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We had a wonderful time in London, after we got off the cruise ship. Vickie needed some "down time". Cathy, Craig and I were adventurous and decided to try out the Underground. The station was right by our hotel and an all-day pass cost 7 pounds 50 pence. We could also ride on the city buses with this pass, so considered it quite a bargain. It was misting some, but not bad at all. Considering the sunny weather we had for the rest of our vacation, we decided that we couldn't complain. We went to find Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and St. Paul's Cathedral. We got to St. Paul's just in time for Evensong ! What a beautiful service. The voices of the choir were phenomenal ... you had to pay to tour the Cathedral, but Evensong was free.

The next day, July 8, all 4 of us took the Underground into London ... our hotel was at Heathrow Airport. We toured the Tower of London for most of the morning. It is a lot bigger than we thought it was. We saw the Crown Jewels and Craig could not believe that they did not appear to have armed guards ! He was positive that the jewels were paste.
After lunch, we then took the Underground and the National Railroad to Hampton Court Palace in Surrey. Regrettably, we arrived just an hour and a half before it was due to close, so they recommended that we not pay for the tour as we wouldn't have time to view the 70 rooms with their furnishings. I wish we had gone there first, instead of the Tower of London. They also had a flower show on the grounds and we saw hoardes of people taking the Train with their purchases. Vickie and I were drooling over the beautiful flowers and plants.
We then took the train and the Underground to Piccadilly Circus, which reminded us of Times Square. Finally, took the Underground back to our hotel to pack for our trip home ... sadly.


We arrived at LAX around 10:30 PM on Thursday, July 9, after traveling for toooooo many hours! The flight from London to Washington DC took about 7 hours. Then we had to retrieve our luggage from Virgin Atlantic, go to the Southwest Airlines desk to get our tickets and check our luggage in again. The lines at Security were at least an hour long. We flew from Washington DC to Chicago in a little over 2 hours, changed planes, flew to LAX in about 4 hours. What a trip !
Vickie's daughter, Leah, picked us up at LAX .... she gets the "Daughter of the Year" award for 2009! She dropped Vickie off at her house in Whittier, then took us to our vehicle in Ontario. We got to our house around 1 AM, and Darryl picked Cathy up ... we then went to bed.

Of course we have Jet Lag afterwards .... in my case, I think a big part of it was lack of sleep. But we are recovering and have a lot of wonderful, wonderful memories !!