Trip 2011

Today was going to be a big day.

While doing research on Windsor Castle prior to the trip, I noticed a banner advertisement on the official Windsor Castle web site for what was described as an “exclusive” tour of Buckingham Palace so we bought tickets for the tour taking place today prior to leaving the US.  This was scheduled for much later in the day – 4:00 PM was the time we needed to be at Buckingham Palace, so that gave us the rest of the morning and early afternoon to explore some more of London.

But Egypt is on our minds, also.  It has become clear that the window is quickly closing, and we are going to have to come up with a plan to go elsewhere.  Kathy is devastated by this, of course – the whole reason we are in the United Kingdom was my desire to see “Roman Britain”, but the primary focus of this trip was supposed to be Egypt.  We had scheduled three weeks out of the five for sightseeing and touring Egypt.  While we are resigned to the fact that we won’t be able to go to Egypt, we consider ourselves blessed to NOT have already been there when the unrest started, then have to evacuate the country.

Eventually, we headed out from the hotel, made the 1/3 mile walk down to Paddington Station until we found the bus stop for the Big Bus Tours London sightseeing bus.  This is a hop-on/hop-off affair, with a ticket good for 48 hours worth of travel on any of the three routes they have in London.  We got on the bus at Paddington, then changed to a different line at Marble Arch.  There was some kind of demonstration (or maybe just a rally of some type) taking place at Marble Arch, but we couldn’t understand what it was, since it was in an Arabic language.

Marble Arch is busy even without a demonstration. One of the banners reads "This procession is to commemorate the martydom of Imam Husain, the grandson of the holy prophet Mohammad in Karbala, Iraq 680 AD".

When we got on the second bus, instead of live commentary they had a recorded commentary that you listened to with ear buds they provided when you got on the bus.  There were eight languages to choose from.  We passed attractions such as  Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum,  Oxford Circus, Trafalgar Square, Parliament Square, and the London Eye on the bus.

Boadicea, warrior queen of the Iceni tribe in Britain, led an uprising against the Romans in Britain around 60 AD. This statue, titled "Boadicea and Her Daughters", stands at the Embankment at Westminster Bridge. This picture was taken from the Big Bus as we passed it.

But the going on the Big Bus was not exactly the swiftest; London is very congested, and we needed to watch our time.  So after about an hour and a half of being on the bus and doing some mental calculations, we decided to get off the bus in an area called “Strand” to grab a bite to eat.  We had a delicious little lunch at a place called Crown Cafe-Bar, then we walked towards the River Thames so we could get down to Cleopatra’s Needle, a nearly 3500 year-old obelisk with an interesting history.

Originally created around 1450 BC in Heliopolis under orders of Thutmose III, the obelisk (and its twin, now located in New York City) were moved to Alexandria in 12 BC by the Romans, no small feat since they each are 68 feet tall and weigh over 220 tons.  The London needle was presented to the United Kingdom by the ruler of Egypt and Sudan in 1819 in commemoration of the victories of Lord Nelson at the Battle of the Nile and Sir Ralph Abercromby at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801.  However, the British government declined to fund the transportation of the needle.  It wasn’t until 1877 that the needle was moved from Alexandria to London, finally arriving in January 1878.

A view of Cleopatra's Needle in London, looking towards the River Thames from across the street, Victoria Embankment.

After getting a few pictures of the obelisk and the sphinxes “guarding” it (the quotes are because the sphinxes are facing in the wrong direction to guard the obelisk), we took a taxi over to Buckingham Palace.  We arrived at the gate we had been advised to via e-mail, 15 minutes ahead of the appointed time of 4:00 PM, and were the first to arrive.  A few minutes after us, a couple from the the UK (Norfolk, to be specific) arrived.  Behind them, a couple from Australia.  We chatted a bit, then waited.  And waited.  The queue grew to about the expected 30 individuals.  About 30 minutes after were we supposed to arrive, we finally were met by one of the wardens/docents.  They reviewed our documents (two forms of picture ID were required), then led us to the front entrance to Buckingham Palace.

The tour of Buckingham Palace was definitely an exclusive tour – there were only the 30 or so of us on the tour (that is the limit for ticket sales), and were led by a warden by the name of Ann.  We also had two other wardens with us during the tour.  Ann dazzled us with her knowledge of the history of Buckingham Palace,  delighted us with the anecdotes, and got all those Georges sorted out!  The tour lasted for about an hour and half, but felt like it went too quickly.  We toured the same state rooms that the summer tours take, except it wasn’t one long queue of people shuffling through in the summer heat and humidity.  There were opportunities for questions throughout, and the chance to get up close to some of the artwork that adorned the walls and halls.  Absolutely breathtaking!

Last year, our dear friend from Canada, Edie, had given us a DVD called Monarchy: The Royal Family at Work.  We hadn’t gotten around to watching it in the months we had it, but two weeks before leaving for the UK, we sat down and watched the entire series of five shows in one evening.  We were so glad we did, as we saw numerous locations from the DVD when we toured Buckingham Palace!

Unfortunately, no picture taking or recording was allowed during the tour, so all we could suffice with was a picture of Buckingham Palace from Victoria Memorial at the head (or end, based on your perspective) of The Mall.

Buckingham Palace as seen from the Victoria Memorial.