Sept 13 - LAST Day with My Cousins :(
Before breakfast, I took a walk through Green Park and saw many homeless people waking up from their sleep in cardboard boxes around the trees. I didn't catch anyone for my photos.
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| I think that's an apple tree on the right. |
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| I saw the Queen's guard, but no changing of the guard scheduled today. |
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| The East Front of Buckingham Palace completed in 1850. |
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| Canada Memorial |
The Canada Memorial erected in 1992, behind the Canada gate, is a tribute to the 113,663 members of the Canadian Forces
killed during the First and Second World Wars.
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| The Memorial Gates |
Wellington Arch, also known as
Constitution Arch or (originally) the
Green Park Arch, is a triumphal arch located to the south of Hyde Park.
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| Wellington Arch was moved to its present position in 1882-83. |
The
Royal Artillery Memorial is a stone memorial at Hyde Park Corner, dedicated to casualties in the Royal Regiment of Artillery in WWI. It was unveiled in 1925. Artillery guns and their crews were themselves targets, and
49,076 members of the Royal Artillery died during the conflict. Over haf of the casualties in the war were from artillery.
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| In Memoriam to the machine gun corps during WWI. |
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| Another WWI monument unveiled in 2012 during Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee. |
There were several flowers and notes around the monument. What a beautiful tribute!
I got back in time to meet my cousins for breakfast at the hotel. It was a buffet, but I really wanted some English porridge, so they made a bowl just for me with berries in it...mmm!
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| "Don't we all look chipper this morning?" |
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| We started on our walk across Hyde Park where I had just been. |
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| We saw a parade go by the street that lined with this. |
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| My cousins enjoy the Royal grounds. |
The
Churchill War Rooms is a museum 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 WWII and the
Churchill Museum, a biographical museum exploring the life of British statesman Winston Churchill.
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| The picture says it all - well used during the war. |
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| So many Churchill relics - he was VERY popular and loved by the American people. |
Construction of the Cabinet War Rooms, located beneath the Treasury
building in the Whitehall area of Westminster, began in 1938. They became operational in August 1939, shortly before the outbreak of war
in Europe. They remained in operation throughout the Second World War, before being abandoned in August 1945 after the surrender of Japan
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| He had quite the sense of humor! |
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| How sad is this? |
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| One of his uniforms |
Following are some of the war rooms down under.
While the usage of many of the War Rooms' individual rooms changed over
the course of the war, the facility included dormitories for staff,
private bedrooms for military officers and senior ministers, and rooms
for typists or telephone switchboard operators.
Next - we were off to eat in another authentic English pub.....
One of London’s most magnificent pubs, it's a
must see on
any visitor’s list. From the outside it looks pleasant enough, plain
brick with some ornate ironwork, typical of many in town; inside there’s
a wonderful and surprising contrast. Dazzling ‘brilliant-cut’ mirrors
cover the walls, their intricate patterns sparkle as they catch the
light, giving the impression of a much bigger space.
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| YUM! Can't wait to taste what's in store here! |
- Red Lion is the name of over 600 pubs. The lion is one of the most common charges of arms, second only to the cross, and so the Red Lion as a pub sign probably has multiple origins.
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| I decided to get a real English pie - scrumptious! |
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| Another wonderful meal together - sure love these two!! |
I went upstairs and saw some cute paintings on the wall of one of my favorite nursery rhymes...
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| "Sing a Song of Sixpence - a pocket full of rye" |
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| "Four and Twenty Blackbirds baked in a pie." |
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| "When the pie was open, the birds began to sing." |
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| "Wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?" |
So we continued our tour of the city on our own. We went on a subway ride - John's first. He got a lot of eyes with his cowboy hat and boots. Some girls even wanted a photo, but we had to jump on the subway or miss our ride.
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| This guard would NOT bat an eyelash! | |
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Off to the British Museum to mainly see the famous Rosetta Stone... |
The Rosetta Stone is one of the most important objects in
the British Museum
as it holds the key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphs - a script
made up of small pictures that was used originally in ancient Egypt for
religious texts. It's been on display here since 1802.
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| We went into a dark room and saw some beautiful gems - oh my...worth thousands/millions.!! |
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| I'm posing with a copy of the original Rosetta Stone. |
We all enjoyed a ride in the front seat of a London Double-Decker bus....the view was FANTASTIC!
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| We saw this interesting sculpture as we rode the bus. |
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| The Clarke Brothers enjoy seeing their name on a London bus. |
Hard Rock Cafe International, Inc. is a chain of theme restaurants founded in 1971 by Americans Tigree and Morton in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and roll memorabilia, a tradition which expanded to others in the chain.
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| Hard Rock Cafe has its roots in London. - this was the 1st one! |
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| Da-dah! Like my robe? Compliments of our hotel at the Mayfair....our last night together. :( |
What a great day it's been (again!) I had to go an hour away so I could catch my flight to Sweden tomorrow. I went by private taxi. Good-bye (farewell) dear cousins and THANK-YOU for everything.
English Restrooms - it's always interesting to get different photos of the various doors in the countries of Europe.
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| My room at the Holiday Inn Express near the London Stansted Airport - very short stay. |
