I can’t remember whether it was Wed or Thurs but I do know today was the 28th April.......

I so loved Buckingham Palace until the 100’s & 100’s of tourists landed there..........so I didn’t wait for the actual Change of The Guards formality and decided to make my way on foot to Trafalgar Square via The Mall, passed St James’s Palace and very important guards strutting their stuff...

A really good look at the National Gallery and the amazing fountains cascading in the Square...onwards by foot....not really sure of the roads I was on...but coming across places we had walked passed last night on our Ghost tour....they didn’t look so imposing in daylight!!....and onwards to the London Eye via the footbridge and past a gorgeous Carousel at Jubilee Gardens...The crowds were loving the sunshine and the people statues painted in silver and gold, standing rigidly still...(.I don’t know how they can stay still for so long.........not something I do well...not something I do at all actually!!!)......I really wanted to get to the Tower of London as it was one of the touristy things I had earmarked to do.. I caught a BRTB which took me along the same path I had gone yesterday, but today, the places & info remained in my mind and their place in London’s history made an impression on me!
The Tower Of London...........it’s importance....it’s history........it’s position........and it’s beauty.......captured me from the very start! I worked my way through each of the amazing audio Tours which covered:
 The Normans and before
 The Medieval Palace
 Imprisonment and Execution
 Life at the Tower

........but the tour that won me...and the one I couldn’t drag myself away from was the
 Tour of The Crown Jewels Tower.....

Oh My, Oh My.....I kept getting back on the start of the travelator which moved slowly passed each of the pieces used during a Coronation but housed safely in a glass display cabinet....just to marvel at their beauty and become totally besotted by their splendour and representation of Royalty and opulence.......

At the conclusion of my tour I decided to buy myself a replica of the second largest Diamond in the collection..... Named: The Second Jewel of Africa .....I appropriately fell in love with her....even though I know she isn’t real! She isa multi-faceted, typically cut diamond so that when you look through her, she shares whatever she is focused on split
into so many different, beautiful and diverse ways....! I know she represents the way I look at life....there is always more than one way of looking at anything you experience....which is why I try to find the positive, productive solution or pathway to solving or achieving anything!!!
Right.....enough philosophising.....
Back to the fun stuff.....Gemma is nearly in London....and we needed to work out arrangements....so before I did the Tower tours it was great to catch up with her briefly on the phone but it’s going to be so much better sharing London and Bath ......and Harrods.....with her....!!!

The other girls need to sort out living accommodation for when they return from LA and, as they have already been to Bath, they will remain in London whilst Gem and I spend a day exploring the country then a day back in London...allowing the washing machine to churn so Gem can have clean gear for the next adventure to the Big Smoke and ‘Sex In The City’ tours etc.....whilst we let loose on the place I have been wanting to go to for years......

Returning to Westminster Pier via The Thames, I hurried to Westminster Abbey. I had been told the tours close at 3pm and it was nearly on me. I marvelled at the imposing intricately carved designs and asked one of the guards where the entrance was...I realised then that I was trying to get into The Houses of Parliament.....such a novice tourist.....so quickly mad my way to the Abbey. Closing time was 6pm so I immersed myself in a truly wonderful, moving discovery of the history and splendour of this icon which is steeped in history as far back as the 10th Century, and is the resting place and a memorial, not only for Royalty but for many famous historical figures. Westminster Abbey is a working church with a daily cycle of prayer and worship....I walked away truly blessed that I had had the privilege of this very moving, awesome experience.

Home, via the Big Blue Bus through an area I hadn’t yet explored....passing Harrods, The Science and Natural History Museums, Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Palace, Notting Hill Gate behind which is the famous Portobello Road whose Market I plan on visiting this Saturday....finally arriving at Lancaster Gate. I wandered my suburb to get a better feel for it’s little pockets of shops, restaurants and typical, tree lined London styled buildings and splendour.