Mom and Lisa Visit

Now that's it has been over a month since my Mom and aunt Lisa left I'm finally getting to posting something about it... No pictures this time but I put all ours on Walgreens so if you want me to send some in an email to you just let me know.


We picked them up from the airport on May 22nd and then headed to Surbiton (or SurbitRon as my mom wants to call it). Surbiton is just south of Kingston (where Travis' school is) in the Southwest part of London. The rest of Saturday was spent napping at the hotel and walking along the Thames to Kingston. We stayed out there because on Sunday we went to Hampton Court Palace (famous for Henry VIII). We had lunch in a garden cafe and then explored almost the entire palace including the young Henry VIII, William of Orange III and Mary's II sections and last the Henry VIII kitchens. Somehow we didn't notice the Henry VIII's apartments. The gardens for the palace were really beautiful. There was also a maze that we went through... only getting a dead end once! The four of us also went on a carriage ride around the fountain gardens in the back. The palace is in two different styles, Tudor from Henry VIII and then when William and Mary moved in they were going to tear down the whole place replacing with their style. They never finished so its half and half now. There was also the Great Vine of grapes. It was planted in the 1760's. I think its the worlds largest grape vine.


That night we spent at our apartment and I made Sheppard's Pie. Monday morning we went into town to the Tower of London. It's the oldest palace in London. It was built by William the Conqueror in 1078. Its been used as a fortress, home for royals, and a prison. The guards of the Tower are the Yeoman Warders or Beefeaters. They live in the Tower and were in the military for 22 years beforehand. There are ravens on the Tower grounds. Supposedly if the ravens left the Tower then England would fall. So to keep them there they clip their wings. We also saw the sight where the more famous were executed... like Anne Boleyn's beheading. A lot of the people executed are buried in the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower. The White Tower is the oldest part and inside was an armory museum. They had armor for Henry VIII. The crown jewels are also in the Tower of London. The Imperial Crown (biggest) wasn't there though because the Queen was going to use the next day for the State Opening of Parliament. The most haunted tower there is the Salt Tower. The Beefeaters won't go in there at night because once one of them said they were choked by an unseen force. Later that night we saw Henry VIII at Shakespeare's Globe Theater.



Tuesday everyone went on my tour which actually made me more nervous. I think it was mostly because of Travis with him more noticeable being tall and he helped me learn so he knew how it was supposed to be. It was the State Opening of Parliament and we saw the Queen! She passed by heading back from Parliament to Buckingham Palace. After the tour we went on a boat taxi ride to Greenwich and back. That night we saw Les Miserables.



Wednesday morning we went back by Buckingham Palace and saw the Changing of the Guard again then went to the Queen's Gallery. The displays change a couple times a year and the new one was Victoria and Albert Art and Love. It had a lot of things that they had given each other as gifts. It also showed what they had done with the other homes they had. In the afternoon we visited Westminster Abbey. My favorite of the churches we've visited including more than St. Paul's. It has a lot of history. King Edward the Confessor (king from 1042-66) built the first Abbey here in 1045 and died the day after the building was finished. His shrine is fragile or something so you can't go up to it. Edward became a saint and Henry III named him as his patron saint and rebuilt Westminster Abbey in honor of him in 1245. He's also buried there a few feet away from Edward along with most monarchs buried in Westminster Abbey. Henry added a solid gold shrine on Edwards tomb but Henry VIII stole it during the Reformation. Henry VII's chapel is really impressive. In a hallway next to the chapel is where Elizabeth I and Mary I are both buried. Elizabeth on top of Mary. I thought this was really interesting because although they were sisters (both daughters of Henry VIII) they had very different views. Mary was raised Catholic, born before Henry's Reformation. Elizabeth was the daughter of Anne Boleyn the women Henry left Mary's mother Catherine for. When Henry started his own church he made it to where the monarch decides the religion of the country. He also put in his will that all his children will rule England if they don't have children, first his son Edward who was even more Protestant than his father so changed this pretty drastically. Since he died at only 15 he didn't have kids so Mary was next. Since she was Catholic she changed England back to being Catholic and killed lots of folks who didn't like that, hence the nickname Bloody Mary. She also did not have children so after she died Elizabeth was next. Elizabeth I religious views were more like her dad's so although she changed it back to the Church of England protestant I don't think she was tough of Catholics like Edward had been. They could still practice in private I believe. Can you tell I'm into Henry VIII and kids history? Hah. In Westminster Abbey there's also Poet's Corner which is where British literaries are buried or have memorials. Charles Dickens, T.S. Elliot, and Geoffery Chaucer are all buried there. Shakespeare and Jane Austen have memorials there. We also went into the gardens behind Westminster Abbey. Buried in the Nave are Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. They also had the coronation chair in a protective room for cleaning I think. The chair was built for Edward I in 1300 and has been used in every coronation for new monarchs since then. Princess Diana's funeral was in Westminster Abbey (her wedding was in St. Paul's Cathedral). Well... I think I have gone on about Westminster Abbey long enough :) It's definitely one of my favorite places we've been to and stop on the tour I do. After eating at really good traditional British food pub, I think called the Duke of York, we went by Hard Rock Cafe London. I think the first Hard Rock was in London.

Thursday we went to Harrods and ate a very tasty lunch. I got the buffet with tons of yummy food. Travis got oysters and I tried one for the first time. Not as bad as I expected. We then went over to Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park and walked around. We tried to make it over to the Monument but didn't make it in time to go in. The Monument is a tall column and can walk up to get good views of the city. Its a memorial for the Great Fire of 1666 when almost the entire city was burnt down. At the top is a gold sort of flame. If you were to knock the column over to the East the gold top would land right where they think the fire started. We then walked along the river a bit before going to the Anchor (400 year old pub on the south bank of the river) for dinner. We then had to pick up all the bags from the hotel in Piccadilly Circus and head out to a hotel by the Heathrow airport. Since my mom and Lisa were leaving so early Friday we said bye that night. It was a really great week! I had so much fun with everyone and am really glad they made it out for such a long visit. We got to see a lot of London.