This gorgeous looking building is the Royal Horseguards Hotel, the hotel we stayed in the nights of the 22nd and 23rd of May. Isn't it amazing? And it was literally right along the Victoria Embankment, a road that runs parallel to the Thames. Unfortunately we didn't get rooms with a view, but the rooms themselves were nice. They even had televisions in the bathtubs/showers. (Natelle, I borrowed the pic from your Facebook.) I intended to soak in the tub while taking in a bit of "telly", just to say I did it. But, the day of our departure from Montreal I had awakened about 7am. I didn't sleep at all on the flight over and we didn't get back to the hotel room that first evening until about 10p London time (or 5p our time). So I had been up a total of 34 consecutive hours by then. If I had gotten into a tub full of warm water I probably would have fallen asleep and drowned myself; I was that tired. LOL And then, the next day was full of the sightseeing. So, by the time we were back at the hotel it was about the same time as the prior evening, and I crawled into bed and crashed. Regardless, the hotel was awesome and you'll see more pictures of it throughout this post. Don't forget. If you want to see a larger version of these pictures just click on the picture.
These bird's eye view pics (as well as the first 2 of the 3 above) are from the London Eye (also called the Millennium Wheel), which is situated right along the Thames, and almost exactly opposite the Royal Horseguards Hotel.
Parliament with Big Ben (which, incidentally, is really the name of the bell inside the clock tower not the clock itself).
Diagonally behind Big Ben with the two square spires is Westminster Abbey
An "eye pod" heh heh!. The Eye was really cool. It is in constant motion during hours of operation and runs slowly, about the speed of an escalator. So, there is a constant influx and outflux of people in the pods. The one revolution, once you get on, takes about a half hour and it's referred to as a voyage.
Great view, huh?
Parliament and Big Ben at night
A memorial on White Hall Place, a street adjacent to the entrance of our hotel (the entrance was actually on one of the sides of the hotel building). The red things on the ground are wreaths made of artificial poppies. I forget what there were placed there for; I don't know if it was for some observance of their form of Memorial Day or something else. I think Deb told us, but I don't remember.
View of the side of our hotel, which is actually the front entrance where the lobby is.
Three women I love. Karen (sister), Natelle (niece), Debbie (sister). :)
Center of Trafalgar Square
An archway along the perimeter of the traffic circle that goes around Trafalgar Square (or should that be Trafalgar Circle?? lol).
St. Paul's Cathedral
This momument is for the Great Fire of London in 1666. The fire burned for 3 days.
View of the Tower Bridge and the battleship is some WWII memorial I think. I've forgotten.
This is somebody doing promotion for the attraction(s) on the marquis in the background. I just thought it was kind of cool looking.
The next 4 pics are approaching and crossing the Tower Bridge.
The Tower of London, which is really a fortress and not so much a tower. It's where people were sent who were to be imprisoned and/or executed. Primarily members of nobility, I think. One of which was Ann Boleyn.
Eros, the Greek god of Love. Also, Cupid and Amor in Roman mythology.
While in London, I had a mission to secure a t-shirt and some shot glasses from this Harley Davidson dealership there for Josh Jenkins, one of the people I work with. He collects t-shirts with the specific dealership design on the backs of them. The one I got him now happens to be the t-shirt in his collection that is from the farthest place away. :D He is quite proud of it. I done good! lol I am not into Harleys, but I did think the back of the t-shirt was pretty cool so I include a picture below. The one I got Josh happened to be light grey though, since they were out of the black one in his size.
Views of the front lawn of our hotel, the Royal Horseguards.
Side view of hotel. Deb, Karen and Natelle,
The lobby of the Royal Horseguards had two of these huge armchairs. Sitting all the way back, I couldn't touch the floor with my feet. It reminds me of Lily Tomlin on Rowan and Martin's Laugh In as Edith Ann. "And that's the truth!" "Pbbbt!" (Don'tcha just love giving a good raspberry?? LOL) That Tomlin character also cameoed on Sesame Street...see the video below.
It almost sounds like she's describing English food. LOL
The next two pictures I only took because the name of the professor I have for most of my classes in Peninsular Literature is Joana Sabadell-Nieto We just happened upon these two places next to one another while walking the streets of London and I noticed the name, so I took pictures to show her.
This statue is of Florence Nightingale and commemorates her humanitarian efforts for to wounded in the Crimean War.
Of the next two pictures the bottom one is just a close up of the top edge of the face of the building of the picture above it. I thought it was pretty and interesting and it reminded me of the Wedgwood jewelry I inherited from my mother.
Entering the Tower of London fortress.
I just realized how dwarfed Karen and I look next to these two Beefeaters. The Beefeaters (i.e. the Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London
Me, Karen, some dude with a fuzzy hat we picked up on the street :), Natelle, and Deb.
Inside the walls of the Tower of London. I think it is cool how all around London you see the very old together with the very modern everytime you turn around.
There were these neat metal statues of knights dotted throughout the Tower property.
If you enlarge these next two pictures and look closely at the windows with the rounded tops on the bottom floor you will see a raven standing on a little ladder. It looks to me like he is looking in the window. The legend is that if the ravens that are in residence there ever leave the Tower of London, then the entire British kingdom would fall. Their wings are clipped to prevent them from leaving the tower grounds. I also like the architecture.
This is one of the many rooms of the Tower of London that were used as jail cells. The following picture is of carvings on cell walls that were done over time by successive prisoners there.
I also like how the widow in the picture above is reflected in the glass protecting the carvings.
Traitor's Gate
A chapel for the prisoners. Notice the tiling on the floor. I think they slavaged some of the tile found to reconstruct the floor in this chapel. Most of the original tile in the buildings was damaged from wear and tear. But it's pretty fancy tile for back then.
May 25, 2009 The Castlebank Hotel, the bed and breakfast we stayed in while in Wales. You can see it in other pictures taken from wall of Conwy Castle.
The following 4 pictures were of the little room Karen and I stayed in. I just loved this B&B. I loved that the room was done in pink roses and that, though it was small, it felt cozy rather than cramped. All the rooms were in it were just so comfortable and the lovely antiques and well chosen decor gave it (to me, that is) a very romantic quality. And the host/owner, who we saw more (his wife had only checked us in), was a very pleasant man (and not too rough on the eyes, either, I might add).
The crosswalk that you see in the bottom right of the picture is the entrance to a parking lot, off of which was the parking lot to our B&B. And the outer wall of Conwy Castle on the left.
This pic was taken from a bridge that was only a few hundred feet from the entrance to the parking lot I just described above. As you can see the terrain was VERY hilly. I got charlie horses (Karen too, I think) from the strenuous trekking up and down the hilly streets. But the views MORE THAN made up for the little discomfort.
