DAY 2 - BUCKINGHAM PALACE (among other things)

Last night was so much fun visiting with my cousin and sampling English Pub food (see pics on the previous blog).

We begin this morning with a bike ride.  We are heading out from our flat to Kensington Gardens where we'll pick up our bikes.  We'll see Kensington Palace and the Diana Memorial Fountain along the way to Buckingham Palace where at 11:30AM we'll witness the changing of the guard!

Biking across the pond is tricky!  Every American instinct is to look left as you are crossing the street (for oncoming traffic), but of course HERE you need to look RIGHT!  It's a challenge, but my cousin, Kriss, will be with us today, so we'll follow her lead for sure!

More later!  Tata and cheerio from London!


One of the beautiful views from our flat:

Day 1 breakfast of champions:

Kriss meets us early ready to head out for the day!

We enter the gates at Kensington Gardens

Putting $ in the machine to rent bikes:

Beautiful Kensington!

"Do a deer, a female..." - feeling a little like the Sound of Music today....

First stop - William and Kate's "cute" house:

Albert Memorial:

This 180 ft Victorian bronze gilt statue is a tribute to Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert,  following his death through typhoid at the age of 42. It captures a royal love story. Designed by Sir Gilbert Scott in 1872. It is a bronze gilt, the ostentatious, Victorian gothic statue.

We passed the CAROLINE HOUSE every day heading to Kensington:

Buckingham Palace - check!  We made it to the Palace after our lovely bike ride through the Gardens.  It was a zoo there with people arriving in time to watch the changing of the guard.  We took our pics and watched the pageantry arrive down the street.

LEAVING Buckingham Palace:

View of the palace from the street.

We walked over to Trafalgar Square with Kriss.  Trafalgar is crowded as well, but there's lots to do and lots of places to eat.  We went to a pub first.

A goofy shot outside the Trafalgar Hotel:

The Trafalgar Hotel's Vista rooftop restaurant wasn't open just yet, so we went with Plan B - the pub next door - Admirality.   Here's there menu - we ordered an Ale & Pie sampler:

Love my cuzzz!

Then we ended up at VISTA - how about that view?

Those views!  London Eye on the left and Big Ben on the right:

This rooftop spot was phenomenal!  We had so much fun - it was one of the best parts of our trip!  We of course had a blast with Kriss, but on this warm sunny day in London (a rarity), the rooftop was perfect.  We had some great wine, and some charcuterie and just enjoyed ourselves thoroughly....

Really delish squid with chorizo:

Sadly we eventually had to leave Vista, but not before a final pic:

We then did some more walking to Westminster:

The Prime Minister's pad - 10 Downing St:

A few pics with "Ben"

The "EYE"

The Thames:

walk walk walk.....

Finally make it to the Churchill War Rooms:

Winston:

Really interesting museum that we could have spent more time in.  They really do a fabulous job of showing you what life was like during WWII in the bunker that was the HQ of the British think tank during the war.

Taking the tube back to the flat to regroup before heading out to dinner:

Burning up that Oyster Card:

Now back to the flat to regroup before dinner....