Sunday, August 4, 2024

A Month of Travel-Part I

 

After 10 hours of flight from Miami to Heathrow, Hannah and I await our first dinner in London.

Why from Miami? Mike and I flew from Oregon to Florida to pick up our youngest granddaughter for her "Teen Trip." There is nothing better to learn about a 13-year-old than to take her on a trip without parents and siblings. 

There is much to see and do in London, but we only had 3 full days there before hopping on a train to Brussels. The highlights of that first stop were, moving from our first hotel room (a dump) to a nice hotel (more expensive), seeing the musical "Frozen" in the Royal Theater of London (Disney knows how to put on a show), visiting the Tower of London and All Hallows-by-the-Tower founded in 675 A.D. Mike was especially thrilled to stand in the church where Samuel Pepys (famous for his diary) watched London burn in 1666. One thing that I kept being reminded of throughout this trip is how young a our nation is.

We did have a brief visit to the British Museum, but it was packed with tourists and we all got a bit claustrophobic. One great thing about England is that most museums have no entry fee. 

Below I will include some photos from my photos of London Part I.

Hannah at the entrance of the Royal Theater of London to see "Frozen."

All Hallows-by-the-Tower 





The interior of All Hallows-by-the-Tower.



On to the sight of prison, torture and death. Most famously 
was Anne Boleyn" beheading in the courtyard of the 
castle. There was another story of a young prince and his brother who were there before the older one's coronation. They mysteriously disappeared, but never fear, there was their uncle ready to step in as king!
Hannah entering the Tower of London


We were reminded of the wealth of the Royals by viewing the Crown Jewels. And then there was the history of hangings and torture (Yikes! the rack) and the final execution there in 1941 of a German spy. 
Mike does enjoy Beefeaters Gin!

If this fellow had information, he wasn't sharing.



We would return to London later and would stay in a different London borough. Stay tuned for our next stop Brussels.

On the train ready to travel under the English Channel to Belgium.





6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like a very interesting and informative trip in England. Looking forward to seeing more of your trip

Jansi King said...

What a beautiful granddaughter and wonderful trip❤️❤️❤️

Anonymous said...

Thank you for reading my blog.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Jansi!

Anonymous said...

💗 Wonderful!

Jan Tav said...

What a wonderful time you all must have had!😊