London, Tuesday, May 19

On this day, we joined a tour bus and traveled to Windsor Castle and Hampton Court.

Windsor Castle is the Queen's residence outside of London. It is only about 45 minutes - 1 hour away. The nearby town is Eton, where the prestigious boarding school is located. Both Prince William and Harry were educated there. It is a gorgeous castle. Here are some pictures.



Queen wasn't home when we visited. The castle was large enough that we could tour a good portion of it. We walked through several state rooms (or apartments) that housed hundreds of paintings, many I remember seeing in text books. There were exhibitions of armors, swords, shields, emblems, etc.











Within the walls of the castle was St. George's Chapel. It is really a fairly grand cathedral. King Henry VIII is buried in it; we actually walked over the spot that marked his grave.













Hampton Court originally belonged to Cardinal Wolsey, King Henry VIII's right hand man. The Cardinal fell out of the favor of the king when he returned from Rome failing to have secured permission from the pope for the king to divorce his first wife.


After the king had his Cardinal executed, he took over Hampton Court and made some improvements upon it. This year marks the 500th anniversary of King Henry's coronation. Several museums in and around London had on exhibition many of the king's personal effects.

Hampton Court is known for its beautiful gardens.


The River Thames runs along the grounds of Hampton Court. A good movie to watch is "A Man for All Seasons" about Thomas More and King Henry VIII. Parts of the movie were filmed at Hampton Court.

London Monday, May 18

It's going to take me several days to blog entries and document my trek through London and Paris. Here we go:

Our first stop was the Science Museum where there was a special exhibit of "Wallace and Gromit". If you have never seen "W&G", you have indeed missed much. Wallace is the man, and Gromit is his pet dog. They are the cheese-loving clay creations of British film-maker Nick Park. Most recently, they had their own full length feature film out back in 2005 entitled, "Wallace and Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit". Wallace is an inventor of sorts, and much of his adventures involve an invention or two of his.

The theme of the exhibit was inventions and patents.

Here are couple of inventions (not necessarily Wallace's) that didn't quite make the cut:

The Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum is across the street from the Science Museum. It 's housed in a very ornate building with these beautiful tall columns. It was on the list as one of my must-see museums in London. Queen Victoria reigned the United Kingdom (Great Britain = England + Wales + Scotland; UK = GB + Northern Ireland + all other territories around the globe) from 1837 - 1901. Her reign was during the height of Britain's power where the kingdom spanned all over the world. The collection in the Museum (and many others we visited in London) showcased this. There were specimens from every culture and nation. Prince Albert was, of course, Victoria's husband. When Albert died after only 20-some years of marriage, Victoria supposedly mourned for her husband for the rest of her life.


Bomb holes from the WWII German raids were kept on one of the walls along the V&A Museum.

London!

Yeah! Europe!

First day in London. Haven't seen much yet. We were in Piccadilly Circus (London version of NYC's Time Square). Having a marvelous time so far. Will write more later...