London 1/2/19

We were in our rooms just waiting for the gang to all gather for today's adventure and suddenly the fire alarm went off.  We were all diverted to the stairways (the staff did an excellent job of posting people at critical junctures to get everyone out) and then led out of the building and into a side alley.  As we walked down the stairs, I could smell burnt toast so I assume it was a kitchen fire.  We stood outside for 15-20 minutes until the firemen came and proclaimed the building safe to enter.  I felt bad for people on the 12th floor (we are on the 3rd) and also for people who were in the spa or pool as they had to exit in either robes or towels and it was a bit on the chilly side this morning.

We finally were able to regroup and then rode the tube for one stop and bought tickets on the National Rail to go to Hampton Court.  This palace was built by Cardinal Woolsey for himself, but Henry VIII liked it so the cardinal wisely gave it to him (otherwise he might have lost his head).  The castle has been added to over the years and is quite massive.  It has 510,00 square feet and is on 60 acres - most of them gardens.  We visited Henry's rooms first.  There were tapestries from the 1500's on the walls.  The bed had many thin mattresses piled on it.

The fireplaces were huge!

We walked into the courtyard and there was an ornate fountain that flowed with wine.

We then toured his kitchens, which employed over 200 people.  As you can see the fireplaces were even more enormous in this area.  I like rule #2.

We also went into William III's rooms - more modern than Henry VIII's, but still not modern by any means.

The top pic is of a ceiling in the entryway and the second is exactly what you are imagining - but lined with velvet - fit for a king!

We took a quick tour through the gardens.

I imagine they are even more lovely in the Spring.  I thought the second picture was of bird's nests in the tree, but we were told that it is mistletoe.  Apparently it is like an air plant and just attaches itself to any available tree.  I like that windows were cut into to hedge so you can look at the orchard.  We also saw the oldest grape vine in the world.  It was planted in 1768 and still produces grapes.  It was massive and some of the tendrils were over 200 feet long.

We walked across the street to have a late lunch at The Muted Swan and then took the train back to London.  It is almost 6 PM and I think we will skip going out to dinner and just have a snack as I am still full from lunch.  We have packed our bags as we will leave the hotel early tomorrow morning and should arrive home in the afternoon.

It has been a wonderul trip and we are delighted that we could accompany the band here.

London 1/1/19

Today was parade day!  We took the tube to Piccadilly Circus and then walked down to the grandstands.  What an ingenious idea - the grandstands were truck trailers which opened up and were complete with fairly comfortable plastic seats with an awning!  We got to watch the parade in style!

Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the Fitch band as I was taking video of them and don't know how to upload a video onto the blog.  Dave took stills of the band on the cell phone, but again I don't know how to upload from the phone to the blog - something else to learn for next time.  The band, however did an awesome job - made us proud!

The parade was quite interesting.  There were floats for all of London's boroughs and John and Maura Casey who were sitting in front of us got to judge the floats.  The winner receives 10,000 pounds to give to their favorite charity.  The floats were quite interesting and sometimes elaborate.

But there were other oddities, such as the Donkey Breeders association and other groups that danced their way down the parade route.

There was even a group that walked the 2.2 mile route on stilts:

The members of the Fitch chorus and orchestra were in charge of holding the London phone box balloon:

We had a marvelous time.  We fought our way  through the crowdsto the nearest tube station and finally got back to the hotel close to 4PM.  We had a bite of "linner" (combination of lunch and dinner) and went back to our room to warm up.  My ears and fingers were quite chilled even though they were protected.  We were going to go out for a walk, but ended up staying in as it took quite a while to shake the chill.

Tomorrow we will go to Hampton Court with Amy's family.  The groups are going on the Harry Potter walk and the Rock and Roll walk.