Remembrance Sunday and London

Today we took our Hop-On Hop-Off Bus tour of London just to see the main sights again, which we did, but we also got a bonus lesson in what Remembrance Sunday means to the British. Remembrance Sunday is the Sunday after November 11 where the dead of past wars are remembered. There is a major wreath laying ceremony (led by King Charles) at the Cenotaph at 11 am followed by a solemn parade of 10,000 mostly ex-military members. All the wreaths are made from poppies. There were also smaller ceremonies later such as in the one we passed in the photo.

Of course, we knew nothing about this and booked lunch at the Red Lion Pub, a half-block from the Cenotaph. So at 1 pm we were squeezed in the pub with a bunch of thirsty military men reliving their past glories with their comrades. The pub lady told us that this was their busiest day of the year and many people book it a year in advance. I'm not sure how I was able to book. Just luck I suppose.

We are leaving tomorrow and I have to pack so here are the other photos of the day.

The Tower Bridge

The Tower of London

The London Eye

Churchill's War Room

Big Ben and Westminster Palace (Parliament)

Westminster Abbey

Today was our day to tour Westminster Abbey. When we arrived, we found that we had just missed the tour that we wanted to take and had to wait an hour for the next, but it was worth it.

The tour guide was a verger and as he promised, he compacted 90 minutes of English history into a 90-minute tour. He did an excellent job and kept it interesting all the way. Benedictine monks founded the Abbey in 960 but major re-construction of the Abbey was started there by Edward the Confessor, who died in early 1066 and is buried there. 1066 is also famous as the year of the Norman conquest of England and William the Conqueror was crowned king there. Since then, all kings and queens of Britian have been coronated there. 

The abbey is the burial site of many of the kings in the Middle Ages, from Edward the Confessor up through King Henry VII. Also buried in the abbey are many other famous English people such as Chaucer, Dickens, Newton and more recently Stephen Hawking and Laurence Olivier. King Henry VIII and all following monarchs are buried at Windsor Castle. 

The abbey has been the site for many royal ceremonies. Most recently was Queen Elizabeth's funeral and the next one will be the coronation of King Charles III, all done in front of the altar in the center of the photo on the right. That ceremony will be May 6, 2023.

On our way back to the tube station we ran into a protest near 10 Downing Street. What was it about? Don't care. There have been on-going protests and strikes every day since we have been here. Rail workers, nurses, Stop Oil, climate change and even loss of starling habitats.

Finally, we decided to splurge and go to see our last stand-up comic, Sarah Pascoe, in style. We took Uber up and back. Costly but it saved several hours and an untold amount of train and bus rides. In addition, a portion of the track was closed due to a fatality, and it wasn't clear that we could even get there!

Kensington Palace and Our Anniversary

First, a word about the show last night. Jon Richardson was hilarious but the trip there and back was not so much fun. The tube strike made us take alternate routes and added more walking and more time to each leg of the trip. All the train rides out were fine, but when we got back for the last ride on the Elizabeth line only to find it was closed and we had to take an Uber back. Of course, city traffic was still terrible even at that time of night, so we didn't get to our hotel until 1am.

Our first stop today was a tour of Kensington Place. We know it as the place where Princess Diana lived with William and Harry and later where William and Kate lived with their children until they very recently moved to Windsor Castle so their children could all go to the same school. They lived in the wing to the left of the main building in the first photo. The tour we took was only the state apartments on the right in the photo.

Kensington Palace has a much older history. It was transformed into a palace by William and Mary in 1689 and later was the residence of Queen Ann, King George I and King George II. It was also the home where Queen Victoria was born and lived until she ascended to be the Queen in 1837 when she was 18. The statue in the foreground is of her as a youthful queen.

As today, 11/11/2022, was our 50th wedding anniversary, we celebrated with a tour of the grounds (Kensington Gardens) and a high tea in the gardens. Cheers!

Day Off in London

Tonight, we have a late standup comic show that is a bit out of London in Southend-on-Sea and we're not getting back until after midnight. We're seeing Jon Richardson who is a well-known comedian on British TV, famous from 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and other comedy shows. He has a very dry, self-deprecating style of comedy and he should be very funny.

Because of the expected late night and the tube strike that is full on today, we're taking some time off and not doing any hard touring during the day. Just some shopping at a Marks & Spenser department store near the hotel and a couple of other shops nearby.

We're also conducting an unofficial taste test of biscuits (cookies in the US) and I've shown a photo of some of the top brands from a list I saw on the Internet. We're not going to sample all 15 on the list, but I would say from what I have tasted that they are less sweet than our cookies. This is probably because they are intended to be eaten with tea. 

Back to London

After a much too short stay in Paris, we took the Eurostar back to London this afternoon. The waiting area at the Gare du Nord train station was much nicer that it's equivalent at St. Pancras station in London, but it had one big flaw. We had to go down two flights of stairs to get down to the track level. There were escalators for some tracks but not the one we left on. Fortunately, we had several people offer to help us, which was much appreciated.

Our hotel for the next five days in London is a also Hilton but not nearly as nice as the Hilton in Paris. It's okay, but just a bit small. Small rooms seem to be a common trait of central London hotels. 

Dinner tonight was at a nearby pub - Fountains Abbey. Very local pub with a cast of characters straight out of a British film. I would have taken a photo, but I thought I might get beaten up. I settled for a photo of the bar.

The food was listed as classic British pub food. That is in contrast with a lot of pubs who sell a largely American fare. For example, burgers, tacos and southern fried chicken (southern as in the US, not the UK). We even saw one place selling "Philly steak toasties." A toastie is English slang for "grilled cheese." I can't imagine that it would be any good.

Tonight, I had a Steak and Ale pie, which was really good and very filling. Jeanne had mac and cheese. We shared a Sticky Toffee Pudding for dessert.

Touring Paris

Since we only have one full day in Paris, we took the Big Bus to try to cram in as much sightseeing into the day as we could. The bus is a 2-hour ride with narration past all the major sights in Paris and you have the opportunity to get off at select spots. We rode past the Louvre (first photo) but didn't stop as it is closed on Tuesdays. We rode past Notre Dame and didn't get off as it was closed due to the extensive repairs that were needed after the fire.

Our first stop was the Musee d'Orsay which is the home of a world-class collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings. The building was a former train station as you can tell from the photo. We had been to the d'Orsay about 25 years ago and as I recall, we went up, bought tickets and went right in. This time we queued for 30 minutes to get our tickets. You can buy timed tickets, but with the bus schedule it was uncertain when we would be there so we couldn't buy the timed tickets.

I selected one painting to include in the blog. I chose a self-portrait of Vincent Van Gogh as he is my favorite painter but there are many, many other great paintings here.

After the museum, time for a quick French lunch of crêpes and crème brûlée.

Our second and final stop was the Eiffel Tower. The queuing for tickets and to catch the elevator was at least 30 minutes. Once again you can buy timed tickets, but it wasn't feasible today.

The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 World's Fair. Upon completion, it surpassed the Washington Monument to become the tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years until the Chrysler Building in New York City was finished in 1930.

I had never been to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and this was one of the items on my bucket list. In the photo of Jeanne and me you can see me trying not to look terrified or frozen. The temperature here in Paris was mild, in the upper 50s, but very windy at the top and hence very cold. 

Afterwards we had dinner at a very nice French restaurant right across the street from our hotel. Say what you want about the French, but their cooking is first class. We dined Parisian style tonight. I had foie gras (appetizer) and fish and Jeanne had duck breast. We shared profiteroles for dessert (shown in the photo). The food and the service at the Mollard were excellent. 

Paris and the Moulin Rouge

Again, the day started out with some drizzle, but nothing major. It's been three days in a row like that, but the rest of our trip looks dry.

We took an Uber to the St. Pancras train station to catch our 1:30 pm Eurostar train to Paris. The check-in process was slow with x-rays, passport control, etc. and it was a really overcrowded facility. Part of the crowding was probably due to the strike which canceled a number of trains so everyone was trying to fit into whatever they could.

The Eurostar is touted as a luxury train but it really isn't. The only "luxury" is the speed of the trip to Paris and a decent luggage storage facility. Our seats were cramped and there were no open spaces. The trip took a little over 2 hours and you spend 30 minutes of that going through the Chunnel (under the English Channel). We hit a top speed of 301 km/hour in the open French countryside.

Our first hotel in London was the Holiday Inn Regent's Park. It was nice enough, but the room is small by American standards even though they upgraded us to an "executive" room. Our Hilton hotel in Paris, however, is on a whole different level. The room is at least three times the size of the London and with a view of the Eifel Tower. Also, with our Hilton perks we have access to the Executive Lounge, which gives us free food and drinks. Life is good.

We had to make a quick change of clothes and head to the Moulin Rouge for dinner and the show. This would have been pricey, but I booked with points so no worries. Turns out it might have been worth the money they charge. The meal was excellent (including a full bottle of champagne), and the show was great. One of the best we have ever seen.

One thing I noticed that is different from when we were in the UK five years before is that almost all payments now are cashless. It's encouraged and I even had one place that wouldn't take cash. I suppose that this is a by-product of COVID but I kind of like it. No more fumbling through coins to figure out which ones to use. France, on the other hand, is still more like the US and relies on the "cash" system a lot. Yes, you can charge most everywhere, but I did have to pay cash for a couple of things. Fortunately, I had some Euros with me.