I needed to make a quick trip to London for a Monday meeting for work so I went out the weekend ahead of time. I flew overnight on Friday so had Saturday afternoon/evening and all day Sunday to myself before meeting up with my colleagues on Monday for meetings. I flew home on Tuesday morning after some annoying delays.
I chose to stay at the same Marriott where we stayed for our family trip to London in 2017. It's at the base of Westminster bridge with the London Eye in front and Big Ben/Parliament across the river. The cab ride from the airport takes you past Buckingham Palace. We drove past a Pride bicycle parade which was festive!
I thought it was funny to take a photo of kids taking photos of themselves with the iconic telephone.
This guy was outside of Parliament and shares my disgust with single use plastics. I was almost ill to see someone later carrying a disposable plastic water bottle inside of a single use plastic bag. Seriously?!
Big Ben is quiet ride now as the towers undergo renovations. So much scaffolding.
My hotel as photographed from the bridge.
Parliament and Big Ben as photographed from the hotel. After I dropped my bags off and took a quick shower, I got dressed for church. I walked back across the bridge over to Westminster Abbey to join the Evensong. The abbey was closed to tourists for the evening already but you could join the evening's service for free. I got there early and had a good seat where I could see part of the Quire (choir). My chair sat between the choir and the altar facing the large stain glass window in the picture below.
After the service, I had an early dinner of vegetarian curry at a restaurant just behind the Abbey before turning in early thanks to jet lag and a head cold.
On Sunday I had intended to get up in time to attend mass at a neighborhood parish (and let me tell you, it took some real research to find a Catholic church in the home of the Church of England! :-)), but the jet lag and head cold prompted me to keep resetting my alarm clock and just head to my second planned stop of the day: The British Museum. It was an easy walk along the Southbank and across the Waterloo bridge. And it was an entertaining walk, as well, as West End Live was happening in front of The National Gallery. The cast from The Waitress was just starting a song as I walked past.
Thankfully the British Museum is free will donation and I only paid 5 pounds to get in, because it was overwhelming. I should have known. I've been to the Louvre and the Vatican, and this is similar: cram an entire civilization of treasures under one roof. To make matters worse, I went in without a plan of what I wanted to see beside the Elgin Marbles, and it was unseasonably warm which combined with my head cold and no a/c made for an uncomfortable tour. I wandered around for an hour seeing the "top 5" list and then bought an ice cream from a street truck and walked to lunch.
The Rosetta Stone with my closest friends. At first I thought the best look I was going to get was through this guy's ipad photo.
This family apparently knew better than me and brought their own chairs to rest. (No idea how those made it past security....)
Now known as the Parthenon Marbles or Parthenon Sculptures, I did know that the "Elgin Marbles" weren't round marbles. I thought they were one panel of Greek sculpture taken from Greece. In fact it was virtually ALL the marble decorations from the Parthenon. So "marbles" means all the things made of marble. I thought it was one panel - something the size of a giant painting - but it is this entire room. Having just been to the Acropolis and toured the Parthenon about six months ago, I could really put this all into perspective. And by "this" I mean the distaste that our Greek guides had for the British "explorers." There were various plaques discussing how half of the marbles are at the New Acropolis Museum and that these needed to remain here to protect them.
After my fill of the museum, I found my way over to the Fuller's Ale House where I had eaten pies and beer on my last visit. Luckily it was easy to find because it was right next to the hotel I stayed in that time. I remembered my lesson learned about letting the pies vent, so I didn't burn the roof of my mouth this time! I wish I had remembered that the beer sampler wasn't very good and just ordered my own pint! Alas, I filled up and headed home ready to crash again.
At the base of Waterloo bridge I heard music and stumbled across the end of this quaint concert. They were playing music from The Jungle Book and it was very zippy! I got to hear 1 1/2 songs before the concert was over and they and I were on our ways! I found myself one more ice cream cone and then crawled back into bed. I felt like my London tourist coverage was sufficient for this trip. It was actually quite lovely to walk around on a weekend in the lovely weather with very little calendar or time commitments. I did wish John and William were there to take it all in. Makes me want to plan another family trip.
Monday morning was a rude awakening to a fire alarm. Luckily I was showered and dressed in case I didn't get to go back in before heading to my business meetings. However, I can't say that evacuating from an historic building where none of the hallways and exits nicely connect was very fun. This is my view of the London Eye from the emergency exit/loading dock! We were let back in without too much delay - apparently it was a surprise test that the hotel was not alerted to - and I had time to organize myself for my meetings.
My flight home was cancelled and my new flight was 4 hours later, so I had time to kill in the American Airlines lounge and then in the duty-free shop. I bought the little guy some Kit Kats to share with me and the big guy some Game of Thrones Scotch to share with me.
