London - Day 2

Waking up Friday morning in London, I was refreshed and ready to go see the sites again.  Travers and I walked the mile or so from the hotel to his office near Covent Garden. We got to see a lot of the city that way, walking mainly up Picadilly, passing by Green Park, Picadilly Circus, and parts of China Town. After dropping him at his office, I proceeded down to the river Thames in the direction of the Tate Modern Museum.

I walked along the north bank of the river from Waterloo Bridge to Millenium Bridge, stopping to take lots of photos along the way. I saw St. Paul's Cathedral before crossing Millenium Bridge on my way to the Tate Modern museum.
I think at this point I had walked a little over 2 miles and I was already feeling achiness in my feet and back. But I had to push on and see as much as I could see.

The Tate Modern is one of 4 Tate museums and houses international modern artwork. It was built in an old power station and the architecture of the building itself was something to see as well as all the artwork inside. It has 5 floors of art. Some sculptures, some paintings, some photos. Some of it was really interesting work, and some I wasn't quite sure how it was considered to be art. After spending an hour and a half there, it was time to go and get some lunch and head back towards the Buckingham Palace, where I was planning to meet Travers' Uncle Bill and his partner Vincent.

So I left the Tate Modern and glanced quickly at my map to make sure I was headed in the right direction, then walked through the south bank back towards Westminster.  I had a little extra time and thought I would grab lunch, swing by Harrods, then head to Buckingham Palace. But I think there must have been something wrong with my eyesight because I clearly underestimated the distance I had to cover and the right way to get there.  And unfortunately, the south bank of London has very few tube stops too, so once I reached a certain point on my walk, it was pointless to try to walk to a tube stop to save me. I mapped my walk a few days later and realized I walked about 3 miles from Tate Modern to Buckingham Palace!! And needless to say, I didn't get to Harrods. I did, however, get a delicious rice bowl from a japanese chain restaurant called Itsu. It was delicious and helped me make the rest of my walk in one piece.

Finally making it to Buckingham Palace, I met Uncle Bill and Vincent because we were able to get tickets to actually go inside the palace, get a tour of the state rooms, and a Fabergé exhibit. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take photos inside the palace, but it was unbelievably amazing! Each room we went into was lavishly decorated.  My favorite is the white room. It was all white and gold and ornate. It had a secret door and beautiful views of the garden. We finished our tour in the palace gardens with some real english tea. Yum.

After we left the palace, we went back to the hotel to gather our bags, met Travers, and took a taxi to Uncle Bill and Vincent's in Chiswick.  They had recently moved in themselves, but made our stay quite comfortable and welcoming.  We got settled in, had a delicious dinner at their house, a few after dinner drinks and called it a night.

We still had two and a half more days in London, and way too much to see, but we were going to head out again in the morning and do as much touring as possible!

To be continued again...