U.K. - Iceland - Israel

After our solid day yesterday I assured Loss we would take it a little easier today, so I let her sleep in until 6am, followed by a memorial meeting (Riverwood YouTube stream from a few hours before) at 6.30 - then out the door just before 8am.
A brisk walk then tube to Leicester Square heading for Trafalgar Square. On the way Loss spotted St. Martin-in-the Fields Church which was a source of some excitement because she has enjoyed some fabulous music from there over the years.
After checking out Trafalgar Square, we walked down the Mall to Buckingham Palace where much preparation was taking place for the Coronation in 6 days time.
After a short stroll / detour (and coffee) in St. James’ park the plan was to see the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace.
Loss was VERY pleased to see it had been cancelled today (Coronation preps) - she hates large crowds with a passion - so we altered plans slightly and headed around the corner to ‘The Queen’s Gallery’ which is part of Buckingham palace, and enjoyed (with the help of an audio tour) an excellent gallery of Georgian artwork and artefacts. It was surprisingly engaging.
Following this we walked a few hundred metres further down the periphery of Buckingham Palace grounds to tour through “The Royal Mews” where the horses, carriages and cars that transport the Royals are kept and maintained.
Of particular interest was that the carriages to be used next Saturday were on display, including the Australian Bicentennial gift carriage constructed by the Australian carriage maker W.J. Frecklington.
According to the staff, it is expected that this carriage will transport Charles and Camilla from Buckingham Place to Westminster Abbey for the Coronation - but carriage selection is very much weather dependent.
Next stop was Wellington Arch (and the Australian War Memorial which is adjacent to it) where our legs had the luxury of a lift to the top of the arch for an impressive view over this area of London.
The next stop was planned to be ‘The Jewel Tower’ at Westminster, however I made a major error at this point.🙁
On leaving Wellington arch, I sought directions from a security guard involved in setting up barricades for the Coronation.
Me: “I’m wondering if you could tell me please, is this road down here Piccadilly?”
I was about to tell him that we were looking for Leicester Square Station but before I had a chance to say this, the guard (looking directly at Loss and not at me, says) “Yes sir, and is it the Ritz you’re looking for? Or perhaps Fortnum and Mason’s? - they’re both down there just on the right”
I was looking for neither, but with a gleam in her eye and a new spring in her step, I trailed behind ‘she-who-must-be-obeyed’ as these became our new ‘interim’ destinations.
After dragging her away from the front steps of the Ritz and then parting with unseemly amounts of cash for minuscule amounts of produce at Fortnum and Masons, we eventually made it to the Jewel Tower and toured it.
The Westminster area was absolutely teeming with people as we fought our way around to get a look at Westminster Abbey. The Abbey has already been closed for a week to prepare it for next Saturday, so we quickly made our way down to the riverfront with the intention of catching the Uber ferry to Greenwich.
This was not to be as the large crowds meant that availability was non existent, so we took a 10 minute break to work out a new plan for the next few hours until our 6pm ‘View From the Shard’ booking.
We settled on paying a visit to The British Museum - which we duly did (after a 10 minute lunch break at a nearby cafe) - and although the crowds were large, we were able to move through the exhibits quickly and efficiently with the use of the book ‘Through the British Museum with the Bible’ which Bro. Stephen Whitehouse had recommended.
This was absolutely invaluable as it gave step-by-step detailed instructions on where to find the Biblically relevant exhibits and the Bible passages and background information about them.
2 hours (and being kicked out at closing time at 5pm) saw us covering 46 pages of its content - but it runs to 140 pages - so another visit is planned within the next few days.
We then tubed it back to ‘The Shard’ for our 6pm trip up to the viewing platform (72 stories) of London’s tallest building.
It was great to be able to identify some of the places we had visited over the last couple of days from this vantage point.
So a final tube ride back ‘home’ with another grocery stop (I did offer to eat out but she said she was happy to cook) saw us through the door at 7.45pm with the same amount of walking as yesterday.
I’ve promised Loss another easy day tomorrow.Read more