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Great Britain
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Great Britain

The first leg of our Europe holiday before joining Insight Vacations Read more
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  • Trip start
    June 14, 2013
    BronzeGreat BritainTraveler

    Getting to know London

    June 16, 2013 in England ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    When we first arrived we decided to visit the “top” end of town primarily Mayfair and Park Lane which if memory serves me was quite close to Hyde Park.
    We thought that we would visit a traditional pub for a gin and tonic and started to realize just how many small pubs there are in London.
    The architecture in this area was quite stunning especially in relation to the stately terrace homes in the area.
    Because we visited in summer I remember a large number of people having early morning picnics in the park as well as a majestic historical bronze art piece commemorating the Battle of Britain 🇬🇧    Read more

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    Buckingham Palace Tour

    June 17, 2013 in England ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Originally known as Buckingham House, the building at the core of today's palace was a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703 on a site that had been in private ownership for at least 150 years. It was acquired by King George III in 1761 as a private residence for Queen Charlotte and became known as The Queen's House. During the 19th century it was enlarged, principally by architects John Nash and Edward Blore, who constructed three wings around a central courtyard. Buckingham Palace became the London residence of the British monarch on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837.

    The last major structural additions were made in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the East Front, which contains the well-known balcony on which the British royal family traditionally congregates to greet crowds. A German bomb destroyed the palace chapel during the Second World War; the Queen's Gallery was built on the site and opened to the public in 1962 to exhibit works of art from the Royal Collection.    Read more

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    Churchill’s War Room

    June 17, 2013 in England ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    This was the first part of the day tour we took which included the war room which we also visited a second time later before leaving London.

    The Churchill War Rooms is a museum in London and one of the five branches of the Imperial War Museum. The museum comprises the Cabinet War Rooms, a historic underground complex that housed a British government command centre throughout the Second World War, and the Churchill Museum, a biographical museum exploring the life of British statesman Winston Churchill.Read more

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    Buckingham Palace

    June 17, 2013 in England ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Buckingham Palace is the London residence and administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It has been a focal point for the British people at times of national rejoicing and mourning.

    Originally known as Buckingham House, the building at the core of today's palace was a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703 on a site that had been in private ownership for at least 150 years. It was acquired by King George III in 1761 as a private residence for Queen Charlotte and became known as The Queen's House. During the 19th century it was enlarged, principally by architects John Nash and Edward Blore, who constructed three wings around a central courtyard. Buckingham Palace became the London residence of the British monarch on the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837.
    All in all it is a massive palace yet quite unsightly in my opinion.    Read more

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    Buckingham Palace (cont’d)

    June 17, 2013 in England ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Trooping the Colour is a ceremony performed by regiments of the British and Commonwealth armies. It has been a tradition of British infantry regiments since the 17th century, although its roots go back much earlier. On the battlefield, a regiment's colours, or flags, were used as rallying points. Consequently, regiments would have their ensigns slowly march with their colours between the ranks to enable soldiers to recognise their regiments' colours.Read more

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    Iconic Places in London

    June 17, 2013 in England ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the striking clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster; the name is frequently extended to also refer to the clock and the clock tower. The official name of the tower in which Big Ben is located was originally the Clock Tower; it was renamed Elizabeth Tower in 2012 to mark the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom.Read more

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    En Route - Tower of London

    June 17, 2013 in England ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Tower Bridge is a Grade I listed combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, engineered by John Wolfe Barry and architected by Horace Jones. The bridge crosses the River Thames close to the Tower of London and is one of five London bridges owned and maintained by the Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust founded in 1282. The bridge was constructed to give better access to the East End of London that had expanded its commercial potential in the 19th century, and was opened by the Prince of Wales and Princess of Wales.

    Quick Facts Coordinates, Carries ...
    The bridge is 800 feet (240 m) in length and consists of two 213-foot (65 m) bridge towers connected at the upper level by two horizontal walkways, and a central pair of bascules that can open to allow shipping. Originally hydraulically powered, the operating mechanism was converted to an electro-hydraulic system in 1972. The bridge is part of the London Inner Ring Road and thus the boundary of the London congestion charge zone, and remains an important traffic route with 40,000 crossings every day.    Read more

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    Tower of London (cont’d)

    June 17, 2013 in England ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    The Tower of London has played a prominent role in English history. It was besieged several times, and controlling it has been important to controlling the country. The Tower has served variously as an armoury, a treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a public record office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of England. From the early 14th century until the reign of Charles II in the 17th century, a procession would be led from the Tower to Westminster Abbey on the coronation of a monarch. In the absence of the monarch, the Constable of the Tower is in charge of the castle. This was a powerful and trusted position in the medieval period. In the late 15th century, the castle was the prison of the Princes in the Tower. Under the Tudors, the Tower became used less as a royal residence, and despite attempts to refortify and repair the castle, its defences lagged behind developments to deal with artillery.

    The zenith of the castle's use as a prison was the 16th and 17th centuries, when many figures who had fallen into disgrace, such as Elizabeth I before she became queen, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Elizabeth Throckmorton, were held within its walls. This use has led to the phrase "sent to the Tower". Despite its enduring reputation as a place of torture and death, popularised by 16th-century religious propagandists and 19th-century writers, only seven people were executed within the Tower before the World Wars of the 20th century. Executions were more commonly held on the notorious Tower Hill to the north of the castle, with 112 occurring there over a 400-year period. In the latter half of the 19th century, institutions such as the Royal Mint moved out of the castle to other locations, leaving many buildings empty. Anthony Salvin and John Taylor took the opportunity to restore the Tower to what was felt to be its medieval appearance, clearing out many of the vacant post-medieval structures.

    In the First and Second World Wars, the Tower was again used as a prison and witnessed the executions of 12 men for espionage. After the Second World War, damage caused during the Blitz was repaired, and the castle reopened to the public. Today, the Tower of London is one of the country's most popular tourist attractions. Under the ceremonial charge of the Constable of the Tower, and operated by the Resident Governor of the Tower of London and Keeper of the Jewel House, the property is cared for by the charity    Read more

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    Tower of London (cont’d)

    June 17, 2013 in England ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    The Tower of London, officially Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separated from the eastern edge of the square mile of the City of London by the open space known as Tower Hill. It was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078 and was a resented symbol of oppression, inflicted upon London by the new ruling elite. The castle was also used as a prison from 1100 (Ranulf Flambard) until 1952 (Kray twins), although that was not its primary purpose. A grand palace early in its history, it served as a royal residence.

    As a whole, the Tower is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat.    Read more

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    Walking the Thames

    June 17, 2013 in England ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    The River Thames known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London.
    At 215 miles (346 km), it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the River Severn.Read more

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    Windsor Castle

    June 18, 2013 in England ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost 1,000 years of architectural history.

    The original castle was built in the 11th century after the Norman invasion of England by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I, it has been used by the reigning monarch and is the longest-occupied palace in Europe. The castle's lavish early 19th-century State Apartments were described by early 20th century art historian Hugh Roberts as "a superb and unrivalled sequence of rooms widely regarded as the finest and most complete expression of later Georgian taste".    Read more

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    Windsor Castle (cont’d)

    June 18, 2013 in England ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Inside the castle walls is the 15th-century St George's Chapel, considered by the historian John Martin Robinson to be "one of the supreme achievements of English Perpendicular Gothic" design.

    Originally designed to protect Norman dominance around the outskirts of London and oversee a strategically important part of the River Thames, Windsor Castle was built as a motte-and-bailey, with three wards surrounding a central mound. Gradually replaced with stone fortifications, the castle withstood a prolonged siege during the First Barons' War at the start of the 13th century. Henry III built a luxurious royal palace within the castle during the middle of the century, and Edward III went further, rebuilding the palace to make an even grander set of buildings in what would become "the most expensive secular building project of the entire Middle Ages in England". Edward's core design lasted through the Tudor period, during which Henry VIII and Elizabeth I made increasing use of the castle as a royal court and centre for diplomatic entertainment.    Read more

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    Bath

    June 18, 2013 in England ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Bath is the largest city in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. In 2011, the population was 88,859. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, 97 miles (156 km) west of London and 11 miles (18 km) southeast of Bristol. The city became a World Heritage site in 1987, and was later added to the transnational World Heritage site known as the "Great Spas of Europe" in 2021.Read more

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    Roman Baths in Bath

    June 18, 2013 in England ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    This was an amazing experience…understanding the reason behind the baths and design to make them work. The statues and stonework were also fascinating and revealed a unique time in the Roman Empire.

    The Roman Baths are a well-preserved thermae in the city of Bath, Somerset, England. A temple was constructed on the site between 60-70CE in the first few decades of Roman Britain. Its presence led to the development of the small Roman urban settlement known as Aquae Sulis around the site. The Roman baths—designed for public bathing—were used until the end of Roman rule in Britain in the 5th Century CE. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the original Roman baths were in ruins a century later. The area around the natural springs was redeveloped several times during the Early and Late Middle Ages.    Read more

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    Roman Baths

    June 18, 2013 in England ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    The Roman Baths are preserved in four main features: the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House, and a museum which holds artefacts from Aquae Sulis. However, all buildings at street level date from the 19th century. It is a major tourist attraction in the UK, and together with the Grand Pump Room, receives more than 1.3 million visitors annually. Visitors can tour the baths and museum but cannot enter the water.Read more

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    Stonehenge

    June 18, 2013 in England ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    This was one of my favourite parts of our trip to Britain. So much history and interest in this sight and still fascinated about how it was built and for what reason.

    Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, two miles (3 km) west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around 13 feet (4.0 m) high, seven feet (2.1 m) wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones. Inside is a ring of smaller bluestones. Inside these are free-standing trilithons, two bulkier vertical Sarsens joined by one lintel. The whole monument, now ruinous, is orientated towards the sunrise on the summer solstice. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred tumuli (burial mounds).Read more

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    Albert Hall & Kensington Gardens

    June 18, 2013 in England ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the United Kingdom's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity (which receives no government funding). It can seat 5,272.

    Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres have appeared on its stage. It is the venue for the Proms concerts, which have been held there every summer since 1941. It is host to more than 390 shows in the main auditorium annually, including classical, rock and pop concerts, ballet, opera, film screenings with live orchestral accompaniment, sports, awards ceremonies, school and community events, and charity performances and banquets. A further 400 events are held each year in the non-auditorium spaces.

    The hall was originally supposed to have been called the Central Hall of Arts and Sciences, but the name was changed to the Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences by Queen Victoria upon laying the Hall's foundation stone in 1867, in memory of her husband, Prince Albert, who had died six years earlier. It forms the practical part of a memorial to the Prince Consort; the decorative part is the Albert Memorial directly to the north in Kensington Gardens, now separated from the Hall by Kensington Gore.    Read more

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    Kensington Gardens

    June 18, 2013 in England ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, are among the Royal Parks of London. The gardens are shared by the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and sit immediately to the west of Hyde Park, in western central London. The gardens cover an area of 107 hectares (265 acres). The open spaces of Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park, and St. James's Park together form an almost continuous "green lung" in the heart of London. Kensington Gardens are Grade I listed on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

    Kensington Gardens are generally regarded as being the western extent of the neighbouring Hyde Park from which they were originally taken, with West Carriage Drive (The Ring) and the Serpentine Bridge forming the boundary between them. The Gardens are fenced and more formal than Hyde Park. Kensington Gardens are open only during the hours of daylight, whereas Hyde Park is open from 5 am until midnight all year round.

    Kensington Gardens has been long regarded as "smart" because of its more private character around Kensington Palace. However, in the late 19th century, Hyde Park was considered more "fashionable," because of its location nearer to Park Lane and Knightsbridge.    Read more

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    Tube

    June 19, 2013 in England ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    The London Underground better known as the Tube.

    The underground railway or tube as they prefer to call it has been a feature of the infrastructure of London for some time.

    The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground, or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.

    The Underground has its origins in the Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground passenger railway. Opened in January 1863, it is now part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines. The first line to operate underground electric traction trains, the City & South London Railway in 1890, is now part of the Northern line. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2017/18 was used for 1.357 billion passenger journeys, making it the world's 12th busiest metro system. The 11 lines collectively handle up to 5 million passenger journeys a day    Read more

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    River Thames

    June 19, 2013 in England ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Some of the sights of the River Thames and most noteworthy in my opinion is the old Shakespearean theatre which still stands albeit with some considerable maintenance work.

    The River Thames known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London.
    At 215 miles (346 km), it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the River Severn.

    In relation to the Shakespearean theatre, Shakespeare moved to London to further his passion for writing and the theatre separating from his family. He built this based on proceeds from the success of his plays.    Read more

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    Trip to Harrods

    June 19, 2013 in England ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Harrod’s is one of those must see sights in London as it is an institution in the city.
    It has a long history of elegance and expensive merchandise which we can attest to.
    For example on the day that we visited they were having a shoe sale and the shoes on sale were in an elegant tub near the entrance of one of the stores. Unfortunately the shoes despite a hefty discount were still selling for between $500-$600 dollars.
    Part of any visit should also include the experience of having scones with jam and cream in the special tea room…very pleasant and very British.    Read more

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    West End Theatre

    June 19, 2013 in England ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We managed to book to go to the theatre in the West End of London and enjoyed watching Mama Mia the musical.
    Managed to incorporate some other pictures of the London area as well. I thought that they were all quintessentially LondonRead more

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