I Promised You London

You may have read this earlier in the weekend, but something went wrong with the post I put together on Saturday and it completely disappeared, so I am trying to put this back together from memory.  So annoying, but hey ho, these things are sent to try us!  Ok, rant over!  Here we go...again!

I love visiting my home town of London and plan these trips with the teenagers well in advance.  This is mainly because I had a wonderful Grandad who knew every inch of the City due to his day job during World War II which helped him by night as he was a fire fighter during these hours.  I try to remember everything he taught me and pass this information on to my two, but his knowledge was so great that we usually ended up with a following believing he was a guide!  We had decided to visit the Science Museum (this ended up as being briefly), the Victoria and Albert Museum (one floor) and the Natural History Museum was given up right from the start due to the enormous queues going down the road.  So, we got back on the Piccadilly Line to Green Park as we use this as a base due to it being near Buckingham Palace which is a good start if you are touring the Square Mile.  So, in true marathon post style, please grab yourself a glass of Pimms and a punnet of strawberries and join us on our journey in the City I call HOME!  We will start at the Victoria Memorial looking down towards The Mall which was adorned with Union Jacks and getting ready for the Trooping The Colour.

We had decided that we would take a leisurely walk down to Trafalgar Square but just from this ten minute walk you can see so many wonderful London sights.  The stately Big Ben...

and The London Eye.

Horseguards Parade was being prepared for the Trooping the Colour.

But on when we walked looking at the Union Jacks along the way.

And then, there he was, Nelson, looking towards the Houses of Parliament.

So much cleaner these days compared to the days gone by where there were pigeons everywhere!  

This pigeon was one of the few and he was having a bit of a wash!

Oh the fountains of Trafalgar Square!  Happy New Year's memories.

And this man would have been right at home on those evenings!

We had our lunch while he played to the passing crowds (being careful not to drop any crumbs for fear of being swarmed by the notorious pigeons!).

and also while watching people trying to clamber onto the lions.  These lions are huge and the plinth they lie on is very high, so a suitably tall parent is required to launch the child onto these magnificent creatures.

But after a late lunch we were only half way through our day and the coaches of people were pouring into the square, I have never seen it so busy to the point that even I was uncomfortable, so we decided to take a slow walk back down to Buckingham Palace.  So goodbye Nelson, see you at a quieter time, maybe Autumn.

And back towards The Mall, where taxis were beginning to queue up.  I can remember when they were just black cabs but now they come in all colours and advertising numerous companies.

We passed the memorial to King George VI and the lovely Queen Mother.  I just love the art deco lamps that accompany this memorial.

We had noticed that there were rather a lot of large hats everywhere along with flowery dresses, suits and uniforms.

They were all heading towards Buckingham Palace for the Queen's Garden Party!  These three were cutting a bit of a dash!

But the queue to enter the party was already building up.

And the hats were still arriving!

The soldiers stood on duty as the event started to get underway.

And the armed police stood by as the approved guests were allowed through (I personally would have been straight at the window to straighten the voile out!).

Our time was slipping away and we still needed to walk through Green Park to the station, so it was goodbye Victoria.

...and the crowds still looking for the perfect position to capture the memory of the day.

Goodbye to Buckingham Palace.

And then our walk back through Green Park.  Now this photo is of some clergy walking over to the Garden Party.  It wasn't until I got home and looked through the photos that I realised one of them is a work acquaintance!  Small world!

Amongst all the 'going's on', there was calm!  I could have watched this man for hours as he went through his routine (I think it was Tai Chi?).  Such calm in a busy area.

Now back at Kings Cross I had one more surprise for the Teenagers.  Miss Teenager is a huge Harry Potter fanatic!  Many years ago, when Harry Potter was only really just taking off, I took them to Platform 9 and there in a wall was half a shopping trolley (I need to dig the photo out of the two of them pretending to push this through the wall).  Now that Harry Potter is huge and with the re-fit of Kings Cross, they have made a bigger attraction and have opened up the Harry Potter shop.

This is full of WANDS!

Boxes of them!

Outside there is a more embellished shopping trolley where you can have your picture taken.

They put a scarf around you and someone holds on to the end, you are then asked to jump and there you are, on your way to Hogwart's Express!

We were getting a more modern version as we had run out of 'steam'!.  So now it was time to go home, legs and feet hurting, but very very happy memories once more.  Goodbye Kings Cross, see you again soon.

Phew!  Another marathon post (even harder for me as I have had to re-write it again!).  The next visit to London will be to mine and my late Grandad's favourite place, Greenwich, but that will have to wait until the summer holidays now.

I am going to save this once more and hopefully the 'gremlin' in the system will let this post stay on.

I hope you have had a fantastic weekend and I am looking forward to catching up with you on your posts.  Thank you all so much for your lovely comments, and welcome, welcome to my new followers, I am looking forward to catching up with your posts.

Take care.

Chel xx

This week I am sharing with:

Time Travel Thursday

Weekly Top Shot

Saturday Show Off

From the Farm Blog Hop
Sunny Simple Monday
Our World Tuesday
You're Gonna Love It Tuesday
Oh the Places I've been