London Day 5

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Getting on the train to Wimbledon was easy.  What wasn't so easy was trying to figure out where to get off the train.  I had a book that said to get off at the Southfields Station, but there were a couple of stops after that:  Wimbledon Park and Wimbledon.  Luckily, there was a very sweet young lady on the train with us who was very helpful.  She advised that we get off at Southfields unless we wanted to do quite a bit of walking.  Here's what we saw when we came out of the station:

I was already excited, but this just bumped it up a notch!
We had about a 15 minute walk from the station to the gate.  CH didn't really care about going on the tour, so he left me at the gate while he strolled around the area.  This was the view walking to Wimbledon:

And then I saw it:

The tennis mecca.  I couldn't believe I was actually there.  I watched Wimbledon ever since I was little and dreamed of one day seeing it.  While I was waiting for the tour to begin, I met a really nice Australian family who were on the last leg of a European tour.  How much could that cost for Australians?  And how do they have the money to do that with 3 kids?
I just stood outside of the museum and took it all in.

I had some time before the tour was to begin.  When I signed up for the tour, they recommended getting there 30 minutes before the tour was to start. So, I spent a little bit of time in the museum. Here was my favorite picture from the museum:

When the tour started and the guide started talking, I have to admit:  I had a couple of tears in my eyes.  Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be walking on that hallowed ground.
First, we went to Court 1.

Notice the electric fence in the lower right corner picture.  They put the fence up in the off season to keep the foxes from doing their business on the court at night.
Then, we were on our way to Henman Hill.  If you know anything about Wimbledon, you know that this is where they have the huge screen so that the people who are able to get into the park, but can't get tickets (or can't afford them!) can watch what's going on.  This hill is packed with people watching the matches.  The guide said that one year she was on the hill, and there were some people who had tickets on Centre Court who preferred to be there instead.  The atmosphere is really something.
Before we actually got to go up the hill, we had time for a photo op:

 Then, we got to go up on Henman Hill.

The apartment building in the background is situated so that there's no "freebie views" onto the courts.  Amazing, but true!
Fortunately, it was a clear day, so we had some nice views:

 Henman Hill was the one place we were allowed to get on the grass:

Then we were on to the Press Centre:

We got to go by Court 18, where the longest match in Wimbledon History was played:

It only costs £100 a year to be a member, but you have to have the recommendation of 3 current members, and you have to be an excellent tennis player.  I'm not sure what constitutes an excellent player; I would assume that you have to have a certain rating.  The members' lounge:

We got to see the "Green Board" on the way to Centre Court.  The Green Board lists all of the champions:

Then, on to Centre Court.  (Cue the angels singing here)  The Royal Box with the door that the players come through:

The score board from this year's finals will stay up until next year's tournament.

 And, the ever popular retractable roof that suspends play for 45 minutes to an hour when they have to close the roof during a match:

After the tour, I walked back up to the train station, found CH, and we went to the Army Museum.  It wasn't very big, but it was interesting.  No pictures allowed in the museum, though.  It was a bit out of the way and not crowded at all.  I learned quite a bit about the British Army and the wars that they had participated in.
Then, we went to St. Paul's Cathedral.  Man, oh MAN, I wish I could've taken pictures in there!  Breathtaking.  We were there for part of Evensong.  One of the most beautiful experiences I've ever had.
We took a walk on the Wibbly Wobbly Bridge.  It was pretty wobbly that evening because of the wind.  The sights were gorgeous, though:

We took a walk along the bank of the Thames, also called the "Queen's Walk" (although our friend said that people don't really call it that!).  We saw the reconstructed Globe Theater, a really cool skateboard area (it was cool that the graffiti was confined only to that area), and some awesome sand sculptures.

 

We walked over the Hungerford Bridge and found an Italian Restaurant across the street from where we ended up.  Great Calzones, although the restaurant was pretty tight; they had a lot of tables in a small area.  Then, we walked (and walked, and walked) until we found Buckingham Palace.  I was surprised at how close you could get to it, and that the gates were opened.  (Obviously the Queen wasn't there...guess she forgot we were stopping by!)

We walked back through Trafalgar Square, and CH noticed that the door to St. Martin in the Fields was open.  There was a concert going on, but we were able to peek through the door.  Beautiful.  

So, we had another full day and saw some things that I didn't think I would EVER see.

London Day 4

Technically, we weren't in London for our 4th day.  We took the tube to Waterloo Station and then got on a rail to meet some friends in Surrey.  CH had met this couple during the summer of 2010 out in Colorado; they just got back home a few weeks ago from riding around the world on a motorcycle.
We didn't have any problem finding the right train and boarding...in fact, we made it just in time so that we didn't have to wait.

Approximately 30 minutes later, we were in Woking:

CH & I had a discussion about whether or not you could use the Oyster card on the rail.  I didn't think you could, CH thought you could.  Guess what?  You can't; not to Woking, anyway.  They allowed us to buy tickets-both ways- once we got there, which actually saved us a little bit of money since by the time we got there it wasn't rush hour.
Our first stop:  Shere, Surrey.  We walked down into the village; this was one of the first houses we saw:

Look just above CH's head, on the gutter pipe.  I thought this was really cool:

As we walked down the street a little ways, we came across this building:

The building used to be a firehouse; now it houses public bathrooms.
If you're a fan of the movie "The Holiday", you'll be familiar with Shere.  Parts of the movie were filmed there.  I went back and watched the movie again, and noticed more of the village than I originally thought were in there.  The most memorable site was the pub The White Horse:

The inside was charming.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the fireplace (which was beautiful, by the way) because there were people sitting in front of it.  Just think:  I touched the same door that Jude Law touched!  
We walked across the way to St. James' Church.  The church dates back to 1190.  Some of the tombstones were so worn that you couldn't read anything on them.  By the way...this church can also be seen in the movie (as well as Bridget Jones' Diary:  The Edge of Reason)!

The minister was there, so we had an opportunity to talk to him for a little bit, until a school group came in.  If you look closely, you can see where the rope for the bell has worn down the stone:

Another cool thing in the church:  This is a bronze Madonna and Child that was dug up by a dog in 1880.

Here are some pictures of the inside of the church:

Here are a few pictures of the village of Shere:

And some of the houses in the village (if you look closely in The Holiday, you'll see them in the background):

We did some driving around Surrey after that, and had lunch in a pub near our friends' house.  In the movie "The Holiday", there's a scene where Cameron Diaz is driving down a narrow road when she meets a car and a truck.  We lived that scene.  Seriously.  I looked at Jane and asked if John was going to be able to get through.  He did.  I don't know how, but he did.
As an added unexpected bonus, they took us by Waverly Abbey, near Farnham. This Abbey was the first Cistercian Abbey in England, and was founded in 1128.  King Henry VIII dissolved the Abbey in 1536.

The buildings that are still standing were amazing.

We even managed to use the timer on the camera and get a group picture:

I made the comment that Waverly Abbey was better than seeing Stonehenge, and our friend mentioned that it was a lot less crowded, too.  The Abbey is in the middle of a cow pasture, so we had to watch where we stepped.  It was a great find, and we really appreciated our friends taking us out there.
Before we left, CH called to me to walk back to the river (turns out it is the River Wey), and we saw some remnants from WWII:

According to Wikipedia, " It was said that the large open space, formed by the curve of the river on one side and the lake on the other, was intended to be a "tank killing ground" for any German army intending to outflank London's defences."   
At  the entrance of the Abbey, there are a couple of "pill boxes" (brick gun emplacements):

After driving around a bit more, we ended up at our friend's house.  It was a beautiful house that was built around 1825.  Her garden was gorgeous.  Unfortunately, I didn't even think about taking a picture of it before it got dark.  While we were at their house, we had our only good rain the whole time we were there.  By the time we left to go back to the train, the rain had stopped.
This was our "late night out".  We got back to our room around midnight.  On the way back to the hotel, we had our only incident when we thought someone might try to pickpocket us.  The road in front of our hotel wasn't very well lit, and there was a guy who was following me awfully close.  CH told me to hold up a minute in front of a department store, so I stopped and commented on the light in the store.  The guy went on ahead of us, but he looked back a few times.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures from our outing to Surrey.  It was unbelievably beautiful.  Just like the movies.

London Day 3

Tues. morning we took the hop on/hop off bus to the Tower of London.  On the way, we saw this really cool photo op:

We spent about 3 hours wandering around the grounds of the Tower.  Something I didn't know:  The Yeomen Warders (aka:  Beefeaters) actually live on the grounds.  No way could I do that, not with everything that happened within those walls. We even overheard a little girl (she was around 3 or 4, I would guess) say, "I don't like this place."  There was just something in the air there that something bad happened there.

It was pretty cool to see the actual spot where the beheadings took place:

When you hear about the history and watch movies or read books, you're led to believe that there were beheadings every day.  But, the reality is that there were only 7 beheadings in the Tower Green.

Even more cooler was seeing the etchings on the wall where the prisoners were held.  Amazing that they're still there, after all these years:

We saw the crown jewels, but, to be perfectly honest, they were just a bit disappointing.  When we were in Denmark, we were able to go into the vault to see the crown jewels as well as a lot of other "bling".  And, you could take pictures.  Here....no.  And, the only things that were in there were the crowns and some sceptors.  There wasn't that much, either.  Disappointing.
We learned that there always has to be 6 ravens in the Tower, or else the monarchy will fall.  So...there are actually 8 right now, and their wings are clipped.

 

Also on the grounds are the remains of a Roman wall.  When you're there, you tend to forget that the Romans once occupied part of what is now London.

And then there's Traitors Gate.  It was so eerie, imagining those people who came through that gate not knowing what their destiny was.

And, of course we took advantage of a great photo op:

We went by All Hallows By the Tower.  This was the church where Thomas More's body was taken after he was beheaded, where William Penn was baptised, and where John Quincy Adams was married.  It was bombed during WWII; only the tower and walls remained.  While walking into the crypt, part of the floor was a Roman street.  It was an amazing building:

After we left, we took the boat down the Thames to stroll by Parliament and Westminster Abbey.  We weren't able to go into the Abbey or to St. Margaret's, but just walking around the site was amazing.

From there we walked up to Trafalgar Square.  On the way, we ate at Lord Moon of the Mall.  This pub was recommended by a friend's husband, who is British.  It was the least inexpensive pub food we had while we were there, and it was the best.  Joyce told me to make sure to try the Sticky Toffee Pudding:  SPOT ON!  Oh my goodness was it good!  

I don't know why, but Trafalgar Square was one of my favorite places.  We didn't have time to go into the National Gallery, and I only got to peek into St. Martin in the Fields.  We did go down into the crypt of the church, which has been turned into a cafe.  I was a bit disappointed to learn that all of the bodies that were buried there are no longer there.  

We had a good time just sitting on the steps of the church and people watching. 
Some of the sights from Day 3: