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Tuesday September 30   We
arrived at London Heathrow around 2:30 PM; the immigration and customs
were smooth - we had both gotten our UK ETA's (digital visas) and
purchased Heathrow Express tickets in advance (which meant they only
cost 10£). Our boutique hotel (The Athena)
was only a couple blocks from Paddington Station so we could walk from
there and got checked in around 4:00. It was a beautiful day so
we headed down to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens (all walking
distance) right away! The Serpentine (on the left) with each bird
on its own post and the Peter Pan Statue (at right) are two icons not to
be missed. We saw many very old trees and more statues - see the photos section
for more! We had supper at Zanchi Korean restaurant just around
the corner from the hotel - it was a little spicy for my taste but the
food was good, prices reasonable. Back at the hotel, we unpacked
and prepared for a full day coming up!Wednesday, October 1   Our
hotel provides breakfast if you book with them directly so we enjoyed
that - they had a pretty good variety and it was certainly
convenient! Heading up the street towards the Paddington
Underground, we passed a cute little pocket garden that included
Paddington and paparazzi (at left). We stopped at an ATM in the
station to get some cash for the week and then grabbed a Circle Line
train (right) to St. James Square where we were to meet our London Walks
Group for the Royal Walk. We had no idea how much time to allow
so we ended up having almost an hour.  We walked over to St. James
Park and enjoyed watching the pelicans for a while. The
picture
at the right shows the Tiffany Fountain and Pelican Rock. The
white pelicans actually looked kind of pink - we learned that the
original pelicans had been gifted to King Charles II by the Russian
Ambassador
in 1664 and their progeny have lived in St. James Park ever since. We met our guide, Claire, at 10 AM. We
had a group of around 20 for this walk. She gave us a brief
outline of where we were going and what we would see then we set off,
through St. James Park, across the Blue Bridge (over St. James' Park
Lake) to the Mall where we met the crowds. I've been to London
twice before and not seen the changing of the guard (or visited any of
the royal sites) - now I know why! I couldn't believe the
thousdands of people lining the Mall and surrounding Buckingham
Palace! And this happens every day. Well, now I can say
I've seen it once. On the left is the head of the procession -
the bagpipers! They turned down the Mall and headed to the
Palace. Below, left to right are the incoming new guard, the
palace (behind the Queen Victoria Memorial) where the changing ceremony
takes place in the forecourt and some of the retreating old guard
having been relieved of duty.    There are more pictures of the whole walk in the main photos collections, but some of the highlights of the rest of it include: St. James Palace (currently primary residence of Princess Anne - the King's sister), the horse guards parade building (18th century barracks and stables for the cavalry) and one of the two Horse Guards guarding the building daily - the horses are relieved every hour though the guards have longer shifts. 
  We walked around some of the major
sites in the area - again, more in
the photos collection but shown here are a memorial to the women of
WWII, Big Ben and the Parliament Building and Westminster Abbey.
 
 At
that point it was about lunchtime and all of the places nearby that
Claire suggested were either overflowing with crowds or closed.
We went to a Pret a Manger (French for "Ready to eat"), grabbed some
wraps and went back to St. James Park and ate lunch on a very pleasant
bench
there.
  Next we wandered around the
various squares and sites of the area. We hit Trafalgar Square
first - on the left is "Nelson's Column," a monument to Admiral Nelson,
erected in 1843; the right picture shows some of the (former) busking
areas in front of the National Gallery. I found it interesting
that a few weeks ago (when we were here) they actually supported
busking to the extremes that performers could reserve specific circles
and they even provided places (like the yellow circle in the picture)
where amplification was available. But now, as of November 3
until at least January 7, 2026, busking is illegal and has been banned
from Trafalgar, allegedly to provide space for a Christmas
market. Earlier it had also been banned from Leicester
Square. This is, not surprisingly, very controversial since it
leaves performers with no legal presence at what is usually their most
profitable time period. Requests have been made for compromises,
to provide at least a few pitches for performers at the market, but so
far the Westminster Counsel is holding fast.We then moved on to Leicester Square which is well known for the TKTS booth (now known as the London Theater booth) and the Swiss Clock. The ticket booth is still there though we booked both of our shows on line and didn't take advantage of it this trip, and the famous clock has been taken down.  The clock pieces are
still on display in the square but are not functioning (at least they
weren't when we were here). It was always part of visiting London
to stand in line at the ticket booth and watch the clock put on its
show! We did visit the Shakespeare
fountain and  the M&M store (I love chocolate but the "world's
largest chocolate wall" just made me laugh).We did find some interesting nearby places, though, thanks to tips from Katie. The picture on the right above was taken in Cecil Court, a street full of 17th century shops. We also walked down Goodwin's Court that is another example of "old London." They seem to have been discovered since there is even a notice in Goodwin's limiting tour groups to only 2 at a time in the court and "please respect the residents by giving your talks outside of the court before walking quietly through!" Above left is a block of the Seven Dials Market  with
the Sundial (from 1694) at
the end of the street - the center of
the 6 streets comprising the Seven Dials area. Somewhere along
the way we stopped to have a gelato snack and sit down for a short
break! After
passing through Chinatown (left), we came to Piccadilly Circus where
the main interest (other than the flashy digital billboard) is the
Shaftesby Memorial Fountain capped by a statue of the Greek God
Anteros. Shortly after we arrived in the area, and while we
were visiting chocolate stores and Fortnum and Mason, a crowd was
gathering around the fountain. It took us a while to figure out
what was going on but we eventually learned it was a pep rally of sorts
 for the Greek football team that
had come to town, with over 1000 fans, to play in the league finals
that night! They were shouting cheers and singing songs (in
Greek). What impressed me was the police presence - they were
there, but just (apparently) to keep peace and watch for
problems. They didn't make any attempt to stop the
gathering. After a while, they turned into a large procession (at
the right) taking up the whole street and continuing their
chanting. Everybody seemed to be having a good time and again,
the police followed along but didn't intrude. The next day we
were sorry to see that they had  lost their match - they were so excited
about it, their enthusiasm was contagious! But I think they must
have had a good visit in London nonetheless.  We
were
still window shopping when we came to the Danish Bakery - Ole Steen
Lagkagehuse (translates to the layer cake house)! While
we were attracted by the baked goods in the window, we discovered they
also had sandwiches, both hot and cold, and other kinds of edibles so
we decided that was a good place to have supper. I thoroughly
enjoyed my rye bread sandwich and the cheesecake for dessert! Our
final event of the evening was seeing "Phantom of the Opera" at His
Majesty's Theatre ("Her" was recently renamed to "His" for the new,
male
King). It was quite an experience! Fortunately, it was very
near
the Piccadilly Tube station so it was easy for us to grab a Bakerloo
train back to Paddington and our hotel. We were quite tired but
it was a good, full day.Thursday, October 2   Today started out at the Tower
of London
- we had
pre-purchased our
timed entry tickets for 9:30 - 10:00 so we didn't have to get up too
early or hurry to get there! The picture at the left of the whole
Tower area was taken later today from the Sky Garden - but it's a great
overview of what we saw there. The entry (when we were
there in October, due to construction projects) is near the Traitor's
Gate. You can see part of "The Tower Remembers" in the
picture at the right - that display was throughout the tower grounds
continuing until November 2025. This
is a collection of over 30,000 ceramic poppies commemorating the end of
WWII. Wherever you see blotches of red in the pictures, those are
more poppies!   We visited part of the Medieval Palace and walked along
some of the Battlements while we waited for the next Yeoman Warder
tour. These are the "Beefeaters" who give tours all day long - it
was quite interesting and he made the history come alive as he took us
through the grounds and pointed out places we would want to see. The White Tower, on the right, is
at the center of the grounds (and surrounded by more poppies). It
was built between 1078 and 1100 by William the Conqueror and was used
in many different ways over the years. It has one circular turret
and the other three corners are square - the circular turret was
designed to hold a spiral staircase leading to the upper floors and
onto the roof, which became the first Royal Observatory in the
1600's. The White Tower served as a prison for at least 400
years and had many famous inmates; it includes an elaborate chapel
(Chapel of St. John the Evangelist) that is still used today.
Many of the displays in the White Tower involve the history of the
armaments over the centuries. The photo at the left below is of the Waterloo Block that houses the Jewel House where the Crown Jewels are held. We could go in and gawk at them but no photography is allowed. In the center - also quite gaudy in its own way - is the Valasse Cross, displayed in St. John's Chapel in the White Tower. If you enlarge the picture you may be able to see that is it actually two crosses - a small one that is thought to have been made in the 11th Century and a larger one surrounding it that was added around 1180. It is believed it was originally made for Queen Mathilda and was given to the Valasse Abbey (in northern France) by her son Henry II. It is on loan from the Musée des Antiquités de Rouen until January 2026. Finally, on the right, is a view of the famous Tower Bridge over the Thames. 
    After several hours in the Tower, we found
lunch at the food trucks along the shore of the Thames just outside the
Tower grounds. We enjoyed some filled crepes before heading over
to St. Dunstan in the East. A church was first built here in the
early years, prior to 600 AD; it was restored by St. Dunstan in
950 then rebuilt by Christopher Wren after the great fire in
1697. Only one tower survived WWII and the site was donated as a
public garden in 1967. The left photo is Barb posing in part of
the ruins and on the right is the remaining spire designed by
Wren. The grounds are landscaped and full of benches and
interesting sites (a small fountain, e.g.). When we were there
many, apparently local working people, were having their lunches. Our next stop
was the Sky Garden
- one of the very tall buildings in central London
that houses the highest public garden as well as a large observation
deck. You can go in just to "look" with a timed ticket.
With persistance, Malissa had gotten us tickets for 2:30 that
afternoon. We got there around 2 and there was a long line
wrapped around the building. It wasn't clear exactly how this
worked and there was a market a couple blocks away, so we went to ask
the security person at the front if we should get in the line now or
come back at 2:30. He looked at me (or maybe just my gray hair?)
and said "Oh, Mum shouldn't have to stand here for half an hour.
That's too long." And he took us up to the door and even bypassed
the airport-style metal detector security station! Yes, she
kidded me about being "old Mum" for the rest of the day, but it was
very nice of him! To the left is part of the actual "garden" in a
delightful atrium, up around the 35th floor. Below are several
views from the observation area.On the left is the Pudding Lane Monument commemorating the Great Fire of 1666. At 202 feet high, with 311 spiral steps to reach the top, we definitely had the better choice since we had an elevator and we were higher! In the center is the Shard (taller than the Sky Garden but charges for access) across the river. The picture to the right is a view that includes St. Paul's Cathedral (to the right of center) with the BT tower behind it; the London Eye (Ferris Wheel) is left of center way in the background. The bridges over the Thames, starting from the lower left are the Southwark, Millenium (pedestrian), Blackfriars and Waterloo. There are many more city views in the photos section.     Next we headed across London Bridge to the Borough Market, passing the Southwark Cathedral (at the left).  Maybe we were just tired by then,
but neither of us could really get interested in the market - it was
too loud and too crowded. (Signs of age?) So, we grabed a
tube (love the London transit system) and went over towards Charing
Cross where we would end up the evening. We had time to spend so
I went to the National Gallery (right) and browsed
impressionists;
Malissa went window shopping and browsed stores! We had supper at
a nice place (that I cannot remember the name of) along the Strand then
enjoyed Back to the
Future: The Musical (at the Adelphi) that was totally different than
the Phantom but fun!Below are some of the impressionist paintings I saw (many more in the photos collection). Camille Pissarro is one of my favorites and I was excited to find 4 or 5 here that I had never seen. The one on the left is "The Boulevard Montmartre at Night," then Paul Cezanne "Mountains in Provence," and "The Skiff" by Renoir. In the second row one of the few women artists of the time: Berthe Morisot "Woman on Divan" then a lesser-known VanGogh "Long Grass with Butterflies" and finally, the souvenir picture from tonight's musical!       Friday October 3   This morning we started out on foot, walking - in the rain
- to the Victoria and Albert Museum, passing the Albert
Memorial (on the left) on the way. We spent several hours in the
museum and still didn't see even half of it but here are a few
highlights and there are more in the photo collection! In the big rotunda we saw
this lovely chandelier (on the right) and recognized it instantly as a
Dale Chihuly work! Below are a few other representative things
that we were impressed with. On the left, from the Medieval and
Renaissance Galleries, a spiral
staircase from a home in Morlaix, France in 1525. In the center
is an interesting mobile by Cornelia Parker named "Breathless." It is
composed of a variety of discarded instruments that were crushed - on
purpose - by one of the hydraulic lifters of the Tower Bridge.
This is the view from above; from the lower floor they are all painted
black. She intended this as a study in contradictions - she said
she thought of it as a "ghostly last gasp of the British Empire" and
I'll let you just contemplate that! Finally, on the right is a
piece from the Cast Court - a collection of copies of art and
architecture that opened in 1873. What we both found fascinating
is that these intricate casts were produced so long ago of items that
were much older! Some (like Trajan's column from around 100 AD)
were so large that they were placed and then the room was built around
it. The one shown here is a copy of the pulpit from the Pisa
Cathedral, built in 1260, that we just saw last week! 
  When we got hungry we walked to
the South Kensington Tube Station and went to the Camden Market where we had planned to eat. We did see
the Hampstead Road Lock (at left) and walked through most of the market,
 including the Stables. It
was wet and crowded and we ended up eating Greek Food - it was a good meal
but the main motivator for us was that they had covered
seating available in a nearby courtyard! Turns out that it was so
crowded, even a dedicated shopper like Malissa lost interest pretty
quickly. Had the weather been nice we had thought we might walk
along the Regents Canal for a while. But it wasn't, so we
didn't! We fit in one more market: Covent Garden which ended up
being our favorite! It is composed of three different parts - the Apple Market (handmade crafts - the left picture below), the Jubilee Market (general market) and the East Colonnade Market (sweets, jewelry). Facing the West Plaza is St. Paul's Church - it was in front of that church that we saw a man wandering around with a bird on his head. Apparently he is a fixture there and a busker of sorts (center picture). Inside the market building, the upstairs is loads of small shops; the lower level is a variety of restaurants (see right picture).    Click
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