Tues August 14 - London

First full day in London.  We woke and had a proper English breakfast in the hotel and then set out.  First order of business was to return the car to the Heathrow airport.  At the rental agency we boarded a shuttle to the airport proper however not to head home, no indeed but instead to hop on the tube and head down town to pick up our London Pass.  It was a 55min train ride to down town.

Taking the tube

The tube

We had to get off at Leicester Square.  We picked up our guidebooks, passes and pubic transit passes and took a look at the map to see what to do and where to go.  We first headed over to Trafalgar Square and took some pics and saw the National Museum was there too.  It is free to the public so we decided to check it out.  They have an amazing collection of art and it was incredible to be able to take just a portion of it in.  We probably could have spent hours there but we only did the second floor.

Trafalgar Square

One of the fountain heads

One of the momuments

Close up of the momument

National Gallery Museum

 There are currently more than 2,300 Western European paintings on display dating from the middle ages to the early 20th century.  We've only put in a couple here and I will try to remember who painted them all.

This was part of an alter piece - it was the left side.

This was the main center piece of the alter.

This piece was done by Leonardo da Vinci

This was also done by Leonardo da Vinci.  It was probably my personal favorite.  It was a very large piece and only done in charcoal.

Painted by Paolo Veronese this piece depicts Alexander the great (red) returning from battle and greeting his mother who mistook his friend (in orange/yellow) as himself.  He is brushing off the mistake by gesturing there is no hard feelings.

This is one done by Vermeer.

This was another piece I loved.  The artist took such great care with all the detail of all the tiny pictures in the gallery.  Not sure if you can pick it out but in the window to the left is a monkey.

The detail that some artists can get even in still life paintings is just incredible.

Outside the gallery were street artists doing chalk art.  Such a contrast to the masters paintings inside but still have such life in the too.

 Once we left we got a bit of lunch and then hopped on our hop on/hop off bus tour.  We decided to just ride the bus around and see some of the sights and hear some of the history so that the next 2 days we can really focus on what we want.

Royal Courts of Justice

There's an afternoon tea bus tour!!!!  How did I not read about this one?!?!?!

This statue marks the end of one section and the start of a new one

Can't remember what building this was from but the detailing on buildings are incredible.

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

This bit of old stone wall used to be what surrounded London.  Notice the red lines?  They have been there since Roman times.

Tower of London again

Big Ben - unfortunately it is under repair work and will remain this way until 2020

 We hopped off the bus tour and stopped at Harrods.  It is the world's most famous luxury department store.  It occupies a 5 acre site, has 330 departments covering 1 million square feet of retail space over 6 floors.   Harrods first opened in 1824.  Walking through there were not many people in the high high end departments but you could barely move through the lower end ones.

A Salvador Dali statute selling for the bargain price of 19,750 GBP

They had a Chihuly glass sculpture and some blown glass vases.  Didn't look at the price but I was glad to see one in person if being a tiny one.

 After Harrods we caught the tube back to our lodgings or at least close to.  We stopped at a pub and had some grub.  It is SMOKIN humid here and we were melting.  After dinner we popped to the shop for some things like water as our room doesn't have that stuff.  Actually it is quite surprising that our room does't even have a phone.  Have you ever heard of an hotel room without a phone?

Nice day and a good first taste of London.

Up tomorrow: Changing of the guard, Churchill War Rooms, Westminster Abbey ,  221B Baker Street and topping it off with a Medieval dinner!