A warm welcome from the Queen: Two Aussies arrive in London
It was like a sort of homecoming today when our plane touched down at London, Heathrow airport this morning. Neither of us have been here previously however we both have ancestry here so feel some sort of kinship with the UK. Londinium was a small settlement built around 43 AD on the current site where modern-day London sits and it encompassed about 1.4 square kilometres, about the size of Hyde Park...London is nothing like that anymore. It's huge, vibrant and literally full of tourists! The city turned on the weather for us too; Welcome to London Aussie folks!
The plane trip from Australia is long comprising about 7 hours Adelaide to Singapore, an 8 hour layover and then 13 to London. We landed at just before 6am and headed straight for the Heathrow-Paddington express after collecting our luggage (that fortunately didn't go missing) and by 7:15am were depositing our luggage for storage at our hotel. Check-in was not possible so early of course so we dropped the bags and made a bee-line right to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens on foot, only a minute or two from out hotel.
Strolling around the gardens reminded me a lot of the botanical gardens at home however I was surprised to see the gardens were quite informal; We had expected to see manicured gardens everywhere but it was quite natural in many places. Of course there are plenty of formal gardens to be found too. We were struck by how peaceful it seemed despite being in a major city and we can see why the park areas are so popular with locals and tourists alike. It seemed everyone was out to make the most of the great weather.
We made our way to Buckingham Palace for a quick look and were surprised to see the Queen had sent out a welcome party for us in the form of the fine lads you see in this picture. Nothing but the warmest of welcomes for Aussie's over here, that's for sure. There were some marching soldiers and marching bands also and Faith and I were both very humbled they'd go to all of that trouble just to welcome us to London. So nice, the British I mean. So hospitable. The images you can see were taken today with the first being the large gates to Buckingham Palace, the second of me with some guy in the background who happened to wear the same shirt as me; He had a gun so I didn't bring it up with him, the second last is a picture I took of the welcome party the Queen sent out for us. A fine looking bunch of lads they were. The last image below is Faith posing in the Kensington Gardens rose garden. By this time we were both getting tired as we've had very little sleep! We ended up having a lovely baguette of mozzarella, basil and tomato for lunch by one of the lakes and I even got to pat a cheeky little squirrel who came down to share lunch.
Around 1pm we headed back to our hotel after an exciting arrival-day in London and as I write this Faith is zonked out on the bed sleeping. I'm planning on staying up until around 8pm to get the body clock working right but I'm struggling. Later this afternoon we're going to take a walk to Little Venice about 10 minutes walk from our hotel and we'll find a nice little spot for our first dinner in London. We've had a nice introduction to London and the UK and look forward to exploring London a little more over the next few days before heading to Cornwall for some more adventures. If you're following along I hope to bring you something interesting to read and failing that hopefully a decent picture or two.
Faith & Galen x
hahaa if only you had your gun too. What an eventful arrival, really nice photography too. It looks so pristine there :D
It was a great day weather-wise and felt so good to be in vacay after being in planning for 7 months! Yay for us! I got some good pictures too, about 120 so far.
Yesssss can’t wait to see more. 7 months of planning must feel good to finally get there :D
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Wow great start to the holiday :)
It’s all vacay vibes from here on out man! :)
Damn redcoats. Glad to see you guys happy and safe.
Have an incredible trip.
Haha, thanks mate. The last time a relative of mine went to Australia he (and she) was in chains about 200 years ago. Now I’m back! But if they send me back in chains it could make a good Steemit post.
So happy to hear you made it safe! The way the Queen went out of her way is stunning and bodes well for the rest of your trip. I can't wait to see how Finland tops England's festivities and hospitality.
That baguette sounds absolutely tasty! Food is one of my most cherished part of travel. Big boys love their food! Lol. Happy trails.
A man’s gotta eat :)
Of course the Queen pulled out all the stops for you guys! I didn't want to spoil the surprise, but I made a quick phone call to her when I found out you and Faith were going to be there; she and I go waayyyy back ! :)
Oh yeah, I’m not surprised. I heard she’s a great friend to have!
haha you have no idea!
Brilliant. Nice little sightseeing bit for me too, thanks mate. Hope you guys have lots of fun and take lots of photos. What happened with your second check at the airport?
Alas my bomb-check string is over. I made it right through! I can't say I'm disappointed.
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Sounds like your hotel is in a good location if you're able to get to the parks and the palace in such a quick fashion. I don't know if I would have been so keen to be wandering around without much sleep, though. Let alone taking pictures and posting about the trip so far. Good on ya for doing that.
I'm glad you were greeted in such a welcoming fashion 🙂 and that the weather held for you. We had three days straight of rain after several more days of sunny weather. Now we're back to the sunny weather for a while.
I hope you got some rest, though, so you can keep going and enjoy your trip rather than walking around zombie like for the next few days. :)
No zombies here...The idea of staying awake is that you break the sleep cycle established back home. We ended sleeping around 7pm the first night after a tiring day and were up at 4am the following morning. It’s a bit strange but pushing through the sleep changes is the way to go. When we left Australia the sun was setting at 5:30pm and here it’s 9:30pm which makes it more difficult to deal with.
Anyway, we’re having a cracking time. London is pretty cool, at least it is for us I guess because we are on vacation.
I've never crossed the Atlantic before, and up until my younger son's wedding in Washington DC, the farthest east I'd traveled was Houston, TX. So, I've never been to Europe and have no idea what London is like for tourists or natives. If it's like anywhere else I've been, there's plenty of places I'd like to visit, but never live there. Big cities and I don't do very well, but you generally visit them in sections and potentially over time, so it's not like you're trying to take it all in all at once.
Well, I'm glad to hear that breaking the sleep cycle is working. Since I'm in the northern hemisphere, the sun setting at 9:30 pm is pretty close to what's happening to us in Oregon. It would just be the eight hour time difference, the jet lag, not knowing the place, probably relying on public transportation to get around, and trying to blend in until I opened my mouth. :)