Rubbing Shoulders with Royalty
14.10.2013
12 °C
No matter how many times we've been to London, the city always manages to delight and surprise us.
We only had one free day this time so hadn't made any plans, but there is always plenty to do - and most of it is free.
All the major museums and galleries are free and the city's ancient streets and iconic buildings are in themselves a wonderful outdoor museum dating from 79AD onward. It's all there - two thousand years of architecture: Roman, Saxon, Norman, Tudor, Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian, as well as fantastic modern buildings like the Shard. So, after a little window shopping in our favourite store, Harrods, we joined the tourists at Covent Garden Market...
Begun in 1654, Covent Garden was the main fruit and vegetable market of London until the 1970s. But now the rowdy costermongers have been replaced by a more genteel bunch of vendors flogging all manner of bric-a-brac to the tourists. It is a bustling place, though nothing like the crazy markets of S.E.Asia, and the streets entertainers are a riot. This guy caused a stir just by hanging around in mid-air...
After lunch we signed up for a free guided tour of Somerset House - the home of the Admiralty when Lord Nelson planned his defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. This enormous 18th century rock pile on the banks of the Thames replaced a Tudor palace...
Remembrance day is fast approaching, the poppies are coming out, and we were lucky to get the last couple of seats at a concert given by the Royal British Legion's Central Band. Even luckier - we took our seats and found ourselves sitting next to the Duke of Gloucester,(the Queen's first cousin), and his wife. The Duke and his missus (Dickie and Birgitte to us) had a rollicking good time. The music was splendid and you can get a taste on youtube. Go to http://youtu.be/6oNbTc5hVuA or Google the Central Band of the Royal British Legion.
That's it for our day. The rain is coming so we're off to sunny Spain.
Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends back home.
Posted by Hawkson 04:10 Archived in England Comments (3)