock tower that contains Big Ben, Downing Street, the financial district and on and on. It was a good way to see a lot of the city. 
 

 

1 hour ago, Traveler said:

If you are near Paddington station you can take the Heathrow express train to the airport, it not cheap,around 25& pp but takes you there in 17 minutes...

That’s one of the exact reasons I booked this hotel! We are a 5 minute walk to Paddington.  I was also able to book Heathrow express tickets early for pretty cheap too!

16 minutes ago, twangster said:

This is why I bring USB cables with me. 

Also, I hope your wife isn't planning to plug a North American 110v hair dryer into that adapter, unless she wants a new hair dryer.  One less thing to pack for the trip home I suppose.  

I had upgraded most of our apple cables and chargers to USB-C for the fast charging. I only had 1 USB-A to lightning.

Thankfully she doesn’t bring a hair dryer, but does have a flat iron that is rated for 110/240v so we should be okay. If not, the pictures will be funny at least!