The Monks, The Poets, and Off with Their Heads!

The Showtime series, The Tudors, has peaked my interest in English history tremendously.  So, when we decided to take this Trans-atlantic cruise and spend a couple of days in London, I was so excited to go to some of the sites we missed on our first trip here. 

The Crowne Plaza St. James is located about three blocks from Buckingham Palace, where we were to meet our our Big Bus - a open-air, double-decker English bus - for a hop-on, hop-off tour of London.

We found out today that 26 of the staterooms at Buckingham are open for tours from the last week in July until the first few days of October.  We had done this tour four years ago when we were here, so we opted to head out for Westminster Abbey.  A drive around this amazing city is always so interesting and with 70 degree temperatures and sunny skies, we couldn't resist sitting on the top of the bus enjoying the sites. 

Westminster was originally a monastery.  It is incredibly beautiful.  We couldn't take photos inside, but the history there is amazing.  Henry VIII, Anne of Cleves, Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Mary I, and many, many other monarchs are buried within these walls.  This is also the church where Princess Diana's funeral was held 13 years ago this week.  We used the headsets and did our own directed tour of the Abbey.

One of the final stops is at Poet's Corner in Westminster.  Miss EAU will appreciate this - I saw memorials to Byron, Kelly and Sheats (Byron, Shelley and Keats), as she so often called them when I had her as my English teacher in high school.  We saw the graves of  Rudyard Kipling, Robert Browning, Tennyson, Charles Dickens, and Thomas Hardy and memorials to Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters - Emily, Charlotte and Anne - and William Shakespeare, as well as the grave of George Frederic Handel.  This place was just amazing.

Then, we were off again to the Tower of London. The Tower Bridge is often mistaken for London Bridge.  They are definitely not one in the same.  My fascination with Henry VIII was evident as one of the places I most wanted to see was where Anne Boleyn and Kathryn Howard were both beheaded and are buried in a chapel there.  There is a monument of the chopping block where both lost their heads.

We saw the Crown Jewels which were magnificent.  The jewels were originally housed in Westminster, but were moved to the Tower of London in 1303.  This is an astonishing collection of priceless Coronation jewels - crowns, sceptres, and orbs - filled with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and endless semi-precious stones and pearls.

After spending seven hours at these two spots, we reluctantly returned to our hotel for a good night's rest before we head to Southampton tomorrow for the Crown Princess and our grand adventure across the Atlantic.  Stay tuned.

Three Weeks from Today.....

.....we depart the U.S. for London!!!  Ironic, isn't it, that we own a travel agency, but haven't had a true vacation for ourselves in two years.  Last fall, we were scheduled to take a river cruise in Europe, but had to cancel when my mom became very ill and passed away.  We went to Gatlinburg with our family in March, but there was no one to make our bed or cook our meals unless we went out.  With four kids, ages 8 months to 8 years, it was a chore to pack everyone up and go out.  Although it was fun to just spend time with the family, it wasn't a relaxing vacation for me.  We also took our grandson to DisneyWorld for his fifth birthday - great trip, lots of fun watching him, but vacation for us?  No way.
     On August 31, however, we are taking a big people vacation for just us.  We're flying to London on Virgin Atlantic in their Upperclass.  Rewards Plus with American Express allowed us to move miles to my new Frequent Flyer account with Virgin and fly for only the taxes on this trip.  This airline is phenomenal and the Upperclass seats are actually individual "pods" that will recline completely flat, so you actually have a bed for sleeping over the pond.  We'll be ready to hit the streets running when we arrive in London the next morning.
     We are staying at the Crowne Plaza St. James in London, right in the heart of the city.  When we were there four years ago, we were fortunate to be able to actually go inside Buckingham Palace while the Queen was on holiday at Balmoral.  Because of our staying there for three hours, we didn't get to see everything in London that we wanted to see.  So, this time, we're going back to Westminster Abbey and to the Tower of London.  Of course, a trip to London without a visit to Harrod's would not be complete. 
     The best way to see this amazing city is by the hop-on, hop-off double decker buses.  For one fare, you can visit all the attractions you want and stay as long as you wish at each.
      England is not known for its cuisine, so we learned quickly to enjoy "pub grub" - fish and chips with "mushy peas", shepherd's pie, and bangers and squee, or as some call it, mash (sausages and mashed potatoes).  I'm sure there will be pub grub and a pint or two in our near future.
     After two nights in London, we'll head to Southampton and board Princess Cruises' Crown Princess for a 14-night Trans-atlantic crossing to Cornwall, Dublin, Belfast, Rekyjavek (Iceland), Qaqortoq (Greenland), St. John's (Newfoundland) into New York. 
     Our blog while we are gone will go into detail on each of these wonderful ports-of-call.  Don't you wish you were us right now!!!  We can make this happen for you.