London - Easter Sunday 20th April - The Tower of London and The National Gallery

Last day in London and we visited the Tower of London.

We weren't planning to go to the crown jewels but there was no queue so we changed our mind.  

Its changed since we were last there, much easier to see things.

When we came out the queue was a 'mile'  long so we went at the right time.

We ate a hot meal at the new cafe, well we shared one between the two of us. The first proper meal we have had for days.

 

We visited the Ravens.

 This is Edgar below. 

You can tell by the colour of the ring on their leg.

Below:-This one is Poppy.

 

and this is Poppy being a bin chicken...

 

Below is the memorial to those that lost their heads at the Tower.

 

Then as we still had some time we hopped on a bus to Trafalgar Square.

Its closed! There is some sort of celebration for St Georges Day on this week.

 

 So it was off to the National Gallery where the first thing we saw was Lady Jane Grey having her head chopped off at the Tower of London...

 Unlike our last visit here you can now take photos!

 

So here are some of my favs!

 The Fighting Temeraire - we have a copy on our lounge room wall. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then we caught the number 9 bus at nearby Charing Cross and it dropped us right outside our front door!

 

London - Saturday 19th April - Harrods and the Houses of Parliament

We are off to visit the bears in Harrods!

This is PJ bear one of this herd has jumped into my backpack.

(although I believe a herd of bears is called a sloth).

 We had morning tea in Harrods and shared a honey cake which we couldn't finish.

Poor Graham still looks unwell.

We couldn't stomach lunch after the attempt at cake.

 Because its Easter we went to the food hall to visit the eggs!

 

the one above is 130 pounds.

 

 ~~~~~

Our next stop was the UK Houses of Parliament at Westminster.

I booked this tour before we left home.

 

We started our tour in Westminster Hall (after going through all the security checks).

This is where the Queen had her lying in state before her funeral.

 We did the audio tour.

 

Below id St Stephens Hall, and then photos weren't allowed.

We visited the house of Lords and the house of commons and through the magic of the internet they looked like this below.....

 Great tour, lots of gold and history.

And as there was no cloak room to leave him  PJ bear came on the tour as well. 

It was bonkers outside in Westminster. There was some sort of gay rights protest (related to the recent UK ruling on what is a woman). 

Managed sandwiches for dinner tonight....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

London - Good Friday 18th April - Kensington Gardens and the Royal Albert Hall

 

Feeling a bit better but not 100% so we decided on a gentle day and not far from home base.

 So, in an attempt to remove the growling rodents we decided on a walk in Kensington Gardens.

Its spring, but the weather is still coolish. 

We visited the Diana memorial fountain. She would have loved the kids splashing in it.

We also stopped at the Peter Pan statue.

 Before leaving home we thought about booking tickets to the Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall but didn't get around to it.

But last night we decided to see if there were any tickets left.

 We got some of the last seats, right behind the choir.

It was a full house and the choir was amazing. 

We made it through the concert, but were very glad to get home...

 

All I've eaten for the last 2 days is a weetabix (similar to weetbix), Grahams eating a little more but we are still not well. Every now and then you hit the wall. its two steps forward and one step back all the time.

The noises my stomach has been making are seismic!

 

London - Thursday 17th April - Sick Day!

Above is our flat in London, its the one with the white iron lace railings.

343a Kensington High street

 

No shortage of Caviar shops and Persian restaurants downstairs. But its quiet, and we rarely hear or smell the restaurants.  

Above:- Pigeon waiting for a bus on our balcony...

 

We went out for dinner at a local pub on Wednesday night and we are fairly sure we got a hefty dose of food poisoning.

We were both so sick, to the point where we wondered if we should call an ambulance.

So all we did on Thursday was catch a bus to Kensington High  street to the Boots pharmacy, and that was an effort. I had medications with us but we were so violently sick that they didn't work.

 

Can't eat. Thirsty, can't drink water won't stay in.

 

I have some sort of growling rodent running around in my innards and Graham has the same rodent running around his head with a hammer. 

At least we had no plans for the day and we didn't have to catch a train or similar. so we spent most of the day curled up trying to get through it. We were very pleased to have  nice comfy place to veg out. 

(I'm writing this nearly a week later and we are a lot better, although it was slow going and it really knocked us about. We've only just started to eat normally again. But I will document our progress as I catch up on missed blog posts).