Go Big (and via cab)

Today was our last day in London before we head to the cruise ship Tomorrow.   We started our very full day with a Traditional English breakfast before heading by cab to the British Museum. (The Underground would have been a lot slower and require transferring trains plus significant walking and we really couldn't spare the time)

We spent about 2 hours exploring the British Museum. 

Here is how the museum describes itself and since it is accurate (and using it means less typing for me) I will just re-post it) : 

Founded in 1753, the British Museum’s remarkable collection spans over two million years of human history. Enjoy a unique comparison of the treasures of world cultures under one roof, centered around the magnificent Great Court.

World-famous objects such as the Rosetta Stone, Parthenon sculptures, and Egyptian mummies are visited by up to six million visitors per year. In addition to the vast permanent collection, the museum’s special exhibitions, displays and events are all designed to advance understanding of the collection and cultures they represent.

Here is some of what we saw

 

The Rosetta Stone

 

There were so many amazing exhibits.  My favorite exhibit was one called the "Age of Enlightenment" which covered the items collected by King George III as "proof of existence" of many creatures and items that his people had only heard of in tales or seen in drawings.   Here are just a few  (sorry about the reflections, there were a lot of high windows in this room)...

Just before noon I purchased a wonderful book on London from the gift shop and we hopped into a second cab and headed across town to join our tour group for the Buckingham Palace tour.  

No photography is aloud inside the palace so I was unable to document the Amazing things we saw there but they do have a link (Below) that shows some of the collections of art in the Palace and I purchased a book in the gift shop. 

https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/visit/the-queens-gallery-buckingham-palace

We were each given a headset with at least one narration for each of the rooms we saw, in most cases it was 2-3 narrations per room. (One for the rooms themselves and others for special items in the rooms). Here are images of a few of the the rooms (from the internet) to give you an idea of what it is like.

Grand Staircase

 Throne Room

Gallery

We could take photos outside of the Palace, here are a few I took.

Front of the Palace:

 Out back.

Note: I kept my eyes open looking for the queen but alas no one wearing a crown showed up.  I did meet a very nice older lady though who had great taste in hats...

After the Palace tour we jumped into a third cab and asked to go to the Grosvenor Hotel for our tea...evidently there are at least two Grosvenor Hotels in London and we ended up at the wrong one... 

Bring on Cab number 4 ...and a ride to the correct hotel.  The correct Grosvenor Hotel was amazing inside.

Our tea was very good as well especially the Coronation Chicken sandwiches (I believe they contained curry with the raisins). Below is a description from their menu... (Note: we had egg salad on white bread instead of ham)

After our tea we did a bit of shopping and caught another cab to Hyde Park for a nice walk and a chance to hide more message-bottles in the beautiful park.

After our walk in the park we relaxed on a comfortable bench and did some people watching, followed by a short walk to "The Swan" pub for a late dinner of fish and chips and drinks.

After dinner we caught our sixth cab of the day and headed back to our hotel to pack up our stuff up in preparation for the early morning trip to the South Hampton dock to meet our ship. 

 

Heading to bed earlier tonight was the goal...  Kerry made it...but typing, and cropping/sorting pictures takes time. It is 1 AM. and Kerry is sleeping and I am working in the dark,

 (I can sleep when I get home... LOL). 

Note: Once we set sail Tomorrow I will only have access to the blog when we are on shore so I will try to post as I can but may miss days if we are at sea or have a poor cell signal...