A whirlwind visit through London...

" The alley where we found Yo Sushi! in Soho"
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For our last day on this trip, we made sure to make some big plans.  In the morning, we ate another wonderful buffet breakfast(surprisingly the scones here were terrible)  before joining our charter group for a morning tour of London. Our local guide was hysterical! She had a wonderful, dry sense of humor and loads of cute little expressions in her arsenal. It made the bus tour seem more interesting.

We drove around London and had various sights pointed out to us including: Hyde Park, Green Park, St. James Park, Kensington Gardens, Harrods, Trafalgar Square,the Prime Minister's home on Downing Street, etc.  We found out the Green Park used have a different name until a queen found out that her husband was picking flowers for his mistress there.  Upon hearing this, the queen ordered that all flowers be removed from the park and the park then became known as "Green Park."  Our guide also told us a few stories about Queen Victoria and Benjamin Disraeli before we arrived at St. Paul's Cathedral for our tour.  This cathedral was very beautiful but you aren't allowed to take photographs of its interior.  We heard its history and visited the tombs that we there before we were given time in its awesome gift shop.  Out of the many gift shops I saw on this tour, I found this one to be the best.  I purchased some beautiful Christmas ornaments here including one of Henry VIII. He plays a significant role in my family history (I'll explain why when I write about the Tower of London)so I thought he should be on our family tree at Christmas.  (I opted against buying each of his wives though.)

"The Tower of London Complex"
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From St. Paul's, we boarded the bus and were taken to Buckingham Palace so we could witness the famous "Changing of the Guard." We stood on the curb and took pictures of this event before we boarded the bus again to return to the hotel.  The charter group offered an excursion to the Tower of London for $54 but we opted to go on our own. I had done research on how much the tickets actually cost and it was only about $26 USD.

Mike and I had already braved the "Tube" the night before and knew that it was possible for us to get an all day pass for a somewhat reasonable rate.  We definitely made the right decision in doing this.  Because we went on our own we were able to spend several hours there.  We got a tour from one of the "Beefeaters" who turned out to also be the "Ravenmaster." He told us about many of the famous people who were both imprisoned and executed here before taking to us to the chapel on the tower complex grounds. St. Peter ad Vincula, was really nice and I was very excited to see it.  In 1534, the Earl of Kildare (one of my ancestors) came to London to visit Henry VIII in an attempt to persuade Henry to lower the land taxes in Ireland.  During this visit, the Earl died and Henry had his remains interred at this chapel.  In Ireland, the Earl's son Thomas (a.k.a. "Silken Thomas") heard a rumor that Henry VIII had his father killed so he launched a rebellion against him.  Eighteen months later, Silken Thomas was captured and brought to the tower to be executed.  While we were visiting another one of the buildings in the Tower Complex, I saw a photograph of his name carved into his cell wall and took a picture of it.

"British Airways' London Eye"
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Henry VIII was not only significant to my family history because of this event but also because of his break from the Catholic Church (when he wanted to marry Anne Boleyn).  He told the landlords in Ireland that they were expected to swear allegiance to the new Church of England or they would be stripped of their titles and land holdings.  The Fitzgerald's (two brothers)  controlled about 3/4 of the land in Ireland. One brother converted to the new church while the other remained Catholic.

"A view of London from the Eye"
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After visiting the Tower, the three of us planned to go on British Airways' London Eye.  Its an enormous ferris wheel featuring large plexiglass capsules instead of seats (each capsule can hold about 30 people).  It is situated right on the Thames river and you can get great aerial views of the city of London from it.  We ate lunch at a fish and chips stand before standing in line to get our Eye tickets.  Christy and Mike got the fish while I opted for chicken instead. It was good but we all thought that somehow it would taste even better than the same thing did in the United States. After all isn't London famous for its "Fish and Chips?"

The London Eye was worth the trip but you really only need the experience once.  The line to get tickets took much longer than the ride did.  We were very fortunate to be in London on a sunny day with a clear blue sky.  It definitely made the experience on the Eye more enjoyable.

For the evening the only thing we planned was a trip to Yo Sushi! for dinner.  Mike thought that we should walk rather than trying to take the "Tube."  It was a beautiful day for a walk but we somehow misread the map and ended up going in the wrong direction.  We started out near Westminster Abbey and ended up walking past nearly every park in London before reaching the restaurant about an hour and a half later.  We were all pretty exhausted. (Since we've been home, I've looked at a map of London and can certainly understand why we were so tired! We must've walked about 8 or 9 miles after we left the London Eye!)

The hostess  at Yo Sushi seated us in a booth and we began selecting various plates of food from the conveyor belt.  If something was particularly good we'd all try to get another dish of it when it passed by again. I had this wonderful dessert that had a pistachio sponge cake with fruit and chocolate sauce.  Christy and Mike kept hoping that another one would come along the belt, but I was the only person at our booth that was able to get this particular dessert. We also tried these pretty little rice cake balls that were pastel -colored but they were awful. Completely flavorless actually.  Dinner ended up being fairly inexpensive so we ended up stopping for ice cream on the way back to the hotel.

When we were at the Tower I found a brouchure for a "Jack the Ripper" evening walk.  I really wanted to go on it but wasn't able to.  I think the walk started around 7 and we didn't even get to Yo Sushi! by then. We arrived at the hotel at about 9:45, watched a little television and tried our best to pack up our suitcases for the trip home.