Sept 1 & 2, Richmond & London

Flying out of DC at 6:30 p.m. left us able to spend the morning in Richmond ....which you think would be a good thing.....but I discovered it gave me an excuse to dawdle with some travel tasks....and resulted in a hectic last morning at home! But all worked out well, and minimal I-95 traffic delays meant we arrived at Dulles exactly when planned. Our flight departed Dulles and arrived Heathrow right on time too! A good beginning.








After only a little sleep on the plane, we caught the train into town from the airport which was effortless....except we were caught right at morning commute time and the train was packed! We felt like locals. A quick stop at our hotel to drop bags and we headed out again.

We purchased a single day travel card at the airport (needed the National Rail logo on the card to use for 2 for 1 sightseeing deals) and boy did we use the heck out of it on the Tube today! We rushed off to Covent Garden to participate in a free 2.5 hour walking tour at 10 a.m. You could not have asked for more beautiful weather -- at the beginning of our walk there was not a cloud in the sky. It felt like a beautiful Spring morning in Richmond.







We covered quite a bit of ground in those 2+ hours and gosh did it feel nice to stretch our legs after the overnight flight. We saw lots of sights, including a Harry Potter alley, Trafalgar Square (there's a blue rooster on display for







another 6 months!), Elizabeth Tower (home to Big Ben), Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament.






We caught the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, also, and marveled at how much the Queen's Guard's helmets looked like they were made of Guinness fur!





A quick bite to eat for lunch at a lovely pub and off we went for a tour of Kensington Palace. I toured it in 2007 when I was last here, but it was quite a bit different -- now that Will & Kate live there, a lot of the areas I had seen before are off limits. A break at The Orangery for tea and scones (with yummy strawberry jam) revived us enough to make the walk back to our hotel. We were starting to feel the time change and lack of sleep.

Back at the hotel, we had been assigned our room and we made a quick stop to freshen up. Though a nap was starting to sound really enticing, we knew from previous trips that you must push on the first day and try to get your body on the right local timing.

We took a stroll down embassy row as we headed to the Kensington Rooftop Garden. I had heard it was hard to get into (due to frequent private parties and also because it is very popular with the locals) but we decided to take a chance. Sadly, they were full to capacity.







We continued on to the Churchill Arms pub (thanks for the tip Lori Page Clay), an establishment with a stunning facade. We ordered a couple drinks and had intended to eat dinner there, but surprisingly, the dinner menu was Vietnamese! Who would think a pub would have Vietnamese food????

After our drink, we continued on to a real English pub (ok, we sorta think it's a chain made to look old because it has the exact same menu as our lunch venue) where we enjoyed Fish & Chips and Steak & Ale pie. We just needed some carbs and substantial English food.

We are now running on empty and oh, so ready to fall in our bed. More tomorrow from this wonderful city!


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Location:Bayswater Road,London,United Kingdom