London – Page 2 – A Traveling Fool

December 22, 2025

London Adventure: Final Simply Red London Concert at OVO Arena Wembley

After eating the salad I had purchased on the way back to my hotel, I dressed for the concert. This time I wore a red sequined, cold shoulder top. This was the actual date of the release of Simply Red’s first album, Picture Book, back in 1985. I was also going to be sitting front row center. I was honoring that special date by dressing up and using the color red.

I took a cab from the Railway Station to the arena and went to the VIP entrance. I received my VIP Front Row Experience carry bag with a VIP lanyard, a drinks coaster, a poster, a program, a journal with a pen, and a Bluetooth speaker. As I was being taken to my seat, I encountered a woman who was wearing a red sequined jacket. She was at the end of the middle section in the first row.

Shortly after I sat down, I met Carine from Belgium. She was just a couple seats over to my left. She and the couple seated between us were lovely people and ready to have a great time. I was pretty much directly in front of the pieces of paper that Mick had taped to the floor. One was a set list. The other contained some prompts for what he wanted to say in between songs.

Carine had noticed Sarah Brown, one of the band’s former backup singers (from 1995 to 2008) going to her seat to our right and up at the side of stage. She pointed her out to me. I was very glad that she had a few days later when someone in the fan group saw that same woman walking down the stairs to head backstage during a video of “Something Got Me Started” (the first of the three encore songs) and was certain that she was someone else entirely. But I was able to say that I was there and saw Sarah myself.

During Soul II Soul’s set (which was much more fun up close) we found that the security at the arena was putting their priority on the people who were walking back and forth in front of us to get more drinks. Once the Simply Red set began and several of us stood up and moved forward to the barricade so we could clearly see the band without anyone getting in our way, we were told to sit down. That was when a few of us got a bit rebellious.

We had gotten the most expensive seats in the place with the idea that nobody could get in front of us and ruin our view of the stage. Carine and I both thought it was ridiculous and we weren’t going to take it sitting down. A woman on the other side of me was worried they might throw us out if we didn’t remain seated, but I said that the more of us that stood the better. There would be too many of us to threaten. So, since I knew that “Money’s Too Tight (to Mention)” would be the next song, I said something to Carine and to the women on my other side. As soon as the first notes were played, we were on our feet. Carine and I motioned to everyone around us to stand and they did. Most of us stayed on our feet for pretty much the rest of the show. I only sat down a couple of times when my back complained loudly.

At one point, when Mick was explaining how the song “Enough”, which was co-written with Joe Sample, came about, a man could be heard talking quite loudly far down to my right (which would have been stage left to the band). Mick stopped talking and looked in the man’s direction. The man quieted down for a moment until Mick began to speak again. This time Mick walked over to where the man was sitting and looked directly at him. Since the guy didn’t seem to get the message, Mick bent over and pointed at him, telling him to shut up. He followed that up by returning to where he had been standing before he was so rudely interrupted and apologizing to the audience, explaining that he needed to be able to concentrate on what he was saying. He then continued his story and sang the song.

The next day, the press and some social media said that he had gone on a “shocking rant”. They were blowing it entirely out of proportion. Nothing shocking. No rant. Just a performer telling a disrespectful member of the audience to “shut it”, so he could continue the show.

The remainder of the concert went along with no further interference from noisy or drunk audience members or security threatening to remove anyone from the front row. The band put in another stellar performance throughout and received an ovation from a standing and cheering crowd at the end of the final song of the main set – “Fairground”. Then another at the end of the final song of the encore – “Holding Back the Years”. And Mick did this entire show while dealing with an eye infection.

After the show, some more people came up to me and asked if I was Trisha. There were also people stopping me to comment on my sparkling red sequins.

The Simply Red Facebook page (with two million followers) published five photos a couple days later. The second photo showed Mick singing onstage near where I was standing. I could also be seen. Photo number five was of the marquee at the O2 Arena and I was credited as the photographer. Both photos really tickled me. I will share both of these photos in my next post.

The day after the concert someone else in the audience posted a video on YouTube of the band performing “You Make Me Feel Brand New”. Mick was standing for the entire song near where I can clearly be seen standing and singing along directly in what was his sight line. The fella filming it kept me in the frame most of the time. Then the couple to my left, between me and Carine, stood up. It was harder to see me then, but my ponytail was still frequently visible. I have included a screenshot that I took from that video here.

Next time – A late start and the Ben Franklin House

December 9, 2025

London Adventure: A Change of Hotels, Touring the Houses of Parliament & A Massive Protest

Although I had a late night, I needed to get up, have breakfast and check out of the hotel. The restaurant was the most crowded I had yet seen, but I had the whole process down plus I was seated near the food. I made my way through the buffet and got back to my room relatively easily (though it took a while to get my tea).

Since I am a member of the Intercontinental Hotels Group Rewards program, I was able to check out at a different desk which only had one person ahead of me. Arrangements had been made ahead of time for my transport into central London to my second hotel. I was tickled to see that the car was ready and waiting for me. So far, so good.

An enormous protest was going on in central London with regards to the situation in Gaza. Whitehall was completely blocked off from all traffic and Trafalgar Square was also blocked. I could hear the crowds in the square as we neared the hotel, which was the Clermont Charing Cross on the Strand. This street was about to be blocked off too, so we made it to the hotel just in time.

The room was not yet ready (it was only 11:30am), so I checked my luggage, gave them my cell phone number so they could text me when it was ready, and headed out to explore a bit. Although I have stayed at this hotel several times before, I had never explored the train station to which it was attached.

The Charing Cross railway station first opened in 1864 with the hotel opening the following year. One of the hotel’s guests back in the day, was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame. He set the meeting between Holmes and his soon to be new client at Baskerville Hall at the hotel restaurant.

My first venture to this hotel was during the Gulf War in 1991. I had traveled to the UK with my mom and we were staying at another hotel nearby. The Gulf War had begun while we were on the flight over to London and ended while we were in York a few weeks later. My entire memory of that blessedly short war is from the British viewpoint.

A few days into our time in London during that trip, we went to high tea at the Charing Cross hotel (it had just become the Clermont shortly before I stayed there in 2023 and had been the Amba Charing Cross when I had last been there in 2017). Although I had done cream teas before, this was my first full blown high tea and it was mighty elegant.

Charing Cross has been considered to be the center of London and the point from which all distances from London are measured. Historically the name came from a hamlet called Charing, which means “riverbend” along with the Eleanor cross that had once been there. The original cross was erected in 1294. It was the largest and most ornate of the crosses built by King Edward I in honor of his deceased wife, Eleanor. The crosses were constructed from Lincoln to Westminster along the route of Eleanor’s funeral procession at each location where the procession rested. The cross that currently stands just outside of the hotel and railway station is a reconstruction built in 1884 to replace the one destroyed by Cromwell and his troops in 1647.

The Charing Cross Railway station has some places to eat, a grocers, a chemist, and some other shops inside. There is also a taxi stand right outside which is quite handy for grabbing a cab fairly quickly (depending upon how long the line might be). I planned to get one there that night to get to the OVO Arena Wembley for my third night of concerts.

I decided it would be a good idea to have some lunch before my tour at Parliament began, especially since I would need to walk from the hotel to Parliament. So I headed out to see what looked like a good place for lunch nearby. It didn’t take long to discover the Café Concerto. The menu looked varied and the prices reasonable for London these days. I went in and ordered a BLT with some strawberry lemonade. While there, I received a text from the hotel that my room was ready. Great timing!

I got back to the hotel and checked into my now upgraded room. It was a Deluxe King which was larger and had a sofa as well as an armchair. Best of all, it included a free mini bar that was stocked daily. I collected my cases and headed up and over to the room. It was in the Buckingham Wing, which was on the other side of the road via a little enclosed bridge over the road (Villiers Street).

That part of London had once been the location of property owned by the Villiers family, which were the Dukes of Buckingham. It was sort of confusing that I needed to take the lift from the ground floor to the first floor in the main part of the hotel, then, once I crossed over the little bridge, the floor on the other side was the third floor. I needed to take another lift there down to the second floor to get to my room. The hallway floors were a tad creaky in the Buckingham Wing. I had the feeling that the building was older than the main part of the hotel. I happen to like the charm of older buildings, so I was quite pleased. Plus it was pretty quiet. Good for sleeping.

On my way too and from the Palace of Westminster (as the Houses of Parliament are called), I had to navigate my way through some pretty large crowds. But I made it to the Cromwell Green Visitor Entrance in plenty of time. We were supposed to be there 20 minutes ahead of the tour to go through security. I boosted myself up onto a relatively low barricade normally used to keep vehicles from trying to crash through and sat with a lovely British couple while we waited to get in. After getting through security and gathering inside of Westminster Hall, we were a small group of fourteen people.

It is thought that King Cnute had a palace on the land where Parliament now stands during his reign from 1016 to 1035. Edward the Confessor built a palace on that location at the same time he built the first version of Westminster Abbey (roughly 1045 to 1050).

The Palace of Westminster was originally built as a royal palace in the eleventh century. A fire destroyed the royal apartments in 1512, after which the king, Henry VIII, moved to the Palace of Whitehall, which he took from Cardinal Wolsey.

Parliament had begun meeting at Westminster in the 13^th century and continued to do so. A much larger fire destroyed the majority of the palace in 1834. Only the 12^th century Westminster Hall was saved and included as part of the building that now stands.

During World War II, the palace was hit by bombs repeatedly — fourteen different times in all. The worst air raid killed three people and destroyed the House of Commons Chamber. Both that room and Westminster Hall had been set on fire and, since they knew they couldn’t save them both, Westminster Hall was where they put their efforts.

There are three main towers in the palace: the Victoria Tower, which has the Sovereign’s Entrance, which the Monarch uses whenever they come to the palace; the Elizabeth Tower, which is where the enormous bell, Big Ben, resides; and the Central Tower, which stands over the Central Lobby.

The building was planned around the Central Lobby, which is the meeting point for all of the corridors leading to the over 1,100 rooms, 100 staircases, and three miles of passageways, which are spread over four floors. We began our tour in Westminster Hall.

At the time it was built, Westminster Hall was the largest hall in Europe. The hammerbeam roof was built for King Richard II in 1393 and is the largest medieval roof of its kind in England. Westminster Hall has been the site of many trials and lying-in-states over the centuries. The most recent lying-in-state was Queen Elizabeth II.

The hall was where William Wallace (who actually was never called “Braveheart”; that was Robert the Bruce’s nickname) was tried for treason in 1305. It was also where Sir Thomas More was condemned to death back in 1535, mostly because he wouldn’t recognize Henry VIII as the Supreme Head of the Church. Guy Fawkes and his fellow Gunpowder plotters were tried for attempting to blow up Parliament in 1606. King Charles I, in 1649, was the only reigning monarch ever tried and condemned to death in Britain.

Westminster Hall and St Stephen’s Hall were the only places where we were allowed to take photos. St Stephen’s Hall stands on the site of the royal Chapel of St Stephen’s, which was destroyed in the fire of 1834 and where the House of Commons met until that time.

We weren’t able to visit the King’s Robing Room in the Royal Apartments, but we were able to see the Royal Gallery, the Norman Porch, and the Prince’s Chambers. The Lords Chamber, the Peer’s Lobby (an antechamber where matters can be discussed and messages delivered), the Peer’s Corridor, as well as a few smaller areas within the precincts of the House of Lords (using the main color red) were next. After that, we went across to the precincts of the House of Commons (mainly green) via the Central Lobby and the Common’s Corridor to visit the Member’s Lobby and the Commons Chamber. We could see the dents on the door where the representative of the Monarch (Black Rod) bangs with their staff on the door at the State Opening of Parliament each year when asking the MPs to attend in the House of Lords to hear the Monarch’s speech.

After roughly 90 minutes, we went back through St Stephen’s Hall and Westminster Hall to leave the building. Then it was a matter of weaving in and out of all of the protestors on my way back to my hotel. I stopped in at the grocers in Charing Cross Railway Station for something to eat for dinner on the way.

Next time – the Simply Red Concert at the OVO Arena Wembley

December 2, 2025

London Adventure: The Second Simply Red Concert at London’s O2 Arena

Breakfast had many more people than the day before. I figured it was a combination of my getting up later and the strong likelihood that several of my fellow breakfasters had also attended the concert the night before. This time I had a table facing the window, but it wasn’t right next to the window. No problem. Just wanted to get some good food and start my day.

The tickets for the concerts were all electronic. I had the ticket for the first night at the O2 on my phone (in the O2 Arena app) before I left home. My ticket for the OVO Arena Wembley concert was also already on my phone, in the OVO Arena app. But my ticket for the second night at the O2 was not on my phone. I had followed up with the ticket vendor while still at home, but had gotten nowhere.

Once I arrived in London, I chatted with a fellow at the O2. He told me to arrive at the box office when it opened at 5:30pm on the day of the concert and they would get it straightened out. I had a friend who had an issue with one of her tickets for an earlier concert and had gotten her situation taken care of in a similar manner. So I had planned the day to be ready for the concert and walk over to the box office at 5pm.

When I returned to my room after breakfast, I decided to try the O2 app one more time. The ticket was there. Could the problem have been that the app couldn’t handle more than one night at a time? Or maybe couldn’t deal with two different ticket vendors at the same time? At home, I often have several different tickets for different venues or different nights at the same venue on my phone without any problems. Whatever the issue had been, it was solved and I didn’t need to hang out at the box office later in the day. I took a screenshot of the ticket as backup.

I had originally planned to visit the main part of Greenwich for the day. But changed my plans when I was going to have to deal with the missing ticket. Now that my plans changed again, I chose to stay close to home. I spent some time exploring the upper level of the O2 complex, which mostly had shops, and didn’t buy a thing. This time I circled the entire complex, instead of going halfway and coming back. Then, after a light lunch, I went to the swimming pool and then sat in the thermal pool again.

This time the thermal pool was empty when I arrived. The previous day, a guy was already there. He had all of the jets shooting full blast and both waterfalls going. He was sitting under one of the waterfalls like it was his own personal shower. I hadn’t wanted to get so thoroughly pummeled (with my very fair skin, I bruise somewhat easily). Plus I didn’t want to get soaked by the waterfalls (since the water coming down on the fellow was spraying out quite far from him). So I had kept to the periphery. This time the setting for the jets was much more reasonable and the waterfalls weren’t running. So I settled in on a more centrally located seat where I was more likely to stay put and relaxed thoroughly. Others eventually joined me in the thermal pool and we had some enjoyable conversations.

After having some dinner and getting dressed up for the show, I went to the hotel bar and had a Lemon Drop Martini. Then I sauntered over to the entrance to the arena with my ticket ready to be scanned from my phone.

This time my seat was on the other side of the arena, a bit farther back from the stage and blessedly not so high up. To my left was a group of people, both male and female, all in their mid to late thirties. They were wondering what songs were and weren’t going to be played and when they might hear “Fairground”. Since I had the set list fully memorized by this time, I was able to answer their questions. They were mildly snockered and having a great time partying.

To my right was a very nice family from Belgium. The mother was about early fifties and had brought her son and daughter for them to see Simply Red live for the first time. Mom was a long-time fan who had indoctrinated her kids on the band’s music from pretty much the womb.

The seats directly in front of me were empty until after Soul II Soul finished their set. Then their occupants arrived, carrying several drinks (beer, wine, and cocktails) and already quite intoxicated. They were quite loud and rowdy and continued to be so even after Simply Red took the stage. If anyone dared to say anything to them, they responded quite belligerently, peppered with numerous expletives. I am usually very much of a live and let live kind of a person as long as no harm is being done to anyone. But my mild-mannered Belgian friend and I were whispering to one another about what we thought we could get away with doing to them without being arrested.

The guy left again and returned with four large beers in his large hands. Not too long after that, he threw up all over himself and the woman to his right. The woman he was with was to his left. Simply Red was not yet that far into their set and suddenly four people were leaving the concert. I was thankful they had been in front of me and not behind or next to me. It took a while before the cleaning crew came to take care of the mess. But it was likely that it wasn’t the only mess they had to clean up that night. The venue made it clear both nights that the drinkers were the priority to them, not the people who actually wanted to experience the show.

Because I knew the set list so well, I had planned out what to photograph and, more importantly, what to capture with video clips. Some of the action going on around me precluded some of my plans, but I still managed to get some good stuff. Since I would be front row center the following night, I didn’t want to spend all of my time looking at them through my phone when I was right there face to face.

Once again, they were incredible. Some acts I have seen live have been carried away by their own egos and sleep-walked their way through their set. This band never does that. They always go all out to put on an amazing, entertaining show. At the very beginning of the set, a video is played of Mick forty years ago saying, “I want to be a great singer. I want to be the best.” He isn’t talking about being the most famous or the richest. He truly means that he wants to sing very, very well. He worked at it really hard to make it happen.

For the encore, one of the fellas to my left had switched places with the girl who had been right next to me. At the end of the concert, he gave me a big hug and wanted to kiss me. Honestly I could have been this guy’s mama. But he was jovially three sheets to the wind and high on Simply Red’s unbelievable showmanship. He said it was the best concert he had ever seen in his life and planted one on me.

I followed the Belgian family out from the seats and we walked together for a little bit. They needed to get back to the main entrance while I was going out to the hotel from the bottom of the stairs we walked down from that level.

Back in my room, I got ready for bed and packed up to leave the hotel the next morning after breakfast. Then I posted the photos and video clips I took and called it a night.

Next time – transferring to a central London hotel and making my way through crowds of protesters to tour Parliament.

The arena filling up just before the Simply Red set

November 26, 2025

London Adventure: The First Simply Red Concert at London’s O2 Arena

For the very good buffet breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant, I had a table by the windows in the corner. It overlooked the Thames and gave me a very pleasant view of the skyscrapers in London’s Financial District across the river. I could also watch the variety of boats and ships that went by.

I couldn’t settle in too much, however, as I had scheduled a one hour, full-body Swedish massage at the hotel’s spa. I figured that, with three nights of concerts in a row, I would be glad to have had it.

Although I had assigned seats for all three, Simply Red concerts are just not the sort of shows where the audience sits quietly in their seats. Instead the audience gets up on their feet, dances, sings along during the choruses, applauds enthusiastically, and cheers throughout.

The band is unique. The styles of music include soul, jazz, blues, funk, rock, ballads, and the occasional reggae piece. They not only sound different from other bands, but their songs are different from each other too.

The band is very tight and every member of it is both versatile and quite talented on the instrument (or instruments) they play. On drums, Roman Roth; bass, Orefo Orakwue; guitar, Kenji Suzuki; keyboards, Gary Sanctuary; trumpet, flugelhorn and percussion is Kevin Robinson; saxophones, EWI, and additional keyboards is Ian Kirkham. The guitar, saxophone, trumpet, and keyboard solos are all spellbinding. The lead singer, Mick Hucknall, has an exquisitely unique singing voice, which just seems to become richer and more powerful as he ages (25 when he started and 65 now).

With the tour being for the 40^th anniversary of the release of their first album, Picture Book, it was chock full of hits and fan favorites from over the years. Mick also talked to the audience (which he usually does at least some anyway), explaining the origins of some of the songs or telling stories related to them. This added an extra depth to their nearly two hour set.

Back to the massage. It was delightful and energized me. Afterwards I went for a walk outside. It was a lovely day. I explored the area around the O2 Arena, taking photos of the hotel, arena, and the river.

One of the photos that I took of the marquee at the main entrance to the arena ended up being posted on Simply Red’s Facebook page a few days later, credited to me. That was really cool. It was accompanied by four other photos, one of which was from the third concert and showed Mick onstage. I could clearly be seen in the audience watching him. I will share that photo in a later post.

Picked up some Chinese food for lunch. Then later in the afternoon, I took my masseuse’s advice and went to sit in the large thermal pool in the hotel next to the swimming pool. My legs kept trying to float up. If I tried to lean back, my entire body would rise and I would start to float away. I decided the problem was my lack of height. Others seemed to be staying in place, but they were all taller than me. So I sat on a ledge with my legs hanging down in order to not float off. Then I had a light dinner and got ready for the show.

I had decided that, since it was such a special anniversary, I would dress up each night. For the first night, I chose a purple sequined camisole with a purple and blue sequined shrug jacket.

The entrance from the hotel was pretty much on the other side of the arena from the main entrance, which I needed to go in. The complex was full of people and they were not all going to the concert. As it was, the arena could hold 20,000 and was sold out. So loads and loads of people milling around.

My seat for the first night was close to the stage, but really high up above it. It was the best seat I could get in the scramble to get any ticket I could after my friend had died. I am not a fan of heights, but I had talked myself into being okay with it on the way. Fortunately, when I went up the steps to enter the arena itself, I didn’t need to climb any further from there or go down any steps either. I just stepped over a bit to my right and sat down. Whew!

Not long after I arrived, another woman walked up to me and asked if I was Trisha. I said I was and she introduced herself to me. That was great. A new friend. I later had several people say that they saw me — some from across the arena. It seemed that my outfit could be seen from space.

I figured I would likely stay in my seat most of the time, unless the people in front of me stood and I would need to stand in order to see the stage. Didn’t realize that the people around me would be going in and out for the entire concert to get more drinks or to run to the WC. So I ended up standing for much of the show even at that dizzying height in what I would call nosebleed territory. The drunker several of those people got, I began to pray that nobody would be so drunk as to take a header over the railing just a few rows ahead of me.

The concert itself was absolutely fantastic – both Simply Red and their supporting act, Soul II Soul (biggest hit being “Back To Life (However Do You Want Me)”) played their hearts out. Afterwards I took the elevator down instead of the never-ending succession of escalators. Then I walked back to the hotel. I ended up staying up a bit late to post the photos I had taken on three Facebook pages (my own, the one I had been helping with for the past couple years, and another dedicated to the band to which I often contribute). Exhausted, but happy, I slept well once I was under the covers of my comfy bed.

Next time – The day and night of the second of the three Simply Red concerts

November 15, 2025

London Adventure: Arrival

The British soul band, Simply Red, features quite prominently in the first days of this particular trip. So a little back history is in order.

On the 11^th of October in 1985, their first album, Picture Book, was released. This included the songs “Come to My Aid”, “Sad Old Red”, “Heaven” (the Talking Heads song), “Jericho”, “Money’s Too Tight (to Mention)”, “Holding Back the Years” (which hit #1 in the US), and the title song. The album launched the band into sudden fame – especially in the UK, Europe, and South America. Forty years later, still going strong, they embarked on an international tour. I was going to all three London concerts.

I had initially become aware of Simply Red through my local record shop. The fella from whom I purchased most of my music recommended them based upon what he knew about my musical tastes. In the summer of 1986, the band performed at the First Avenue Club. As good as I thought the album was, they were even better live.

I didn’t have the opportunity to see them again until the summer of 1992 at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. A friend of mine had rented a flat in London and invited me over for a few weeks. She had a flyer regarding the Jazz Festival which indicated that Simply Red would be playing during the time I would be in London. So we hopped on the plane to Geneva.

After a few changes in personnel, the band was even better in person than before. And their very dynamic and charismatic lead singer, Mick Hucknall, was incredible. He started off the set with a Cole Porter song sung a cappella. It was perfection. I was even more completely hooked than before.

But, after a few years, life happened and our connection was lost. Two years ago, the connection restored, I was helping with a group associated with the band and was already set to attend a couple of the upcoming 40^th anniversary shows. So, on the 7^th of October 2025, I boarded a plane and began my London adventure.

Originally I was supposed to attend the two shows at the O2 Arena with a friend who said she had arranged for us to be the guests of one of the band members. But, several months after the tickets went on sale, she suddenly died. I then found out that she had not yet made any arrangements. So I found myself scrambling to get whatever tickets I could.

In the meantime, a third London concert was announced for the OVO Arena Wembley. I signed up for the pre-sale, got up at 3:30am my time to be ready at 10am London time (4am for me) to try to get myself the Front Row Experience. Success! Front row center even! I had already planned to make it a longer trip than just the concerts and had several activities in mind for the rest of my time in London.

I had managed to snag a Delta One air ticket, so my adventure began after I checked in at the Delta One desk, dropping my larger case off there. My ticket got me into the Delta Sky lounge. My flight wasn’t leaving until 11pm, so I wouldn’t be getting the onboard dinner until after midnight or so. In the lounge, I could get a light meal to tide me over until then for free. I could also hang out in the relatively quiet lounge until nearer to the time to board. The ladies room in the lounge alone was worth it. Quite posh.

I received a glass of sparkling wine upon boarding. Then, with dinner, I selected a lovely, white, Argentinian wine to go with the crab cakes I had ordered. They were served with soup, a salad, some smoked salmon, a roll, some risotto, and green beans. I decided I could get used to this.

Shortly after dinner, I figured it was time for bed. The seat could lie down, which I felt would definitely help me to actually sleep (which I normally don’t on a flight). It was, however, rather turbulent here and there, so I would just be drifting off when I would start to bounce around a bit (although I did have my shoulder strap seat belt on).

We were served breakfast at about 10am London time and landed at about 1pm. Going through passport control is much quicker now that all I need to do is to have the passport read by the computer. But I do miss collecting the stamps in the passport.

A car and driver were picking me up and taking me to the Intercontinental O2 Hotel. I knew that it would take a couple of hours to get there, especially since we went through central London, instead of on the ring road, but it took more like two and a half hours.

After checking in and getting myself settled in the room, I headed out the back door of the hotel to the special hotel entrance for the O2 Arena complex. I wanted to get acclimated with the place and find some food as it was now approaching 5pm.

I saw a Kentucky Fried Chicken right away, but it was closed for a private function. I usually like to eat the food of the country I am in instead of American fast food. But I was hungry and was willing to take whatever I could get that looked reasonable and was open. I ended up at the Five Guys burger place. It was a lot of food and I couldn’t eat it all, but I didn’t need to eat again for the rest of the day.

Back at the room, I got everything ready for the following day, set my alarm, and went to bed at around 10pm. I had an appointment for a massage for the next morning.

Next time – The day and night of the first of the three Simply Red concerts

August 19, 2024

Viking British Isles Explorer Cruise: London

My flight left the US on the 3^rd of July, arriving on the 4^th. It was the day of the UK General Election. The only other time I had been in Britain for a General Election was back in 1997 when the Labour party won by a landslide and Tony Blair began his first term as Prime Minister. I was very interested to see how this election would turn out.

Upon arrival at London’s Heathrow airport, after customs and luggage, I was met by a representative from Viking Cruises. This was my first time with Viking. I had done a couple of river cruises before: the Nile in Egypt with Movenpick, and a Grand France river cruise with Avalon Waterways. I had also gone on one other small ocean-going ship in the Aegean (to Greek Islands and Turkey) with a French line, Louis Cristal. With those ships, there were no children, no casinos, and an emphasis on learning the history, art and culture of the places we would visit. The same applied to Viking.

The ship, Viking Neptune, was supposed to be docked at Greenwich. But when docking the day before, the winds were too high for them to do so. We took the northern M25 loop to Tilbury. I had been to London many times before and had visited Greenwich several times in the past as well. I really like Greenwich and had planned to spend my day there, wandering around and exploring. Ended up spending the day mainly on the ship, exploring that and taking photos.

My stateroom was a Deluxe Veranda on Deck Five. I was just two decks directly above the tenders/lifeboats. The World Café, which served breakfast, lunch, and dinner buffet meals opened early for lunch. I love the idea of a buffet on such trips as I can choose what I want and how much. I tend to prefer smaller amounts of a variety of dishes — usually seafood or fish with a couple of vegetables, some fruit, and possibly a salad. If I have dessert, it is usually a sorbet or a mousse of some kind. They had some delicious salmon with grilled vegetables. I had some fruit salad and some seafood salad with that. I was also served a welcome drink involving bourbon and a premium Riesling. I had signed up for the Silver Spirits package so I could have better wines and an occasional cocktail.

I could get into my stateroom at 1pm. My cases were already there waiting for me. I unpacked and got organized for both dinner (the relatively casual dress code did involve something a bit nicer than a T-shirt and jeans) and the following day. The tickets for the shore excursions for which I had signed up were there, except for the excursion to Scone Palace in Edinburgh. Not enough people had signed up for that one. They provided me with an automatic refund. I could also sign up for a different excursion right there from my room. Had a nice early dinner too and, since I didn’t sleep on the plane from the States, turned in a bit early.

I had signed up for the walking tour of Greenwich for the following day. That was the only excursion they had available for that day and it was included (free of charge). Even though I had been to Greenwich many times on previous visits, I still wanted to go on the tour. You never know. I could learn something new or see something I hadn’t seen before. Since we hadn’t been able to dock at Greenwich, I was especially glad I had signed up. We were loaded onto a clipper that would take us up the Thames and deliver us at Greenwich’s dock.

I met a couple of very nice ladies from Long Beach, California (Sherry and Christine) and ended up hanging out with them for much of this excursion and quite often for presentations and dinner on the ship.

We started with the Cutty Sark. My mom and I had toured this ship on our very first trip to London in 1983 – long before the fire in 2007 that nearly destroyed her. I visited her again in 2016. The ship was named after a witch in the Robert Burns poem “Tam o’Shanter”. The figurehead of the ship is supposed to represent the witch. The Cutty Sark was built in 1791 as one of the last of the tea clippers. Although it was one of the last, it was one of the fastest. But, when steamships took over the tea trade, the Cutty Sark was then used for the wool trade from Australia. After that, she became a training ship and was finally put in permanent dry dock in Greenwich as a museum.

From there we went to the statue of Sir Walter Raleigh in front of the Visitor Centre and then to the Old Royal Naval College. This was the site of Greenwich Palace, which was the birthplace of Henry VIII, Mary I and Elizabeth I. Then we went past the National Maritime Museum to the Queen’s House. This was built in 1616 on the grounds of Greenwich Palace and is now part of the National Maritime Museum. From there we looked up the hill at the Royal Observatory. Then came the one new thing that I had not ever seen before. Nelson’s ship in a bottle.

Throughout all of this, the heavens would periodically open up and drop some fairly heavy rain on us. A few minutes later, the rain would stop only to come gushing down again a few minutes after that. I was wearing a rain jacket with a hood that was strapped down over a baseball cap, allowing me to take my photos either by camera or phone without having to deal with an umbrella. Although I was surprised to encounter such chilly weather in July, all of my prior trips to the UK had taught me to always be prepared for the potential of rain, snow, hail or all three.

Our last stop was to take a quick photo of St Alfege Church. The church was built on the supposed spot where St Alfege was martyred in 1012. The church was built around 1290. Henry VIII was baptized there in 1491. The present church was rebuilt in 1712-1714 after the medieval church collapsed due to the number of burials both inside and out.

By the time we returned to the clipper to head back to our ship in Tilbury, the rain was coming down in torrents again. I still managed to capture a few photos of the O2 Arena and the Intercontinental O2 Hotel plus the Thames Barrier between the raindrops.

When I got back to the ship about 2:30pm, I found that I had a fairly relaxing afternoon ahead of me as the ship set sail for Dover. I also found that Kohari (the fellow who was looking after me and my stateroom) had provided me with some cans of orange Fanta in my fridge. I don’t tolerate caffeine and so don’t drink the usual sodas provided. Very nice of him.

I decided to take a shower and really dress up for dinner that night. I had a black camisole with a lightly beaded sheer top over it, plus some slinky black slacks. For dinner, I had signed up for a five-course dinner at The Chef’s Table restaurant inspired by China’s Cantonese and Hualyang cuisines with special wine pairings. The courses were as follows:

Hot & Sour Soup (Cantonese style) with Martin Codax Mara Martin (Godello) from Monerrei, Spain
Fried Prawns (crispy garlic & chili) with Vinologist (Chenin Blanc) from Swartland, South Africa
Coconut (lemongrass & ginger infused)
Wok-Fried Beef (black pepper sauce, rice in lotus leaf with Altano Organic (Tinto Roriz) from Douro Valley, Portugal
Chilled Mango Cream (pomelo and sago) with Broadbent Madeira from Madeira Island, Portugal

Was feeling just a wee bit squiffy afterwards. I usually have one or two glasses of wine with dinner, but not four. The ship was sailing and I wasn’t sure if the ship’s movement was the problem or the four glasses of wine. I decided it was both.

Next time – Hey, weren’t we supposed to dock at Dover?

February 28, 2021

1983 – Last Day in London Before Day Trips

When I first began writing this blog in 2017, I started with my first two trips which were to London in 1983 and overall Europe in 1984. Although I started a trip journal with that first 1983 trip, it didn’t have a tremendous amount of detail for the first few trips.

Photography-wise I had a rather limited film camera that I had picked up in a pawn shop when I was in college and had no money to buy something good. The camera couldn’t zoom and was a view-finder, not through the lens (which meant I had no real clue of how the photo would turn out until it was developed). But it worked well enough at the time for basic quick travel pics (and I still didn’t have much money).

In 1992, I started a new job for a company which had a monthly newsletter published for the department I was in. I joined the newsletter, writing articles to explain upcoming projects and initiatives. Then, when they also wanted some lighter fare, I wrote some humorous articles — especially about my travels. I was quite relieved that they were popular.

Since I was new to traveling those first few trips, I had a lot of silly things that I did or that happened to me. One of my first stories was about nearly getting creamed by an articulated lorry in Stratford-Upon-Avon during that 1983 trip to London. Since I still have those publications containing my articles, that was the same story with which I began my A Traveling Fool blog.

I had a few photos scanned into my computer and my old articles and my journal. As time went on and I started to have better cameras, disks of photos as well as the prints, then moved to digital photography, I could include better and better photos. My journals included more and more detail, so I could provide a better narrative of my adventures, comical, not so pleasant, and just normal.

In 2020 when none of us could travel (plus I hadn’t been anywhere in 2018 or 2019 either), it became clear to me that I would need to go back to those earlier trips and fill in with what I hadn’t written about in the beginning. Then, look at some of the more interesting adventures that popped up here and there through my travels and could use more of a spotlight. So, I scanned several more of those earlier photos in and also used some later photos, if needed, for when I visited the same place more than once and the early photos were too dark or fuzzy or just not really usable.

So, for these posts on my early travels, I have been relying on sketchy journal entries, scanned photos (unless I have later photos of the same place), and my memory. This particular post includes three places that I have so far only visited during this one trip (Madame Tussauds, Kensington Palace, and a nightclub called “The Beefeater”) and one that I have been to a couple of times (Victoria & Albert Museum).

The day was a Sunday and we started out at Madame Tussauds. The London location is the original. Madame Tussaud had been taught wax modeling as a child and had created models of the heads of several of the victims of the French Revolution. After taking her wax heads and other figures around Europe for several years, she traveled to London for a show of her wax figures. She was then unable to return to France because of the Napoleonic Wars. So she set up shop in London in 1835 on Baker Street, a short distance from the current location.

This was the first wax museum that I had ever been to at that point and it was huge. It is even larger now with several special exhibits and experiences (such as an interactive Sherlock Holmes Experience with live actors, wax figures, and film where the audience joins in to help solve a mystery). I had planned to revisit the musuem during the trip I had booked for late in 2020.

In 1983, I was especially interested in the historic figures such as Henry VIII and his six wives and the current royal family (included here is a somewhat fuzzy photo that includes Prince Charles and Princess Diana). I also took a photo of William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens together. Neither one of them looks all that happy. Dickens actually looks as if he is somewhat frightened about something he is seeing. Shakespeare is looking away from Dickens as if he sees something more interesting elsewhere.

We took the tube over to Kensington Palace and had lunch in the vicinity. I did not know at the time that a great, great grandfather of mine had been butler in a house (that still stands, but has been converted to luxury apartments) not far from Kensington Palace. I had planned to revisit Kensington and take some photos of the house in which my ancestor had served during that cancelled trip.

At the palace, Mom and I toured the State Rooms as well as Queen Anne’s private rooms (she was queen from 1702 to 1714 and died at Kensington) and the suite of rooms where Queen Victoria had grown up and where she had been told that she was then the Queen in 1837 when she was only eighteen. We then checked out the gardens and the orangery. Charles and Diana were living in another part of the palace that was far from the public eye.

We took a stroll through part of Hyde Park to get to the Victoria & Albert Museum where we took special interest in the costumes, period furniture and tapestries. After our visit there, we took the underground back to our hotel to get ready for our dinner out.

As part of our package, we had tickets to a nightclub called “The Beefeater”, which was (and still is) located at St Katherine’s Docks near the Tower of London. I have a photo here of the exterior that I took many years later. Transportation was included so we didn’t have to try to find the place on our own.

The club was built in one of the old warehouses (Ivory House) down in the vaults. The theme was the time of King Henry VIII. He and his courtiers came around and encouraged much revelry. For entertainment, we had knights, jesters, acrobats, singers and dancers. The food was served on large platters (and the soup from a caldron) with wine and ale in large pitchers. Again, they were going for a banquet feel from Henry VIII’s time, so only utensils in existence back then were used. The platters and pitchers were passed around for everyone to help themselves.

We were seated between a French football (soccer) team and a group of German tourists. The tourists were not at all friendly. They didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak German, but they didn’t even smile. They also didn’t pass anything our way.

The football team was quite friendly. I could speak some French, which helped. But they were also quite drunk. They did make certain that we were fed, but I did have to ask for the wine. They sort of wanted to keep that to themselves.

Next time — a day trip to Stonehenge and Bath.

Henry VIII & two (and part of a third) wives

February 15, 2021

Trooping the Colour 1983

The Queen of England’s actual birthday is in April. However, it is tradition to have the official celebration of the birthday of whoever the current British Monarch is in early June. This is called Trooping the Colour and is quite a spectacle.

Mom and I had determined during the days leading up to the Trooping the Colour what the best place to view it would be. We chose the steps leading from The Mall up to the Duke of York’s Column. The Duke in question was the second son of King George III who died in 1827. He had been Commander in Chief of the British Army and was so beloved by the men that they pulled together the funds to create the monument.

We found a spot at the base of the column (and at the top of that part of the steps) where we could sit down when we needed to, but could easily see over the crowds in front of us. I bought a program from a member of the Welsh Guards, in full dress uniform, who actually was Welsh. This was the first time I had heard a Welsh accent and I was enthralled. Since he wasn’t on duty, we could actually talk a little until someone else came up to get a program.

The ceremony consisted of a parade from Buckingham Palace to the Horseguards Parade consisting of representatives of all of the British and Commonwealth armies plus most of the Royal Family. In 1983, the Queen rode on horseback with Prince Phillip, Prince Charles, and the Duke of Kent just behind. The last time she rode horseback was 1986. She has taken a carriage since then (along with Prince Phillip). The Trooping the Colour tradition goes back as far as the 17th century.

At the Horseguards Parade, the Queen receives a royal salute and then inspects the troops of the Household Division. These include both the foot guards and the horse guards. After this, they all parade back to Buckingham Palace, where the entire Royal Family assembles on the balcony while Royal Air Force jets fly overhead.

I have included a couple of photos of the Trooping the Colour that I did not take, just to give an idea of it. Back in 1983 I had a camera without a zoom. So, though I took a lot of photos, it can be difficult to see what is in them without greatly enlarging them. In the one with the Queen Mother and Princess Diana in a carriage, the carriage is over to the right side and is drawn by a white horse. The Queen Mother is in blue while Diana is in grey and white.

The photo with the Queen shows her to the left of the photo riding a chestnut horse and with a white cockade in her hat. She is just in front of a white horse with the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, and the Duke of Kent right behind the white horse.

We stayed until the parade passed us heading back to Buckingham Palace. Then we headed over to Westminster Abbey to visit the Royal Tombs.

Back in 1983, the main entrance to Westminster Abbey was used unless visiting the Royal Tombs. The entrance that is now used for visitors to the entire abbey was used only for the Royal Tombs back then. When entering, we were greeted by the painting of Richard II at his coronation (at the age of nine) that was commissioned by him and painted during his lifetime. The Coronation Throne was behind the Shrine of Edward the Confessor. Today both the painting and the throne are at the front of the abbey near the Tomb of the Unknown.

It could have been that the Shrine of Edward the Confessor was only open to the public because of it being the Queen’s Official Birthday, but Mom and I were able to go up the steps and walk around among the tombs of Edward I (and Queen Eleanor of Castile), Richard II (and Queen Anne of Bohemia), Henry III, Edward III (and Queen Phillipa of Hainault), and Henry V. Edward the Confessor’s queen, Edith of Wessex, is buried somewhere near his shrine, but nobody knows for certain exactly where. The shrine was built by Henry III in 1241 directly above where the Confessor was originally interred.

All of the tombs, except Edward I, have effigies of the person or people inside lying on the top. Edward didn’t plan to stay there. His instructions had been to be taken to Scotland and be buried there once his son, Edward II, conquered the country. Junior didn’t conquer Scotland. Instead Robert the Bruce beat the tar out of him at Bannockburn and won independence from England (which lasted until James VI of Scotland became James I of England).

The shrine was closed to the public on all of my visits since then. But, at some point, it became available during special Verger tours. My most recent trip to London in 2017 included a Verger Tour of Westminster Abbey. I was able to re-experience the thrill that I felt to be able to spend time up in the shrine. In 2017, we could also kneel in the niches of the shrine for prayer, if we chose to do so. The niches were quite worn from the knees of 800 years of people kneeling there.

Originally Mom and I had planned to take a boat to Hampton Court Palace from Westminster Pier. But since we were behind in our schedule by a couple of hours, we found we missed the last boat to Hampton Court. We decided to take the boat to Greenwich instead.

At Greenwich, we visited the Queen’s House. It was designed by Inigo Jones for Anne of Denmark, who was the queen of James I. Anne died before it was completed, so it ended up as the property of Henrietta Marie, queen of James’ son, Charles I. It was used just a short time before the English Civil War and Charles’ execution.

When the Tudor palace that used to be at the edge of the water was demolished and the Royal Seaman’s Hospital built (by Sir Christopher Wren), the new building was in two parts to keep from spoiling the vista from the Queen’s House to the Thames. This is now the Old Royal Naval College. The Queen’s House itself contains mostly period rooms, while the wings contain a Royal Museum and parts of the Maritime Museum (at least that was what was there in 1983). It was a special treat to be able to see Admiral Horatio Nelson’s uniform.

We could see the Royal Observatory from the Queen’s House, but didn’t quite have time to do everything. So we decided to see the Cutty Sark instead. I finally visited the Observatory in 2016.

1983 was several years before the 2007 fired that severely damaged the ship. So it was quite intact from when it had been built in 1869. It was very exciting to be able to climb around on the ship. At that point (since London in 1983 was really my first trip anywhere) I had never been on an old sailing ship before. I love old ships and had a couple of ancestors who were ship captains, so it was very special to me.

Next time – our last full day in London before heading out for a couple of day trips.

Trooping the Colour at Horseguards Parade

January 31, 2021

My First Real Trip to Anywhere – Part 2

In 1983, my first real vacation trip to anywhere, inside or outside of the US, was to London with my mom. We had both wanted to go there all of our lives. We were finally there and were overwhelmingly thrilled.

After finally getting a good night’s sleep, we headed out to the Museum of London. One of the things that I love about this museum is that its exhibits are in chronological order, beginning with what has been unearthed in London from prehistory. The building itself straddles part of what remains of the Roman wall that used to surround Londinium and was enlarged to surround Medieval London up until the time of the Great Fire of 1666. Many of the exhibits take you back to a specific time in London’s history, such as Victorian London or during the Great Fire of 1666.

From the Museum of London, we walked a few blocks to St Paul’s Cathedral. I was especially interested in the crypts with the tombs of Admiral Horatio Nelson, Sir Christopher Wren, and the Duke of Wellington. This version of the cathedral had been built by Wren after the Great Fire destroyed the previous version. There had been a cathedral on the site since 604 AD.

From St Paul’s, after lunch, we set off for the Tower of London. On the way, we stopped at the former Roman Forum where the Bank of England, the Royal Exchange and the Lord Mayor’s Residence could be seen. Then we headed towards the river so we could take a look at the Monument to the Great Fire at the head of Pudding Lane, where the fire began at a baker’s shop. I have a real interest in history and love to visit places where historic events took place and picture what happened there.

We should have backtracked up to Eastcheap instead of making our way along Lower Thames Street. Rookie mistake. I did not realize that the area was not the best until I saw that we were totally alone and then noticed that we were being followed by a couple of men. That was when I steered Mom north towards Eastcheap. Fortunately we made it safely to the Tower. It is always important to be aware of your surroundings and try to walk along in more populated areas.

In 1983, not as much of the Tower of London complex was open as there is now. Many, many changes have be made over the years to make it a truly remarkable experience. One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the wonderful Yeoman Warder (other than that there are now females as well as males). These folks are very, very knowledgeable and very personable. Talking to one or more of them during a visit can give you a lot more knowledge as well as some cool ghost stories (and often a lot of legends). They live there at the Tower and experience some amazing things after all of the visitors are gone. Starting your tour of the complex by joining one of their tours is well worth it.

The Victorian Tower Bridge is another structure that I find fascinating. On this particular trip, we did not cross the bridge, but did so in 1991 so we could also explore the part of London over on the other side of the Thames.

Instead of taking the underground back from the Tower, we started a tradition of taking the boat back to Westminster Pier and walking back to our hotel from there. Since that trip, every time I have been in London with or without Mom, I have always taken the boat to Westminster Pier, no matter how I got to the Tower in the first place.

The following day, we started out at the British Museum. I was really impressed by the Babylonian and Assyrian monuments as well as the Greek statues and Elgin Marbles. The Rosetta Stone was wonderful to see. We were amazed that we could get so close to it. Then there were all of the Egyptian statues and mummies. I had seen one mummy in a small museum when I had been a child. Here there were rooms full of them. It wasn’t until I went to Egypt and visited the Cairo Museum that I saw an even larger display of mummies and other Egyptian artifacts.

We also visited the British Library and looked at some original works by Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare, as well as a copy of the Magna Carta.

After lunch, we visited Dickens’ London home on Doughty Street. This was where he completed The Pickwick Papers, wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby, and began Barnaby Rudge. Mom and I were the only visitors at the time and had a costumed guide all to ourselves. We enjoyed having a private tour with a fellow who knew all about Dickens and the house and looked like he had just stepped out of one of Dickens’ novels.

Before heading back to the hotel, we took the tube to Marble Arch. This monumental arch used to stand in front of Buckingham Palace until Queen Victoria had it banished to its current location at a roundabout. We walked along Oxford Street towards Piccadilly to do a little bit of shopping. I ended up getting one of those bulky, cable knit, highly British sweaters for 14 GBP.

Next time – My First Real Trip to Anywhere Part 3 – where Mom and I experienced the Trooping the Colour (and saw the entire Royal Family, including Princess Diana), visited the Royal Tombs in Westminster Abbey, and took the boat to Greenwich.

January 17, 2021

My First Real Trip Anywhere – Part 1

Since I have now run out of trips for a little while, I have decided to talk about some special, silly, and/or interesting experiences from my travels. These will include more personal details or be from different perspectives than some of my previous posts, especially the earlier ones.

When I was a kid, we didn’t really do traveling. We rented a lake cabin a couple of times. We traveled to visit family. But we never took any real trips.

So, as an adult, not too long after re-joining the rest of my family, which had moved to Minneapolis, my mom and I decided to take a trip to London. She and I were both what you could call Anglophiles plus we had shared British heritage on her side of the family and I had additional British heritage on my father’s side of the family. If we were going on an adventure, it was going to be to London.

This was in the days before the Internet. A travel agent was how it was done back in 1983. In the building where I worked was just such a travel agent. So I picked up a couple brochures and we figured out what we wanted to do.

The choices were to take a fully escorted tour or to book a package through the main airline that served Minneapolis/St Paul. The package would include airfare, hotel, a rail transfer between the airport and the hotel, one or two day trips out of London, and tickets to a play. We chose the package and I met with the travel agent.

We put together a 10-day trip that would coincide with the Trooping the Colour Ceremony for the Queen’s official birthday. We picked two day trips — one to Stonehenge & Bath, and one to Oxford & Stratford-Upon-Avon. We also chose to attend a medieval banquet and to see the play “The Real Thing”.

I had become enamored with an actor named Roger Rees from when “David Copperfield” played on Broadway. He was starring in “The Real Thing” along with Felicity Kendall (who had been in several British TV shows I had seen on PBS) and Jeremy Clyde (who had been part of the singing duo Chad & Jeremy before switching to acting).

Our hotel was at Piccadilly Circus and the theatre was The Strand — quite a walk from the hotel. But I figured it out on the map. The day trips and the medieval banquet would pick us up from the hotel. Because I had lived in New York City for several years and had ridden the subway there, I felt no trepidation about riding the underground (the Tube) in London to visit the other locations we wanted to see.

Once we arrived at Gatwick Airport, we found the train we needed to London’s Victoria Station. This particular train still had the cars with doors opening out from individual compartments. It was an extra special experience as this would be the only time in all of our visits to London where we had that type of rail car. By the next trip in 1991, the trains were all modern with totally conventional rail cars.

From Victoria Station, we took a taxi to the hotel. As we were rounding some very high walls, Mom said, “I wonder what that is.” “Buckingham Palace”, the driver and I responded simultaneously. Mom and the driver both said, “How did you know that?”

There was nothing indicating what it was. I just knew. Somehow. The cab driver was amazed. Mom was thrilled. It gave her the idea that I would know where we were at all times and we would not get lost. To be fair, I had been studying the map so thoroughly that I had nearly memorized it. I still use that same map.

The day before we left on our trip, the travel agent gave us tickets for “The Mousetrap” for our first night in London. The original owners of the tickets had canceled their trip, so we benefited from some freebies. We then made the mistake of trying to take an afternoon nap.

We had not slept on the plane and all and were quite tired. But we were also very excited about being there. We could not sleep. We ended up not being able to sleep that night either. So, by the next day — our first full day in London — we were exhausted. But we had a full day ahead of us.

I had overestimated how much we could cover in a day. On the list was: The National Gallery, the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, the Wellington Museum (Apsley House), the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and Parliament.

At the National Gallery, partially due to a late start, we only had time to take a quick look at some paintings by Michelangelo and Leonardo de Vinci before we needed to take a quick hike up the The Mall to see the Changing of the Guards. The Mall was lined with flags. Mom and I were overcome. We were really in London!

As short as I am, plus we arrived just before it started, meant that I didn’t get too many decent photos of the Changing of the Guards itself. We could see it fairly well however and I did get one good shot when they were right in front of me (and nobody else was) and another of the Horseguards approaching. Then we went to Apsley House and had a good tour there.

After a light lunch we toured the Royal Mews which contains the carriages and motor vehicles used by the royal family. I really enjoyed that tour. Part of the reason was because we were on the palace grounds, behind that tall wall we had passed the day before.

We walked from there to Westminster Abbey. We were able to see the parts of the Abbey that were free (now there are no parts that are free), but couldn’t see the Royal Tombs due to a funeral that was taking place there. I asked if they would be open after the Trooping the Colour on Saturday and was told they would be. So Mom and I shifted our plans for Saturday to be able to include that visit.

We found that we could not see the inside of Parliament, so headed up Whitehall to return to our hotel and get ready to see “The Real Thing” that night.

Next time – more adventures in London on that first real trip anywhere.