Europe: London Edition, Part III (The Museums)

As it turns out, London is LOADED with museums and galleries. Something about being a really old country and having, at one time or another, colonies (literally) all over the world means having oodles of artifacts and whatnot to display. I won't even pretend to suggest that we visited even a fraction of the museums, but we did hit many of the major ones (and some not-so-common ones just for fun).

I think this is a display of (really) old tools or something; I really don't remember. It makes for a cool picture though

How ridiculously hot fun would it have been to wear clothing like this??

The location of the Churchill War Rooms--it was really cool to visit the rooms from which Churchill "fought" WWII

One of the galleries had an entire display dedicated to Da Vinci's anatomical works--it was really fascinating to see how accurately he had depicted the internal human structures such as muscles and veins, despite having significantly limited technology

Yes, you are reading that right. And it happens to be the world's only museum dedicated to fans. Shocking, right?

One of the hundreds tens of fans on display in their permanent collection

The British Museum (alternatively titled The Museum of Stuff Britain Stole Acquired from All of the Different Countries and Colonies They Used to Rule)

World's First "This Guy"

A display of the 2012 Olympic and Para-Olympic medals

Outside the National Gallery. Another item off our "101 in 1001" list!

And inside the National Gallery--we found out after this picture that you aren't supposed to take pictures inside. Whoops

Tate Modern (that cool looking bridge is the Millennium Bridge) 

An example of the modern art inside Tate Modern--and trust me, some of them were weirder than this. Turns out Darrell and I don't "get" modern art--but it was still fun to look around!

 Don't you just feel more worldly and cultured now?

Other Europe Posts:
London, Part I: The Iconic Images
London, Part II: The Royalty
Anniversary Trip to Denbies Wine Estate
London, Part IV: The Fun!
Paris Trip
London, Part V: The Leftovers

Europe: Anniversary Edition

As grateful as we were to being staying in my friend's flat, Darrell and I decided that we wanted to do a little mini-getaway to celebrate our anniversary. We debated between a lot of different options--everything from traveling to the coast to staying in a four-star London hotel for the night--and settled on visiting a winery a short forty-minute train ride southwest of London: Denbies Wine Estate. What we especially liked about this estate was that they had a Bed and Breakfast onsite, so that once we were done touring the vineyard (and sampling the wines), we didn't have to mess with walking or taking public transportation to a hotel somewhere. And we couldn't have been happier with our decision.

The Denbies Farmhouse Bed and Breakfast (another item to cross our "101 in 1001" list!)

Our super cute--and comfortable--room!

Wine and chocolate--our version of tea time!

But, no worries, we made time to celebrate tea time with actual tea and biscuits as well (and for the record, still a self-portrait. We just propped the camera up and used a timer in order to get the tea in the picture)

A more traditional self-portrait

Darrell being artsy

Now, I know it's no secret that Darrell and I are a little non-traditional, so you shouldn't be surprised that we spent part of our anniversary evening hiking around the vineyard grounds. You can just barely see the farmhouse in the background of our picture--and we continued hiking up the rolling hills/vineyard for probably another mile or two. Probably not the smartest decision since we'd spent the majority of the previous few days walking around London, and were going to spend the next few days walking around Paris, but still totally awesome.

And the hike totally paid off with some awesome hillside shots like this. Sadly, we didn't get the sunset picture we were hoping for because we didn't hit a clearing in time (and trust me--if we had been able to, it would have been EPIC), but now we know which way to hike next time we're there and want a shot of the sunset :)

We'll head back to London next with LOTS of shots from museums and galleries!

Previous Posts:
London, Part I: The Iconic Images
London, Part II: The Royalty
London, Part III: The Museums
London, Part IV: The Fun!
Paris Trip
London, Part V: The Leftovers

Europe: London Edition, Part II (The Royalty)

One of the things that I enjoyed most on the trip was visiting the palaces and other places associated with the monarchy. Not only is all the history behind the monarchy very interesting (we may or may not have spent an hour on the internet one night researching the royal family tree), but we were also in London the week before Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee (which, as we learned, means that she has been reigning for sixty years. She is only the second monarch to hit that milestone, the first being her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria), so most of the sites were getting spiffed up for the celebration and/or featuring special displays.

Kensington Palace--the official royal residence of Will and Kate 

Inside Kensington (although we weren't allowed to tour the wings where the royalty currently reside. Lame, right?) 

A king's robe (with something like a ten-foot train)

The royal helicopter made a stop at the palace while we were there! 

Kensington Palace Gardens self-portrait

The gates outside the palace that became the primary mourning site after the death of Lady Diana (she had lived and raised Princes William and Harry here)

Buckingham Palace

A guard at Buckingham Palace (we did not manage to catch the changing of the guards, but from what we've heard it isn't really worth the hassle and crowds to be there for that)

Buckingham Palace self-portrait (Darrell and I had the realization that our kids will likely be close in age to the kids of Will and Kate, so if we could just coordinate a meeting and subsequent wedding between a daughter of ours and their first born son we might actually get a chance to stay here someday!)

The remaining photos are all from the Tower of London, which although it is more commonly known as a prison (and subsequently a site of torture/execution), it was actually built as a royal residence (initial construction began in 1066 and many of the original structures are still intact!). This was definitely the place that we would say is a must-visit for anyone traveling to London. We spent a solid three hours there, and I'm still not quite certain we saw everything! This is also where they keep the Crown Jewels, which were seriously awesome to see (but unfortunately, no photos allowed). 

The Tower of London

The first unofficial one-way street in London. Chances are, if you were rowed through this gate and onto tower grounds, you weren't going to be leaving alive. Additionally, if you look closely toward the bottom left/center of the previous photo you can see the same entry, but significantly more exposed. The tide affects the water level of the Thames quite a bit.

The Yeomen Warders--officially responsible for looking after prisoners at the Tower of London and guarding the Crown Jewels; unofficially tour guides at the Tower. 

Tower of London self-portrait

Apparently many of the kings who lived here kept rather unusual "pets". These animals were often gifts from visiting dignitaries (I have no idea how they managed to get the animals there), and included just about any animal you could imagine: elephants, polar bears, ostriches, monkeys, lions, etc. The menagerie is first referenced in 1251, was opened to the public by the eighteenth century, and the last of the animals were relocated to the London Zoo in 1835. Crazy stuff.

Just so I don't overwhelm you with all the London pictures right in a row, coming up on Monday will be a recap of our anniversary, which we spent at Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking!

Other Europe posts:
London, Part I: The Iconic Images
Anniversary Trip to Denbies Wine Estate
London, Part III: The Museums
London, Part IV: The Fun!
Paris Trip
London, Part V: The Leftovers

Europe: London Edition, Part I (The Iconic Images)

Darrell has finally gotten all the pictures edited (some lame excuse about missing seven days of work and being busy or something), so I'm ready to share them! We packed our ten days of vacation with tons of sightseeing, and took gobs of pictures, so I'll spread the details out to multiple posts so you don't end up with a novel to read. And because pictures are way more interesting than the random babbling I'll end up doing, I'll let the pictures do most of the talking and try to minimize my interjections along the way. Oh, and since our days were really all over the place, I've decided to group the pictures based on "type" rather than the day we actually visited the location. Because let's face it, it was crazy enough running around while we were there, I don't need to repeat it on the blog!

As you can tell from the title, I want to share a few of the "iconic" places that we visited first. I imagine most people will be familiar with the sights in these photos, and if you aren't, well, maybe you'll recognize them after this!

Okay, so maybe this really isn't all that iconic unless you are a Harry Potter fan, but I happened to think it was pretty awesome. It's located right in the King's Cross Station that is referenced in the books/movies

Who doesn't love the red phone booths?

Trafalgar Square. Iconic? Yes. Do I actually know it's significance? No. (At least I will honestly admit that.  Darrell and I realized we actually didn't know the significance of a lot of the places we visited. We've decided that next time before we travel we'll do a crash course in the history of popular landmarks.)

Pretty self-explanatory. We did learn that this is something like the fifth "London Bridge" to have been built in this location--apparently it takes Britians a lot of time to learn from their mistakes

Tower Bridge (which, in fact, is not the same as London Bridge. This was shocking news to Darrell--and he subsequently called it by the wrong name for most of our trip)

Tower Bridge self-portrait (get used to this shot--we took A LOT of self-portraits. We feel like this is our trademark pose--and as I noticed we our friend Linda offered to take our picture one time, I actually don't know how to stand when someone else is taking the picture and getting more than just our faces in it. Oh well)

Shakespeare's Globe Theater (which--don't hate me English friends--we didn't actually go inside. But we found out it was just a replica, and well, it was a really nice day to just ride the river boat up and down the Thames. We did consider going to a performance there, but due to some "Globe to Globe" festival all the performances were in different languages. And we can barely understand Shakespeare when it's in English, so we decided to save our money)

Westminster Abbey (more famously known as the place where Will and Kate got married and/or the interment site of lots of famous people like Isaac Newton) 

Another shot of Westminster

St. Paul's Cathedral (more famously known as the place where Prince Charles and Lady Diana were married and/or where the funerals for Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, and Sir Winston Churchill were held)

The more famous angle of St. Paul's, highlighting it's beautiful dome

St. Paul's self-portrait

View from the top of St. Paul's (which--for the record--it takes a lot of narrow, winding steps to get up there. Not recommended for people with claustrophobia or who easily experience vertigo)

The London Eye (which, before you ask, we did not ride. Hate on us all you want, but it was expensive and we had already gotten a pretty awesome view of the city from the top of St. Paul's)

The Houses of Parliament

Big Ben self-portrait (and--to be technical--it should actually be The Clock Tower self-portrait. Big Ben is just the name of the bell that is inside that can't be readily seen)

And I know this is only the first post of London pictures so it probably seems a little premature to be calling this next photo the best one of our trip--but it seriously is. I am super impressed with my husband for pulling this shot off--and am currently petitioning for it to be printed on to a canvas for display in our house (which really isn't taking a lot of convincing, we've just got to save up some money first and wait for a sale!)

Up next: Shots of us pretending to be royalty! (Or at least just visiting some palaces)

Other Europe Posts:

London, Part II: The Royalty

Anniversary Trip to Denbies Wine Estate

London, Part III: The Museums

London, Part IV: The Fun!

Paris Trip

London, Part V: The Leftovers