Day 5 Royal Wedding Thurs May 17 London

Today we got up early, checked out and took a taxi to Holiday Inn Express Heathrow T5, where we're staying until we leave Sunday morning. This is the hotel I booked originally when Harry proposed. Found Oakley Court later but could only get it Mon-Wed. Glad I did because we enjoyed it and I sure would like to have one of those heated towel racks at home.

We figured this sunny, cool day would be perfect to ride the double decker Big Bus so many people told me to take. It was too cold yesterday, so we tried to hustle down to London as fast as we could. Two options for transport in front of our hotel -- the 81 bus that would take us to Slough train station where we could catch a train for Windsor. Or the Hotel Hoppa bus to Heathrow where we could catch Express trains to London Paddington station.

Our hotels were reasonably priced but getting around added up. Five pounds each way for the Hoppa bus to and from Heathrow and 37 pounds round trip to London. Didn't want to waste time on free breakfast at the hotel so grabbed a bagel in Paddington Station.

Found the Paddington statue and charmed by a woman who told us "he" (Paddington) was around and you have to believe. We said we do! Laurie took my photo with the bear. 

And we came up with a saying -- PEO -- meaning "pee every opportunity" after we forgot to do that and had to pay for the privilege. Thank goodness there was a change machine available.

I didn't get any British pounds before leaving the US; friends told me to just use an ATM when I landed at Heathrow, so that's what I did. Didn't really use that much cash after I got it. Needed it for taxis but not Uber, which worked well for us. Mostly paid for things with cards. But that would not have worked here.

Out into the sunlight for a short walk to the Big Bus stop.

Found good seats on top. This was taken near Marble Arch and Speakers Corner in Hyde Park.

Picked our language and plugged into the recorded tour rather than waiting for a bus with a live guide. Everyone was right about this being best approach to first day in London: we saw and heard everything from the comfort of the bus and covered a lot of ground with a 1-day pass. If we hadn't had Tea reservations at Fortnum and Mason, we'd have done the short Thames boat cruise that came with our ticket but just didn't have time.

London is a very cosmopolitan city: people from everywhere, lots of languages spoken. I found it tourist friendly and can't wait to go back.

One of the things that caught my attention were all the chimney pots from when people had fireplaces in every room. Another were these spikes to prevent pigeons from roosting.

My dad lived in London for about 4 weeks one summer recruiting for offshore drilling platforms for Marathon UK and I'd been reading his journals before I came. He enjoyed going to Regents Park and hearing the music. The bus passed very close to Marathon's offices and that flat where he stayed near Marlyebone tube station. Since I liked The Kings Speech, I was intrigued to see Lionel Logue's studio on Harley street.

Loved the circuses and seeing various theaters in the West End.

Remembered Lord Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square from the few hours I'd driven through London years ago to depart on a cruise.

But didn't know it was a big New Year's Eve spot.

 Tried to take a close up of one of the lions at the base -- too bad bus railing got in the way:)

 Halls of Justice. Didn't see any barristers. Lots of traffic so bus moved really slow but that was fine with me. Got to see a lot and loved listening to the music they played on the audio tour. Got you into the spirit.

 Look what a beautiful day it was. And, unlike the wedding, I didn't get sunburned.

The London dragon. Interested to hear about the Roman ruins that continue to be found as construction is done downtown. Reminded me of a book I read and liked: Londinium by Edward Rutherferd.

 I'd seen the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral when Laurie and I walked across the bridges yesterday but it was nice to get a close up view.

 An important part of our "Diana pilgrimage" since this was where she was married.

We went down Fleet Street and then crossed a bridge to the other side of the Thames River. That's when I realized for the first time that we were going to go across the Tower Bridge on the way back. Definitely a highlight of the day for me.

I remember how proud Chicago was of its architecture. London impressed me with its mixture of old and new buildings. I enjoyed seeing The Shard and The Torpedo.

Especially while crossing over Tower Bridge. And clearly there's a lot more building going on...

I remembered the Tower being very ominous from when I was here before. Didn't seem so today. Sorry we didn't have time to hop off and see the Crown Jewels or take the boat cruise but felt like we did get to see a lot in the short time we were here. More than I expected to be able to see and do.

Here's Lambeth Palace and the Tudor Gate. Near here was a churchyard where Capt Bligh from Mutiny on the Bounty is buried.

We figured we'd have to hop off the bus by 4:30 to make it to Fortnum and Mason's in time for our tea reservation at 5:15p. So we got off near Buckingham Palace and walked through Green Park. Met a couple young recipients of the Duke of Edinburgh Award who were thrilled with their day -- Princess Anne had hosted a garden party for them.

 I had fun picturing the crowds here for Diana's wedding to Charles and Kate's to William.

 Even though no one was on the famous balcony today

 And no royalty or celebrity sightings yet, although I still have faith in Laurie's stellar record

Green Park was pretty. All the parks have the same sling back deck chairs they had at Oakley Court. Different than the parks in Paris. Not too far a walk to Fortnum and Mason on Piccadilly Street, near the Green Park tube station, Bond Street and New Bond Street shopping.

Our table was on the fourth floor at the first window to the right of the front door.

Waited on the couch to the left in front of this side, which we did not sit on.

Here's the side we did sit on.

And here is the menu. On the top of the three plates, 5 different savories...

Goose Foie Gras with Pistachio and Rhubarb

Mushroom and Madeira Pâté

Smoked Salmon Macaroon

Cashew Nut Cheesecake

Portland Crab Salad

In the middle, 2 savory scones...

Bacon and Egg Scone with English Mustard

Cheese & Tomato Scone with Herb Butter

And on the bottom, 5 finger sandwiches, which were cut an laid next to each other so it looked like a sandwich loaf...

Rare Breed Hen’s Egg Mayonnaise with Chives

Cucumber with Mint Cream Cheese

Glazed Ham with English Mustard

Fortnum’s Smoked Salmon

Coronation Chicken

Here is how F&M described their Coronation Chicken...

Our version of the famous Coronation Chicken sandwich is a little twist on chef Rosemary Hume’s original 1953 recipe - the nuts are gone, but the plump raisins, sweet mango chutney and fresh coriander remain in all their glory. Long live this most extraordinary of sandwiches.

I had Afternoon Tea and Royal Blend. Both were nice but I preferred the Afternoon Tea. Laurie drank a different kind but I forget which. We were supposed to enjoy choices from the cake carriage and kept waiting to be offered that. We weren't but when we were leaving, our server gave us a hamper with a slice of every piece of cake they had -- there were at least 4 or 5 of them, which we ate when we got back to our hotel that night and on the Long Walk Saturday morning as we waited for the wedding to begin.

  

Tea at Fortnum's was as lovely as we'd expected and hoped.  We had time to browse the store afterwards, so we walked down floor by floor like we did at Harrod's. 

These were shower caps on the women's floor.

And food on the first floor.

Since it was still light out, we walked to Piccadilly Circus and then caught the tube back to Paddington and the Express bus.

 Which took us to Heathrow Terminal 5 and the Hotel Hoppa bus back to our hotel.

Where we ate the cakes F and M had packed in a "to go" box for us and read up on the day's tabloid news before another good night's sleep after an action-packed day. 

This might have been a good day to be in Windsor, since Harry and Meghan and Kate and Will were spotted there rehearsing. And news says Charles and Camilla hosted Meghan's mom for tea today at Clarence House; too bad we didn't go there but we did a lot and had a great day.