Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park

We were in late start mode today, thinking about one of the nearby national museums.  I was looking at my current preferred guide book and the page fell open to something or another that reminded me that one of my stated objectives was checking out the royals.

Looking at Streetwise London, walking to Buckingham Palace seemed doable and then Hyde Park is just down at the other end of the Buckingham Palace Gardens from the Palace.  We got organized and headed out.

But on the way out we decided that there would be plenty of walking once we got there and maybe we should take a taxi.

I also figured out on the way out the door that although going to the Palace was what I really wanted to do, the timing of our start and the use of a taxi was going to deliver us to the Palace shortly after the changing of the guard ceremony began.

So we got to check that for many mandatory London photo opportunity off our list.  Here's the marching band leaving the area in front of the Palace where the actually guard changing ceremony occurs.

And here is the horse guards coming down from Saint James's Palace for some other part of the ceremony.

Those are just bonus photos, what I was here for was this shot of the Palace, particularly the famous Palace balcony where the royal family appears on notable occasions (for example, a royal wedding) to greet the public.

Frame right is the Victoria Memorial.  It is very impressive but one thing it is not is extremely old.  The monument was constructed beginning in 1911 and finished in 1924.

There is a park stretching away to the east from that vantage point of the Palace.  To the east is Saint James's Park and this is a view of Saint James's Park Lake.

Looking at a map there are all of these royal parks in London and every one has at least one lake.  Based on the shape of the lakes and surrounding geography, not a single one of the lakes looks natural.

That doesn't mean they aren't attractive because they are.

Here is another view of the very obviously Disney lake, Saint James's Park Lake.

We found the right street and followed along a very pleasant shady sidewalk with Buckingham Palace Gardens to our left and Green Park to our right.  This brought us out to Hyde Park Corner and the Wellington Arch.

The arch has other alternative names but is probably most often known as the Wellington.  The arch was completed in 1830 and from 1846 until the arch was moved and rebuilt in 1862 it was topped by a bronze statue of Wellington.  The statue was 28 feet tall and weighed 40 tons.  It was the largest equestrian statue every made.

The original design called for a quadriga, an ancient four horse chariot and this intention was finally realized in 1912.  The Wellington statue is now located in Aldersho, a town in Hampshire about 35 miles southwest of London.

We did wander through Hyde Park, eventually having a little sit down lunch near the western most edge.  Most of the wander was made alongside the Serpentine Lake.

Mandatory wildlife content.  Some of the swans are quite large.

On the way back to base we passed by this house near the South Kensington Underground Station.

There is no trick photography there, that's the actual width of the near end of the house.  It does widen out towards the other end but . . .

Wimbledon

The mini-grocery across the street turns out to have a pretty decent patisserie.  We haven't really had a pastry update so here is what  I purchased today, a pain au chocolate and a pain au raisens.

Both are pretty good doughnut substitutes, especially considering this is most definitely not France.

England has a couple of ways of constantly reminding me that it is England.  These reminders are painted on many of the crosswalks.

After a life time of looking left to survey oncoming traffic it actually required for me a fairly significant effort to start looking right before stepping off the curb.  You HAVE to look right, traffic traveling on the left side of the road is coming from that direction.  The English think it important enough that they have painted the instruction right there on the pavement.

Jimi coulda, woulda, shoulda been here but he is not.  We still headed out to one of the places that he would have wanted to see.  Here are FT and Santini and the Wimbledon Underground Station.

We followed Wimbledon Hill Road and quickly discovered how that road got its name.  There is a really big hill.  Up the hill, walk along through the town at the top of the hill, finally start to descend, turn a corner and here is our first glimpse of the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

The grounds are officially closed but we were allowed into the Shop and out the back door of the shop into a limited area fronting on this, the new Centre Court.

And off to the right towards the old Centre Court, now known as Court 1.

We went through the museum,  The John McEnroe hologram presentation was our favorite.  This was one of the most poignant.

It appears in the section of the museum devoted to equipment.  The metal racket on the left is a Wilson T-2000, the first really successful metal racket.  That particular one was used by Billie Jean King.  It was also for most of his career the racket of choice for Jimmy Connors.  It was also for quite a long span of years the racket of choice of my brother Jim.

I have posted photos of my FT and myself with Lord Stanley's Cup. Today we came into the presence of a couple more really well known and important sport trophies.  Here is the Lady's Singles Plate:

 And the Gentleman's Singles Trophy:

A view from outside the gate:

The new one is for my brother.

I have found myself looking at the stuff in the sidewalk.  I think this is probably the water turn on-off switch.

This one is really odd.  The fire hydrants are embedded.

Santini discovered this place, the Chelsea Potter Pub on King's Road.  The intertubes indicate that this was at one time a favorite watering hole of Jimi Hendrix and one or more members of the Rolling Stones.

Regardless of whether that is true or not it was a fun experience.  Here is a look at the food.

The top two are both Sunday roast with chicken featuring potatoes roasted in goose fat and Yorkshire pudding, lower left is Steak and ale pie with mashed potatoes and a jug of gravy, and lower right Lamb shank shepherd's pie with minted mash potatoes and a jug of gravy.

Tower of London

This post is going to be a little light on the photography.  The reason for that is that the absolute best things we saw were in an area where ABSOLUTELY NO PHOTOGRAPHY was allowed.

And where there were 3 to 5 staff members in each small room enforcing the ban.

Further, some of these photos were actually taken late afternoon on Friday.  Due to user error (a Galleries Lafayette map level user error) we arrived at the Tower too late to consider paying the tariff and going inside.  We did get some nice photos though.  And when we returned this morning to see what was inside we did not have to pause to get the set up photos.

This is the Tower Bridge, adjacent to the Tower of London.

Pretty famous bridge, everyone in the world has already seen that scene.

When you get up close to the wall you come across this, the Traitor's Gate.  This was the boat entrance from the Thames.

Some prisoners were carried to the prison by barge along the river.  Both Elizabeth, who was a prisoner here before she became Queen, and Anne Boleyn entered the prison through this gate.

This is the middle drawbridge entrance to the Tower from the river side.

The White Tower in the background.

Here's the White Tower from inside the first ring.  The White Tower was constructed by William the Conqueror.  It features 15 foot thick walls to help protect the new ruler from his potentially hostile new subjects.

The White Tower was a castle, a keep designed for defense.  Eventually a wall was built around the keep, then a moat was added, then another wall and another moat.

Here is a remnant of the City Wall outside the Tower.  It was once an important military structure.  Now it serves mostly to separate that playground on the right from the Underground station that is just frame left of this photo.

So what was it that we saw that I couldn't photgraph?

The Crown Jewels.

It is worth noting that most of the original crown jewels from medieval time were lost during Oliver Cromwell's 1648 revolution.

Doesn't matter, they got some new stuff which may not be as old but the old stuff could not possibly have been much better.

You pass through a couple of rooms full of stuff made of gold, ceremonial swords and maces and the like.  Then, boom.

The Sovereign's Scepter.  You know, a long stick held at one end with some decoration at the other end..  In this case the decoration is the world's largest cut diamond, the 530 carat Star of Africa.  This massive bauble is about twice the size of a golf ball.  It is one of nine stones cut from the original 3,106 carat (1.37 pound) Cullinan Diamond.  I think it is safe to say that they took the best part for the Star of Africa but had plenty enough left from the rubble to produce eight more gemstones.  It is breathtakingly large.  For comparison, the very, very large Hope Diamond is 45.52 carats and was last reported to be insured for $250 million.  This sorta renders the value of the Star of Africa as incalculable.

The Sovereign's Ring. In the center of the gold ring is an octagonal sapphire, 1.5 centimeters in diameter, overlaid with a square ruby and four long, narrow rubies to form a cross. Around the sapphire is a circle of 14 brilliant diamonds. The general design is intended to represent the red Cross of Saint George on the blue background of Saint Andrew's Cross

A small copy of the ring was made for Victoria, who wrote in a letter, "The Archbishop had (most awkwardly) put the ring on the wrong finger, and the consequence was that I had the greatest difficulty to take it off again, which I at last did with great pain". In fact, the ring had been sized to fit the queen's little finger instead of her ring finger due to a misunderstanding by the jewellers.

The Crown of the Queen Mother.  This crown has the 106 carat Koh-I-Noor diamond.  This diamond seems huge until you circle around and take another look at the Star of South Africa.  The diamond is considered unlucky for male rulers and only adorns the crown of the King's wife.  Many Brits await the day when the stone reappears on a crown made for Queen Kate.

There are some other pretty astonishing odds and ends, the most extraordinary of which to me was an elaborately decorated coffee table sized gold punch bowl.  The bowl requires 144 bottles of wine to be filled.  That's about 36 gallons.  A giant piece of gold.

Later on in the day we intended to enter the National Museum of Natural History.

It is a great building but this is a very tourist rich environment.  A half block long line to a free admission which was when we were there only being granted to people wishing to enter as others came out and our first instance of rain dissuaded us.

Perhaps we will go on Monday.

Saint Paul's Cathedral

We were walking into the side entrance to the church yard at Saint Paul's Cathedral, hoping to find an easy way around to the main entrance in front.

Whatya know?  Old John Wesley shows up again, this time in bronze.

With his brother Charles and others, founder of Methodism.

Christopher Wren had already been selected to refurbish the Old Saint Paul's Cathedral when the Great Fire of 1666 burned the old church down (the Great Plague had occurred just one year earlier in 1655).  An eyewitness to the fire said it was like a hideous storm, stones of Saint Paul's flew from the building and the lead melted down the streets in a stream.

There has been a church dedicated to Saint Paul on this site for over 1,400 years, since 604.  Charles and Diana were married here.  Churchill and Thatcher had their funerals here.  The church with a 365 foot high dome still rises majestically above the neighborhood.

The story of Saint Paul's conversion is told in the stone pediment.

Queen Anne was on the throne when the new church was finished in 1710, the statue in front portrays her.

Inside the building is magnificent, a great stone edifice with lavish decoration.  This is the view from the nave forward towards the dome and the choir.

From underneath the dome, looking forward towards the choir and the high altar.

The pulpit on the right is the spot from which nearly all of the preaching is done here.  Martin Luther King spoke here.  After his assassination his widow, Coretta Scott King spoke from the same pulpit.

From under the dome looking straight up.

The FT took the 257 steps up to the first gallery.  This time I did not join her.

I have previously on this blog featured Napoleon's Tomb at Les Invalides in Paris.  This completes a set of a Waterloo sort.  This is the tomb of Wellington in the crypt at Saint Paul's.

It was VERY dark down there.  This photo is yet another tribute to the light gathering capabilities of a good, modern digital camera.  This photo would be nearly impossible with film.

Oxford Town

One last look, from the kitchen into the garden.

And a look over to the side of the garden at a couple of ancient storage sheds.

They are storage sheds now but as originally constructed the one on the right with the ceramic pig was a pig house.  The other was the outhouse.

We headed into Oxford Town.  Oxford was first settled in Saxon times (before the Norman conquerors arrived).  It began about AD900 as a place where oxen could ford the river.

The Normans built a castle shortly after the conquest (about 1070).  In its earliest years it was an important military outpost but by about 1327 the castle was in poor repair.  The castle was allowed to deteriorate.  Eventually it found use as a prison.

Only a few bits remain, this is part of the outer wall and Saint George's Tower, FT for scale.

We headed on over to the academic part of town.  This is Radcliffe Camera, built between 1737 and 1749 to house a science library.

 The Radcliffe also served as a reading room for the Bodleian Library.

The Bodleian is the main research library of the University, one of the oldest libraries in Europe and the second largest library in Britain behind the only the British Library.

Down the walk from the Bodleian is Brasenose College, founded 1509.

David Cameron went there.  So did Michael Palin.

Nearby is the University Church of Saint Mary the Virgin.

A church was established on this site, at the center of the old walled city in Anglo-Saxon times. In the early days of Oxford University, the church was adopted as the first building of the university, congregation met there from at least 1252 and by the early 13th century it was the seat of university government and was used for lectures and the awarding of degrees

An exterior view with the Radcliffe Camera on the right.

So this next part is kind of fun.  You can't really find this place if you don't know at least a little bit.  You have to know about the alley and where is leads.  This is the very narrow alleyway known as St. Helen's Passage.  Not everyone will know that there is a famous tavern down there.

Definitely not a street, probably only about 4 feet wide.  Pedestrians only.  But after a couple of turns you come to the Turf Tavern.  It is an ancient old pub, claiming only to be ONE of the oldest in Oxford.  We had lunch there at the back side of the garden.  Here is the view from our table back towards the main establishment.

It is widely believed and the establishment even advertises that this is pretty much without doubt the spot where Bill Clinton did not inhale.

I know there is a subset of readers who like at least once in a while to see what the food looked like.

Pub food, two orders of fish and chips with peas, and a meat pie with gravy.

Out on Broad Street we came upon Christopher Wren's second work, the Sheldonian Theatre.

Built beginning in 1664, the Theatre was meant to provide the University with a separate building whose sole use would be graduation and degree ceremonies.Those occasions had become increasingly rowdy (we saw some evidence of that today) and the University wished to move those events away from where they had been previously held, the University's Church of St Mary the Virgin.

The roof of the building was a remarkable accomplishment for its time. The span of the D-shaped roof was over 70 feet. However, no timbers existed that were long enough to cross that distance. Wren decided to use a "geometrical flat floor" grid developed twenty years before by Oxford professor John Wallis. It involved creating a series of trusses which were built up from shorter sections and held in place by their own weight, with help from judiciously placed iron bolts and plates. For many years it was the largest unsupported floor in existence.

This cross in the pavement was just outside the city when its use was so notorious that the spot is commemorated today on Broad Street by a plaque in a nearby building wall in addition to the cross of bricks.

In 1555, the Oxford Martyrs were tried at Saint Mary's Church for heresy.  Found guilty, they were burned at the stake at approximately this spot.  The martyrs were the Bishop of Worcester, the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury.  The two bishops were burned on the same day in October 1555, the archbishop five months later in March 1556.

This is the interior of Saint Michael at the North Gate Church, the oldest building in Oxford.

The church was built between 1000 and 1060.  The particular bit of the church pictured above is not the really old part.

This is:

Also known as the Saxon Tower, this was put up in 1040 and was also part of the north gate of the city and the city wall.  The Martyrs were imprisoned nearby and the door to their cell is preserved inside the tower.

The part on the right is the Christ Church Cathedral, on the left and foreground are buildings associated with Christ Church College.

Christ Church is one of the wealthiest colleges of the Oxford Community with an endowment equivalent to more than $600 million.  It also boasts among its alumni thirteen English prime ministers but apparently no Pythons.

We got back into the city on the afternoon train.  Walking back from dinner we again passed the Michelin Building.

Required bicycle content.