Monday August 5, 2013 London England



Our last breakfast at the Parkwood B & B in Marble Arch, London. Each morning we had a traditional English breakfast. They would take our order and cook it fresh for us. It was so good.

 





Traditional (Full) English Breakfast consisted of sausage, back bacon, eggs, beans, grilled tomatoes, toast and jams and marmalades, coffee or a pot of tea.

 

 

This is Marble Arch, a beautiful marble arch at the entrance of Hyde Park, right near our bed & breakfast.

 

Since this was our last day in London, we decided to do some souvenir shopping.

There was a stop at the Beatles Store. Everything imaginable "Beatles" stuff. 

 

As we walked through Trafalgar Square, there were these 2 young girls playing violins with their case opened for tips. We saw people in the subways doing the same ...... playing musical instruments/singing for tips.

                         Sandy & I in front of Harrod's, a very exclusive, high end, 7 floor, department store.

      Harrod's is so big, it takes up two blocks. When we walked into the store I was impressed by all the staff. They were all dressed in black ----- women in dresses/skirts and black high heels and men in black suits --- very classy. And they were about every 5 ft, ready to give individual service to customers. I looked at a small purse, which was in a glass unit, had a price of over 550 euros, about $1100.00. Like I said, very exclusive store. It was very interesting to see.
 

There was an area in Harrod's, with quite a large memorial to Princess Diana and Dodi al Fayed who died in car crash together in August 1997. Dodi was the son of Mohammed al Fayed, who owned Harrod's until 2010. The memorial was in place here in April 1998. 

 

                         Time for a little lunch at this traditional pub -- The Garrick Arms. We ate outside.

We continued with our souvenir shopping. While in London, we were hoping to see someone from the Royal family. We thought we had a couple of "sightings". Is this Prince Harry? Not a 100% sure.

Maybe this is Prince Harry -- does have the red hair.  I just couldn't catch up to him to be sure.  

 

 

We were walking to see "The Mall" ( not a shopping center). The Mall is a road running from Buckingham Palace to Admiralty Arch and onto Trafalgar Square. This is the road where processions for Royal Weddings, funerals, and Coronations and other special events travel. The road is red to make it look like a red carpet leading up to Buckingham Palace, with the flag of England lining the road on both sides.

Admiralty Arch ---- processions pass under these arches on the way to Buckingham Palace. 

This is a guard in front of "Clarence House" where Prince Charles and Camilla live, along the Mall.

 

We walked the length of the Mall, which brought us to Buckingham Palace. Here we are in front of another gate at Buckingham Palace.

 

                                              A couple of "bobbies" near the Palace.

 

After our shopping, and getting caught in a rain shower, we headed back to the Parkwood to relax a bit. Later we went out for dinner at "The Three Tuns", a traditional British pub restaurant. 

Here's my "steak & ale pie" dinner. Very good.

 

 

Our last night in London. We made a toast to a great vacation and a wonderful time.

 

This is my last blog. Tonight we'll be packing up to leave early in the morning, to take a couple of subways to take us to Heathrow Airport, where we will board a plane and head home.

 

It has been a trip of a lifetime. These last three weeks have been so amazing --- we've visited so many places and experienced so much. I think we used the word "awed" a lot, because so many times we were at a loss for words --- we just felt "awed". We will be forever grateful to Sandy & Michael for making this vacation happen. They were the best "travel planners" and "tour guides" we could ever have asked for. It was an exciting, fun and memorable vacation that we got to share with them and that we will never forget.