London: Day Seven

On Thursday, we went to the place that I have dreamed about seeing ever since I became interested in Tudor history in sixth grade (so, yes, many years ago!) We went to Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. It was beautiful and wonderful and breathtaking and amazing... definitely one of my favorite days of our trip! Unfortunately you couldn't take pictures inside the castle, but I bought a guidebook to compensate for that (it has beautiful photographs, so it's the next best thing, I suppose), and of course we got many photos in the beautiful gardens.

We had to take the tube to London Victoria Station, and then we took the train to Edenbridge Town Station. There was a friendly taxi company right at the end of the road, and they quickly took us right to Hever's entrance gate. The town itself was so beautiful and quaint, with gorgeous cottages and beckoning shops; I wish we would have had time to explore that, too!

We of course bought the audio guide tour inside the castle; we've found that those things add so much to any historical site we visit, that it's almost foolish to go somewhere and not take advantage of them. The interior of the castle was absolutely beautiful. Some of the rooms were done in the early Victorian style, which was interesting, since the castle was at one time owned by the Astor family. Lucky ducks; how I would love to have an English castle as my country home! One can dream, right?

Some of the rooms were still fashioned in the Tudor style, however, so those of course were my favorites. We saw the retiring room where the ladies of the castle would sit and sew, and one of the highlights for me was seeing Anne Boleyn's bedroom. We saw the large bedroom where King Henry would likely have stayed on his visits to Hever, and the long gallery at the top of the house was very cool, because they had life-sized wax figures of Henry VIII and all of his wives. How I wish I could have taken pictures of those; the dresses were amazing!

Topiaries made to resemble a chess set

 We found the center of the maze; yay!

 The gardens were seriously so beautiful; we could have spent hours just wandering around those!

The entrance gate

 This is the church that is just outside the entrance gates

A pub that I wish we would have eaten at; if you look closely you can see the sign is a picture of Henry VIII

London: Day Six

On Wednesday, we ate a late breakfast/early lunch at this place called The Slug & Lettuce (that sounds very British, I think) before going to Westminster Abbey. It was pretty cool to see such a historic church, but holy cow, can we say expensive! I'm not sure if it would be worth to see more than once... but yet, it was neat to see. It was a lot of tombs of historical figures (so, if you're not into history and/or architecture, this is not the place to go!), and the audio guide that accompanied it was very interesting. And we couldn't take pictures in there, unfortunately, so this post is going to be quite low on pictures in comparison to some of the others!

After Westminster Abbey, we went to the science museum in the South Kensington area; Dan LOVED it! (I liked it, but not nearly as much as Dan did!) He was fascinated by this steam engine and spent probably 45 minutes looking at that exhibit. There was also this neat exhibit on space and space travel, and we both really enjoyed the "Who Am I" exhibit that dealt with genetics, heredity, etc. It was interesting; we took this quiz to see if our brains were more female or male; I definitely have a female brain, but Dan's was equally male and female. I thought that was interesting, because he is the type of guy to really excel at both the traditionally male things (engineering, cars, electronics, etc.) AND the traditionally female things (he's a fantastic, nurturing father, for instance, and he is an amazing cook, etc.) So that was kind of fun to see.

After the museum, we were famished, so we went to this great Indian restaurant suggested in my Rick Steves guide book. I have never really been a fan of Indian food before, but this was great! I tried this dish called butter chicken that Rick recommended, and it was amazing. The ethnic food in London really is good. I'm going to try it back home and see how it compares!

 Westminster Abbey does have some great architecture, that's for sure!

 Part of the steam engine that so fascinated Dan at the science museum

London: Day Five

On Tuesday, we took the tube to the Westminster stop and took a river cruise down the Thames to the Tower of London. It was a beautiful day; we had the best weather in London, I was amazed! I never once had to use the umbrella I bought specifically for this trip! Our river cruise was refreshing; it was nice to be on the water on such a hot day. Our guide was knowledgeable and entertaining at the same time; a good combination! We saw the London Eye (a Ferris wheel I will never, ever go on, since it's almost $50/person; I don't think that's worth it. I guess the guide says it brings in 250,000 pounds a DAY, so apparently some people think it's worth it! Crazy).

We got off the cruise at the Tower pier and walked the short distance to the Tower of London. As an English history buff, it was so amazing to be at the actual site of so much importance to the British historical record. We saw the beautiful rooms (well, they were beautiful at one time; now they were kind of empty and rundown) where Anne Boleyn stayed in the days leading up to her coronation on June 1, 1533, and then Traitor's Gate, where she was brought back a mere three years later as a prisoner. We saw where she was beheaded (I know, I know, this sounds rather gory and depressing, and in a way it was, but yet it was oh-so-interesting at the same time. I do hope to write a historical fiction novel one day, and I feel like I got so much background material by going on this trip).

We saw the Crown Jewels, which were so big and bright, I thought they were fake at first! I mean, I thought we were going to see the real ones, but I thought these were replicas just enlarged for comparison or something. Nope, they were real! Holy cow. Pretty cool to see those.

We also saw the White Tower, which some king (Edward? I don't know... my knowledge basically begins and ends with the Tudor period) had built in the 1100s, I believe. Very, very cool to be in a building that had stood for almost a millennium! Dan was fascinated by this exhibit they had in there on the suits of armor; crazy to see how big those things were!

We had SO much fun seeing all the sights in downtown London. This trip really was a dream come true!

 This was our view as we got off the tube at the Westminster station (well, our view once we got out of the tube station, I suppose). I just gasped, I was so happy; I couldn't believe we were actually in London!

 A shot of the Houses of Parliament rising above Westminster Bridge.

 The London Eye

 London Bridge; not nearly as cool as Tower Bridge!

 Tower Bridge

 Me being a cheesy tourist

 Traitor's Gate

 Me trying to take some artistic shots; I thought this one was kind of cool, although I don't think I should quit my day job.

 They had one of the rooms in the tower made up in the medieval style, so more 1300s-ish

Me in front of the White Tower

I just liked the color of this blue door; that is the sole purpose of this picture.

 This is the building where the Crown Jewels were stored

 A memorial sculpture on Tower Green, where some people throughout history lost their lives

 That is St. Paul's Chapel in the background; Anne Boleyn is buried there. We unfortunately didn't get to that; the chapel was only open to people on the tours led by the guards (Beefeaters, I think they were called?) and we kept missing the tours. Agh!

 The Queen's House; I guess the queen actually lives here occasionally (or at least stays there on occasion?)

Me enjoying a cup of tea (I REALLY got into tea when we were over there!) and a delicious scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam. I'm thinking the US needs to adopt the custom of afternoon tea...

 Dan listening intently to the audio guide

The view of Big Ben as we came back into Westminster Pier that evening.