Going to London to see the Queen (she wasn't there)

This will be interesting to see if I can get up the energy to write this blog. I'm really tired! Not as tired as Mom, but really tired! And I have a big blister on my little toe. (feel sorry for me yet?)

We started out earlier this morning, since we wanted to be in London in time to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. We drove right into Woking, parked the car and walked to the train station, and rode the train into London. That, by itself, was really fun! Sorry, Corey, I couldn't find the right place to get to Hogwarts! I haven't ridden a train since I was in Sweden. This train was a little faster than others I've ridden, but it wasn't so fast we couldn't see the countryside as we went. Roger showed me which side to sit on so I could get the best view of London as we rode in, and it was fantastic! As we got close I could see almost all the sites I've only heard about or seen on TV - I saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and a bunch of other big, old buildings that I didn't know, and I could see the newest thing in London - it's called the London Eye. It was built by British Airways, and it's like a huge (and I DO mean huge!) very slow ferris wheel. It turns continuously, but very slowly, and has these glass pods on it that hold about 24 people. It doesn't stop for people to get on or off, it just keeps moving very slowly. So you can pay LOTS of money to go on this thing, and you have a beautiful view of London. (we didn't - there was NO WAY I was going to get Mom on that thing!) Anyway, we pulled into London, got off, and then went and rode the "underground", the subway, which was another adventure Mom had for the first time. Then we climbed stairs up to the street and took off as fast as we could to find the Palace.

There's actually 2 places where you can see the changing of the guards, one is at the Horse guards area, and the other is at Buckingham Palace. We got to the Horse Guards area first, but they started at 11, exactly on the dot, as Big Ben was chiming, which was as we were walking up to the parade grounds, so we missed most of that. We got there to take a few pictures, anyway. The changing of guards at Buckingham Palace was at 11:30, so we started walking up the "mall" towards the palace. Today was an absolutely perfect day, by the way. It rained most of the day yesterday, and we had a beautiful thick fog out on the field this morning, but the sun shone and burned it all off, and we had bright sunshine all day long. So here we were, walking up the mall, which is really a long street that all the royal processions go down, through a beautiful big park area. The weather was just a little cool, and the leaves are starting to fall from the trees, so we walked in a big green park with a shower of leaves around us. Beautiful. As we got closer to the palace, we could see very large crowds of people all around, and we realized that we weren't there early enough. There was no way we could get close enough to see the actual ceremonial stuff that takes place in front of the palace - there were too many people already there in front of us, and there was limited space there. We got as close as we could, saw other people lining the street there in front of the palace, and waited. Pretty soon we heard a band coming from our left, and in marched a band in front, and a new platoon or squad or whatever, of the new guards. So we got to watch them marching in, watched them march through the big fancy gates in front, and then all we could see was the tops of their very tall hats.

Many of the spectators left then, so we moved closer. Still couldn't get by the gates, though, those people weren't leaving. There's a huge statue and fountain in front of the gates, so we moved over there, where we could climb up on the steps of the fountain and see through the gates and see a little more. The band stood and played for several minutes, (one piece was a mixture of James Bond themes!) and then they escorted the old guards out of the gates, which we were now in front of. That was really cool, so then we got a much better look at them. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but none of us went to find a guard to have our picture taken with them, nor did we try to get one to crack a smile or something. That was just more touristy than even I could do!

It was fun to look up and see the balcony where the Queen and everybody stands when they have some big thing going on - I've seen the pictures of them out there, so now I know where it is. The gates on the sides of the palace grounds are big and ornate, with sculptures around them, and they're trimmed with gold trim. Very bright and striking.

From there, we walked back through the park and bought some sandwiches at a little very busy shop, and walked to where the River Thames cruise boats are. By the way, today I had to pay 50 pence to go to the bathroom! Sheesh. I even took a picture of the machine with the little turnstile we had to go through after we paid the 50 pence! That's about 75 cents! (I'll show you that exciting picture later) We took a boat on the Thames from over by Big Ben down the river to the Tower of London. The guy on the boat told us what the buildings were that we could see, told us some of the history, told a few jokes, and it was great fun. I was amazed at some of the beautiful, magnificent buildings that line the Thames. Some are very old, but many of them are new, and very impressive. We saw the London Bridge, which is about the 4th London Bridge, I think, and we saw a kind of a cable type bridge that the guide said started moving and acting like it was going to throw people off as soon as it was opened, so it was then closed and not opened for another few years until they figured out how to fix it. He told us all kinds of stories. That was definitely the best way to get from the palace to the Tower! We were very glad we did it. Besides, it let us sit down for the full 40 minute cruise, and we got a rest that way.

At the Tower of London, we got to see all the gory details about who ended up being a prisoner there and writing grafiti on the stone walls, and who was executed or poisoned there, etc. Mom pooped out part way through there, but there were a lot of stairs, with little narrow circular staircases to get up into the towers, and her knees weren't taking that very well. Neither were mine, but I'm a little younger and can push a little harder. (Did I mention that I have a big blister on my little toe? Gotta buy new walking shoes!) The Tower of London is actually a castle with several different towers and buildings all within the walls. The White Tower is the armory, and they had full suits of armor on display, including the one made for King Henry VIII and several other kings. We got to see some really ugly-looking weapons - lances, maces, swords, shields, all kinds of stuff that my boys would have LOVED to see! They even had some of the horse armor there to see too. In another tower you could see some of the "graffiti" that was carved into the stones of the prison, and it was fascinating. They have plexiglass sheets over a lot of them, to protect them.

Another building holds the Crown Jewels, and we saw some amazing jewels, in crowns and sceptres, and all kinds of things. I've never seen anything so sparkly! Where they have several different crowns displayed, the floor moves very slowly - I guess that's so you can't just stand in front of one and clog up the line. Roger said it was amazingly easy to get through things today - usually you have to stand in line to even get into the building with the Jewels, and we just walked right in and through the building. They had a video running, showing the present Queen Elizabeth when she was crowned. Pretty cool. They also displayed a whole bunch of gold - basins and plates and pitchers and a HUGE punch bowl (I asked if they would let Josh and Sarah use it for their wedding, but Pam didn't think so). Lots of shiny and sparkly stuff. And there was this little voice in me wondering how much all of that was worth, and what kind of good it could do for people around the world. Good thing I appreciate history and all that. But if I were Queen...

The Tower of London was our last stop. And we didn't see everything there. There is so much to see in London - it would take a very long time just to see everything there in that one area. And it would cost a lot of money too! We were very lucky, because we got discounted tickets and 2 for 1 tickets or something for most of what we did today. Most of the things to see, like going IN to Buckingham Palace, or going IN to Westminster Abbey, cost 15 to 16 pounds each person, each place. That's about $25 or so. We did a very fast, whirlwind jaunt through a very small part of London, and just caught the highlights. We had other reasons for our visit here, and London was added to the list because, well, because we couldn't come to England without seeing something in London. And because I insisted that I wanted to see it. Anyway, after the Tower, we crawled our way back to the "tube" (subway) and to the train, and got back home. We were all starving, or I think we would have all headed for beds.

Tomorrow we leave England. sigh. It would seem that this day would call for something momentous and moving and eloquent, and I'm not sure I have that in me tonight. I hope that as I wrote this blog you've been able to share our trip with us and that you've been able to tell how blessed we feel about this trip being made possible. I'm painfully aware that there are 6 other Burke kids that could very well have been the one to make this trip with Mom, and I've felt really bad about that. And, of course, we would all rather have had it be Dad that came with her. All through the trip we've seen or experienced things and thought about how this person or that person in the family would have liked to have seen that. And, of course, as we went through Hampton Court yesterday or many of the big fancy places, we've talked about how Mom would NEVER have got Dad to move away from those paintings we saw! He would have been there for hours! So, it wasn't possible for all of us to make this trip, so I tried really hard to share it with the rest of you as much as I could, because I felt like I was representing all of us. And the rest of you sharing with us, you just get to come along for the ride too!

We've had a fantastic trip, thanks to Pam and Roger, Sue and Ron, and Doug and Barbara. There's no way I can even begin to tell you how much these English cousins have meant to us and how they've smoothed the way for us. They're funny, loving, friendly, and so patient you wouldn't believe it, and they've made us feel very comfortable and at home, even though we were very aware they were doing SO much for us. Hopefully, they'll have the desire to come see Idaho some day soon, and we'll be able to try to pay them back a little. Mom's exhausted, but it's a good exhausted. She may sleep for the next week after we get home, but she's had a great trip, and has been able to fulfill a life-long dream, and not many people get to do that. She'll never let me talk her into going sightseeing for anything ever again, because she's never going to be able to walk right again, but she's accomplished her goal - she got to walk in the footsteps of many (many more than we expected!) of those "dead people" of hers that have always been so important to her.

Unless we get stranded somewhere or have some big adventure on the way home that I need to add, (knock on wood!!) this will be the last blog for this trip. Please DO feel free to add comments, because we will check for them. We should be home around 3:30 on Sunday. Talk to you all soon!