London Day 3

 Pieter and I got up at 7 and took the tube to Victoria station to catch the 8am train to Portsmouth.

After arriving we walked a couple hundred meters to the Historic Dockyards and made a bee line to the thing I cared about, the real HMS Victory, the flagship of the British Navy. The Victory was in service for 47 years, coincidentally the same age Nelson was when we was killed on board. After that it sat in dry dock and eventually made a museum a hundred or so years later in the 1920s.

The audio guide was very well done. The access on board was very complete, we got to walk through the whole ship for the most part. Right away we came to the spot where a musket ball went through Nelson's shoulder and broke his back. He was carried below deck. At one point the Victory was being fired upon by five ships at once. 

We travelled throughout the ship and got to see all of the important areas. Eventually we came to the spot where Nelson lay, mortally wounded, until he learned the battle had been won. After learning this he died shortly after. Getting to see and touch this spot, sacred to the English, was surreal. I had read the story of all of us 20 years ago and when I learned that the ship itself was something that could be visited I knew I had to make it a part of our visit to England.

We also checked out some other exhibits including the Mary Rose, Henry VIII's flagship which sunk off the coast of England and then was raised from the bottle 500 years later.

We also saw one of two remaining WWI era ships.

We did a brief tour of the Nelson exhibit at the museum. The whole dockyards area is far too big to tour even in a long day.

Finally we did a very brief walk around of the HMS Warrior - a metal clad and steam powered warship that was the biggest of the day and bridged the gap between wooden sailing ships and modern battleships.

Before leaving Portsmouth we had some fish and chips and then took the train back to London. On the train we went some random castle in the distance.

Tina and Scarlett went to see the Minions new movie.

In London we went to an old bowling alley and played a game of 10 pin before having some pizza and getting ready to go to bed. Tomorrow we fly home.

London Day 2

Today was the "whirlwind tour" of London. We tried to cover as many of the must see sights as tomorrow the plan is to separate into two groups (one to Portsmouth and the other to do not much of anything). We started with The Tower of London - Tina had booked the tower the Superbloom which is a change where they dug up the lawn in the moat and replaced it with a variety of wild flowers that will be blooming in waves throughout the season. We walked through the moat before going inside.

After the moat we walked around the outside and saw the Bridge and then made our way inside. The castle dates from the late 11th century (with a variety of additions over time) and sits on the site that Romans fortified hundreds of years earlier when it was called Londinium.

The tower itself contains a lot of exhibits on various weapons. We started with the "Line of Kings" which has been a tourist attraction for hundreds of years - it shows off the armor of various kings and their horses, most notably of Henry VIII. 

We also got to move through the tower up and down stairwells and so on. After the tower we went to the execution site and burial of Anne Boleyn. The whole site was a bucket list item for Tina. Continuing on we saw some other oddball areas including the torture chamber and several outer towers and the walls. Unfortunately the crown jewels were lined up several hundred people deep, so we didn't bother.

The next stop was a tube ride away - St Paul's Cathedral. Because of the absurd entry fee (roughly $30 CAD per person) only I went inside as I really wanted to see Lord Admiral Nelson's tomb under the dome. I've wanted to see this for over 20 years. I wish I had more time to fully explore, but since I knew the rest were stopping over to get fast food lunch I had a quick look around. The crypt is fully of notable English including Lord Nelson's tomb at the very center. My plan, as I told Tina, was today to see where he rests and tomorrow to see where he fell.

I made the mistake later to climb the 528 steps all the up to the top of the dome. It was a really cool, but tiring, experience. Probably the best high up view of London.

Another short tube ride took us to Big Ben and the Houses of Parlament. Next door, Tina paid the again absurd entry fee to see inside Westminster Cathedral. She enjoyed a quick look around while we sat outside. Thankfully the weather in London has been very reasonable with lots of clouds. 

After Westminster we took a traditional London black cab a quick mile away to Buckingham Palace to take a look. We strolled down "the popular and famous street the royals go down" as Tina called it between the palace and Trafalgar square. The previous day the square was full of thousands celebrating the English ladies' win in Soccer, which we didn't know about and missed. I educated everyone on what the Battle of Trafalgar was, and why "who's that guy" is standing on top of a very tall tower and looking out. That "guy" is the same person who's tomb was over in St Paul's and his statue is looking towards Trafalgar, an area off the coast of Spain  where the battle occurred and he was killed.

Using the tube again, we returned to the hotel and collapsed from a long day. Later, we took our one and only red double decker bus ride to King's Cross where Pieter got to see Platform 9 3/4 from Harry Potter and we stopped in for some Indian food which was excellent.

For once the food I ordered was "Indian hot" and not toned down because I am white. The naan bread was fresh and so much better than the grocery store stuff we're used to. We forgot to take much for pictures until the end of the meal.

Afterwards we took the tube back to Finsbury Park station and the hotel.

London Day 1

 A short taxi to the smallest "International" airport we've ever seen, the Val de Loire International Airport. RyanAir was late, as usual. The flight to London was short, just over an hour and a quarter.

The hotel's wifi isn't really working and here on day 3 I'm able to post about the earlier days. Pieter and I went to the British Museum and Tina and Scarlett found their way to a shopping mall. 

We mainly checked out the Egyptian collection as it is amongst the most well known Egyptian collections in the world. We started off by seeing the Rosetta Stone just inside past the Grand Court area.

We continued into the collection and saw a lot of colossal statues and pieces, sarcophaguses, tablets, and so on.

You can't really go here and not see some dead Egyptians. There was even a few mummified pets on display.

We also saw a large section covering Assyria. The large room and tablets explaining the king's lion hunt was a highlight. Also learning that Cuneiform was the first of writing was interesting.

We spent a bit of time seeing some other things Greek and Japanese before leaving,

Had some forgettable fish and chips for way too much money before going to Regent's Park and seeing the gardens there.