Day 8

Oh yes we did! Abbey Road was less than a mile from where we stayed! So first thing this morning, we walked over and had a look. This is Abbey Road studio, there is a graffiti all over the wall. It says stuff like "Let it Be" and "Jim and Robyn sang Revolution 7/23/01" and other fun stuff. Then we had some of the other tourists there take our picture as we crossed the "zebra", as the British call a crosswalk.

Next was our Boat Tour of the Thames. There are a lot of bridges there now but the London Bridge (located in Lake Havasu, AZ) was the only one for several hundred years! This bridge is the one from the beginning of the fifth Harry Potter moving, located right in front of the school that Daniel Radcliffe attended.

We got off the boat at the Tower of London, which functioned as the home of the royals for several hundred years. It was originally built by William the Conqueror as a tower on the top of Roman ruins, to defend the city. Over time the fortifications increased so that now it is the safest place to keep the Crown Jewels. The Star of Africa was gigantic in the Scepter!

We took a tour given by what they call a Beef Eater, they are part of the Royal Army, and they live at the Tower of London and guard it 24/7. They knew all the gory history of the place and told us that an execution was a time of merriment! Everyone would come together, there were singing minstrels, jugglers, food for sale. Then the curfew bell would toll one hour before the execution was to take place. Gives a new meaning to the word "curfew"! After they were beheaded, the executioner held up the head and the people would yell, "Long live the king!". The head was then placed on a stake and taken over to the London Bridge and put on display. There were six people who were granted the privilege of a private execution within the Tower grounds. The most famous were Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, both wives of Henry VIII.
When you know the story of Henry divorcing his first wife, Catherine, to marry Anne, and in the process renouncing the Catholic church and creating the Anglican church, then you hear that after his death his daughter Mary took the throne and repaired relations with the Catholic church only to have them severed again at her death when Queen Elizabeth took the throne, you wonder how people can think the Anglican church is true? Fascinating history.

This is the Tower Bridge, the entrance to the Thames and to London, right next to the Tower of London so that they royals could control things.

We were so close to the Citi building in downtown London that Dan had to go over and meet the guys that he works with: Zubair and Ashou. They were really nice and gave us a little tour of the building, ending at the cafeteria at the top with a spectacular view. Then off to King's Cross for the famous Harry Potter picture. Surprisingly, there were several people who had obviously come just for that reason! Cool.

Next was St. Paul's Cathedral where we didn't feed the birds but sat on the steps and fed ourselves:) There was no Bird Woman asking for tuppence but there were still a lot of birds! The cathedral was beautiful outside and we went a little ways inside before we decided we had been in enough churches and we weren't going to pay to go in to one more! So we looked enough to see the aisle Princess Diana walked up and then left. It was the stuff fairy tales are made of.

Next we took a train out to Notting Hill, the location for one of my favorite movies. Why I did not learn my lesson in Paris is beyond me but Notting Hill is not as cute and clean in real life as it is in the movie. This is the house with the Blue Door, which is now black because the original was sold for charity. You can actually see the corner where Hugh Grant bumps into Julia Roberts and spill orange juice on her, right from this door. It is in bad shape but still fun.

Kennsington Palace was on our list, since Diana lived there. It was a huge disappointment because they were renovating it and in order to make money for it, they had put this ridiculous avaunt guard exhibit in it, telling the story of all princesses in a surreal way. If I had known, we wouldn't have gone in. But at least the gardens were something to write home about.

We are bone tired by this point but Harrod's is the largest department store in the world so we have to at least go in and take a look! It is amazing with four floors of shopping and over one million square feet of space! I would compare them with Nordstrom or Bloomingdale's, maybe even a little fancier.

On the way home, we stopped at Cafe Rouge and had a chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) that was hot milk with a large square of dark Belgian chocolate that you stir into it. Their marshmallows were heavier than ours. I liked them better for hot chocolate but I don't think they would work well for s'mores. Dan ordered some fried Camembert cheese with a raspberry sauce. That was pretty yummy, too.

We walked home, hand in hand, and talked about what a great trip this had been. How it was nice to know that we could talk about things other than the kids, the house, and schedules. It was a wonderful trip.