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More (category) Albums (More photos, not in the blog, that fit a certain category.):
    Architecture
    Canal boats
    Churches
    Flowers
    Foods
    Gardens
    People
    Pub signs
    Rooftops
    Signs
    Stained glass
 
Slide show of photos in this blog (about 20 minutes each): 
    Blog photos, part 1
    Blog photos, part 2
    Blog photos, part 3
    Blog photos, part 4

Flickr:
     Our Photostream

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July 9/10 (Thursday/Friday) – In Route

Long, long flight with nothing unusual.  The economy plus section was pretty empty so Mary claimed a row of three seats and stretched out for much of the flight and managed a few short naps.  On our landing she also managed to get a few pictures out the airplane window.







We were rather excited when we later figured out that the picture below was of the Royal Naval Academy (the set of four large buildings situated along the Thames River (brown and muddy looking at the bottom of the picture) and the Royal Observatory in Greenwich (buried in the trees at the top of the "triangle) in the upper right quadrant of the picture), just outside of London.  Can you see the line of the Prime Meridian going through the picture?  (Just kidding.  It's an imaginary line.)

Royal Naval Academy and the Royal Observatory

Once on the ground we cleared customs and headed to the Heathrow Express for the 15 minute train ride to Paddington station and then a cab ride that wound through the city to our hotel in the Earl’s Court area.

We were given an upgraded room with a four-poster bed.  Unfortunately the bed takes up most of the room so it is pretty crowded.  And the wood floors squeak like crazy when we walk on them.  And the Earl’s Court Underground station is right outside our window so we can hear the trains.  However, we don’t intend to spend much time in the room so it isn’t a big deal.

We had dinner around the corner at an Italian restaurant, Zizzi, (which turned out to be a chain, but was good) and then hit the bed early.

July 11 (Saturday) – Regents Canal, Harrods, Victoria and Albert Museum

After breakfast at the hotel we headed off to the Underground (Tube), bought “Oyster Cards” for the week for the Tube rides and headed off to Camden Town station.  Very eclectic area, a bit of Haight Ashbury from the 60's flavored with a bit of Goth. 

Then we found the Regent’s Canal that Mary had explored on a previous visit to London.  We watched some boats go through the locks

and then headed on a walk along the canal (probably about 2 miles).  There were bicyclists, walkers, and joggers enjoying the quiet walk along the canal’s tow path

and a lot of canal boats.

We saw some large, luxurious looking homes (mansions?) along a stretch of the canal.

Also saw a momma duck and ducklings.

We ended the walk in the "Little Venice" area of the canals (there were many more  canals but we had hiked enough).

There were more beautiful buildings in this area of town.

Parts of the canal in this area were a neon green, fully covered with vibrant green aquatic plants.

No this isn't a lawn, it is a very green canal.

After lunch along the canal we headed to Harrods.  Paul had been there once many years ago but had only a very brief visit as it closed shortly after he got there.  So he wanted to get a chance to see a bit more of it.  It is a gigantic and very expensive department store.  We had an ice cream snack at the ice cream parlor in Harrods (also very expensive).

Then we headed down the street to the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Inside the Victoria and Albert Museum

We saw an art class in progress

and in the central plaza of the museum we saw more artists trying to capture the building façade on canvas and people enjoying the sun and ice cream.

The museum contained a wide variety of art types including sculptures,...

stained glass...

and even a small replica of the British State Carriage, used for coronations.

We had dinner near the hotel, at Masala Zone, a very good Indian restaurant.  We eventually found that all of the restaurants around the hotel (with one exception) to be very good.  The exception was the one we ate at when it was late and all the good restaurants were packed.  There was a reason this one wasn't busy.

July 12 (Sunday) – Thames River Boat ride and Greenwich

This morning we took the Tube to the Westminster station and bought tickets for the water bus to Greenwich.

The cruise along the Thames allowed us to see a lot of the London Skyline.  We saw many of the iconic buildings like the Tower of London...

St. Paul's Cathedral...

and the Tower Bridge.

We could also see the new Globe Theater, the reproduction of the theater where many of Shakespeare's plays were originally performed.

The Globe Theater

London also has a number of very interesting modern buildings that make for an interesting skyline.  The conical shaped building is St. Mary Axe.  Nicknamed The Gherkin.

One of the more interesting ones is called The Shard, because it looks like a glass shard stuck on end into the bank of the Thames.

The Shard and the Tower Bridge

A more notorious building is the 20 Fenchurch Street building, also known as the "Walkie Talkie" because of it's shape.  It turns out that the shape acts like a concave mirror that focuses the suns rays on objects below such that it has been known to melt car parts...  giving rise to the other nicknames "Walkie-Scorchie" or "Fryscraper".  Regardless, it has a very distinctive shape.

And a lot of buildings right along the river looked like they might be apartments or condominiums.

Upon arrival in Greenwich we saw the clipper ship, Cutty Sark, but decided not to tour it. 

Cutty Sark and the Streets of Greenwich

We took a quick walk through the naval museum.

Figureheads from sailing ships.

Adjacent to the Naval Museum was the Queen's House, a former Royal Residence for Queen Anne, wife of James I.  It is now used mainly as an art museum.

Queen's House (Center) from the Royal Observatory

Looking up the spiral staircase in the Queen's House

The grounds and buildings of the Naval College were very interesting.

We viewed the Royal Naval Academy Chapel, also known as the Painted Hall or the Sistine Chapel of the UK.  It was really beautiful with many painted ceilings and walls.

We had lunch at the Trafalgar Tavern right on the banks of the Thames.  This tavern was built circa 1837 and was featured in Charles Dicken’s Our Mutual Friends.  Next was a hike up the hill to the Royal Observatory...

where we stood in line to get our pictures taken beside/over the Prime Meridian.  The Prime Meridian is 0° longitude and is basically on the longitudinal line that separates the East and West Hemispheres.

We then toured some of the observatory museum exhibits that discussed time and measuring longitude.  Very interesting.   Until the longitude could be measured on a ship, many wrecks occurred because the ships couldn't tell their exact positions when at sea.  It was enough of a problem that a "longitude prize" was offered for a solution to the problem.  It took almost 50 years for scientists to create a solution, which resulted in the marine chronometer.  The museum documented these efforts.

At the end of the day we took the water taxi back to Westminster.  And of course Big Ben.

It was a pretty cold day so we cut the sightseeing a bit short and headed back to the hotel.