09.09.2011 – 09.09.2011  23 °C

Last day in London today and I decided to spend my last day actually seeing some of the sites I had neglected to see so far, ala Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey. To achieve this, I caught the tube to Green Park and walked down the park to the Palace. No changing of the guard today (damn) so I just got to have a bit of a look-see at the outside before I continued my wander down through St James’ park towards Whitehall.

Conductor has been telling me all along to stay somewhere around Bayswater so that ‘every day you can walk down through Hyde Park and St James’ to the city… far nicer than catching the tube’. Of course, I did the opposite and am staying at the other end of the town so I hadn’t had the chance to delight myself in these gardens… As per usual, I should have taken his advice and just stayed near the palace area because he is right—the gardens are spectacular! I took so many bird and squirrel photos in St James’ it isn’t funny!!! I think it is so great that there is so much wildlife just living in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world! It seemed like every square meter of water front land was occupied by some sort of water fowl, most of which I’m sure I’ve never seen before!

After spending an awful amount of time in St James’ my sojourn amongst the animals came to an end when I discovered Churchill’s bunker. Similar to other WWII bunkers (the one in Singapore comes to mind) they have turned the area where Churchill directed the war from into a museum. I love wandering through these types of museums and being able to get a little taste of what it must have been like for those working during the war. You can see Churchill’s office and bedroom along with the cabinet and map rooms and of course the first ever ‘hotline’ room. During the war, the American’s installed the first ever hotline between the President of the US and the PM of UK.. The telephone machiney thing took up a whole room! During the war the room was always locked, so no-one really knew what the room was for… most thought it was Churchill’s private toilet!!! There is also a large display about the life of Churchill. I didn’t realise that he was ousted from office before the war ended and that he then came back into politics to lead the country during the cold war! He was clearly a pretty amazing character… Other interesting anecdotes about Churchill- he loved to paint, he wrote hundreds of books—his best seller being his account of WWII which netted him millions of dollars (and was completed during the time that he was not in politics) and he loved to dress in a one piece jump suit style of pyjama thingy’s….

I rounded out my site seeing day by going to have a look-see at Westminster Abbey. I took the audio guide around the church and in hindsight really wished I had organised my time better so that I could have been at the abbey in time for one of the guided tours by the staff of the Abbey. The church is huge and has over 3500 people buried in its interior! 3500 people buried means lots and lots of mausoleum style monuments placed in every square inch of wall and floor space! I couldn’t get over how many statues and plaques are in the Abbey. The vast majority are people I’ve never heard of but were obviously important during their lifetimes. However the Abbey does contain the remains of the Who’s Who of England’s history (or have commemorating plaques/ monuments dedicated to them). I’m not even going to try to list out the people laid to rest in the Abbey, but some surprising ones that caught my eye (not necessarily the most momentous) Dylan Thomas, Cecil Rhodes, Dr Livingstone, Mary Queen of Scots (I love the fact you can be a traitor one day and a martyr the next!!) just to name a few… Of course there are heaps of the Kings and Queens of England buried here as well as many bishops etc. and poets corner contains the remains of some famous story writers eg Chaucer. I felt quite overwhelmed with my visit to the Abbey and have vowed to return before I leave the UK and do a proper tour with someone who works here so that I can get a better understanding of the people who are buried within its walls.

I finished up my last day in London back at my travel agent still trying to sort out my Middle East trip and my flights. A couple of hours later I left feeling quite satisfied and finally having some thoughts around my itinerary. Pick up my car tomorrow and start my ramble around England’s country side.. First stop Canterbury!