I wasn't planning on going to London in 2024, but I got into the secondary lottery for the London Marathon. As soon as I found out, I knew I HAD to make it happen no matter what! It was a little difficult shuffling vacation days around, but I was able to make it happen!
I decided that in order to get the most out of the week we were in London, was to just have one home base the entire time and concentrate on doing everything around London and not try to travel to a bunch of other countries. We will have to do other countries next time!
We stayed in an apartment complex called Chelsea Cloisters. There was a small kitchenette and it worked great for the week.
April 18 - Marathon Expo at Excel London
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| This was the main station that we would go to from our apartment |
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| It's funny because it is very common to have a washer, but no dryer. They give you a clothes rack to dry your clothes. But, that's fine because we used the fan in the apartment to help keep the clothes soft. And we didn't have to pack as much when we find places that do laundry |
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| Finally, I'm in a country where there are many many other Dickinsons! |
April 19th - Cliffs of Dover and Canterbury Tour
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| I just found it interesting that this is pretty much how all of London looks |
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| Rowan was our tour guide. She was great! |
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| Leeds Castle |
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| I stood there for size comparison so you can understand how large the fireplace is. |
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| A courtyard at Leeds |
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| In England, a flashlight or headlamp is called a 'torch' |
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This is as close as we got to the Cliffs of Dover. They are white because of the chalk there. This area is also where the tunnel to France starts. It's about a 2hr drive in the tunnel. We also learned that in the cliffs, there are tunnels dug out to house the soldiers during WWI. Also, when people practice swimming the English Channel, they will start at this beach because it is the closest point to France.
We also realized that the weather really comes and goes fast in England. One moment it can be rainy and the next sunny. |
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| We stopped here in Canterbury for afternoon tea |
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| If you order 'creamed tea' it's not just tea....it's a whole meal. It took us some back and forth with the waitress to understand. She kept asking what kind of tea do we want with the creamed tea. We thought it was just creamed tea. Creamed Tea includes: 2 scones, jam, clotted cream and a hot tea of your choosing. And clotted cream is not gross. It literally tastes like unsalted butter. |
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| We learned that Henry the VIII had changed the Canterbury church from Catholic to Protestant. He did that so that he could get a divorce because apparently God wouldn't know if you got a divorce if you were another religion. haha |
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| We learned that the tiny attached shed, just over my right shoulder, was built because the person buried there on the inside was too tall...so they made space for his feet. haha |
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| At the end of our tour day, we walked past Little Ben |
April 20th - Walk around London
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| This was an old Michelin Tire building turned restaurant just down the road from where we stayed. The building was so cool. The restaurant was too bougie for me though. |
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| This building isn't really this thin, but at this angle it looks like it. |
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| So I had no idea a 'cornerstone' was an actual thing! This is a real cornerstone. They are all around London! |
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| To be honest, Princess Diana's memorial fountain isn't really much to look at. It's just an infinity stream that goes around in a circle |
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| Peaking through the fence at Buckingham palace and the guards. I tried to get tickets to tour the palace, but I just could not. We watched the changing of the guards. It's not as exciting as you would think it was. haha |
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| The fountain in front of Buckingham palace. The fences were all up because of the race |
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| There's the finish! The day before the marathon, they had a 'kid's run'. Kids off all ages could run the last mile of the marathon and cross the finish. I thought it was really awesome to watch. When we were standing there watching the kids and talking, we got to talking to a security guy. We told him we were from Michigan and the first thing he says is "How about those Lions!". How the heck he knew about the Lions, I'll never know because he most definitely was from England! |
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| Just a business and building founded in 1676. No big deal! |
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| These booths are not what they seem to be. There are no phones in them anymore. And they 100% smell like urine. I was told that drunk people pee in them and homeless people sleep in them. |
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| Bill's Traditional English Breakfast: The only thing unfamiliar was the blood sausage (that is the black looking patty on the plate). We tried it and honestly the best description is that it tastes like Christmas. It's super rich tasting and there is no way you would want to each more than 1 slice. The baked beans were funny to see at breakfast, but they tasted like baked beans. |
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| There are a lot of toilets in England like this. I'm guessing it's because this is an old set-up based on poor water pressure from long ago. |
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| Apparently, this store is a big deal. Fortum and Mason is like one of the oldest department store in England. Like the Macy's of London. It was absolutely packed inside. We wandered around....I bought some tea then I got the heck out of there. |
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| We learned that Big Ben has a crack in one of the bells so it's tone is off key when it bing bongs. We also learned that the government was going to knock the tower down, but the people revolted and paid to fix it themselves through donations or something. |
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| We did not do a ride on the London Eye. But we did learn that there are 32 pods. However, they are numbered 1-33 because they skip 13 |
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| Pain in the butt Marathoners! |
April 21st - Marathon!
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| Other runners walking to the metro to get to the start |
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| The start of the marathon is at Greenwich Park. The volume of people getting to the start was incredible. I'm actually glad that we stayed closer to the finish instead of the start. I told Gary to just stay back and I rode the metro by myself to the start. By the time we got within a few stops of the final stop, the train was so packed there was no more room for people to get on. |
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| The park where everyone waits for their start time is huge! There were several different 'gates' and several different start times at each gate. My start time was several hours after I got there and several hours after the elite runners. I was cold and I just wanted to get running. There was so much disorganization and people that it dawned me that I could probably 'sneak in' on another wave. So....I entered the proper gate, but I started about an hour earlier before my actual start time. |
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| Gary got a picture of me turning the final corner to the finish line. I don't know how he spotted me! |
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| You finish on the road right in front of Buckingham Palace! According to rumors, some of the Royal family were said to come out on the deck to observe the race. I never saw anyone and to be honest, you cannot get very close to the front of Buckingham Palace. The front 'yard' is huge and the fence that you can stand at is quite far from the building. |
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| Side note: a "Lorry" is basically a semi-truck. The 'Lorries' were numbered and if I had turned in a bag to have dry clothes at the end of the race, I would have picked it up at Lorry #30 |
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After the race, I got back to our apartment, showered and we went out for dinner at this place
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On Sunday's in England, we learned that there is this 'thing' called "Sunday Roast". Most restaurants have these meals to order...only on Sunday. Gary ordered one to try. This was the Wellington Roast. The meat is baked in this pie crust thing. It came with 'Yorkshire pudding'. The pudding is not a pudding like we think. It's like a bread roll...you can see it above. Also, I wanted a pop with dinner. I know that the word 'pop' is not common basically anywhere outside of the Midwest. So I asked the girl what kind of 'soda pops' they had. She looked at me like I was crazy. I finally just said "Like a Coke?". And she gave me a list of pops that they served. Come to find out, in England, they call Pop "Softs". As in Soft drink.
April 22nd - Stonehedge, Winsor Castle and Bath, London Tour
The next day, we did a bus tour from London. First stop, Winsor Castle. We got there right when it opened and there was already a huge line! The castle was very interesting, but we were not allowed to take any pictures inside of the castle or the church. This is the Winsor Family Castle. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip are buried here. They are 'in the floor' of the church. We were allowed to quickly walk past the grave, but we were not allowed to take pictures and there are security everywhere.
The amount of famous people buried here is incredible. Examples are King Henry the VIII and Willian the Conqueror. Maybe everyone else knew, but I did not know that originally Queen Elizabeth's dad was NOT in line for the crown. Her uncle was the actual successor, but he didn't want to do it anymore, so the Queen's father took the title and the lineage was shifted to her.
Luckily...there is a convenient book store at the castle where you can purchase books with tons of pictures of all the famous graves. I also bought a tea cup here :)
Next stop, Stonehege!
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| We learned that technically, this Union Jack flag should only be flown over water. It's the flag of the UK, not England. |
I'll be honest about Stonehenge. It's a circle of large stones in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere. I did learn that there are more than just one 'stonehenge' in England. But this is the most famous one. The bus parks at this building that they built so tourists have a little port in the storm. There are bathrooms, a cafe and a bookstore. Then, you can wait for a little bus to take to you Stonehenge or you can walk the 1 mile there. There are so many people, we just walked.
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| Here's the stones in the middle of nowhere! |
This is about as close as you can get to the stones. The people at the right look like they are closer, but they really are not. There is a ton of security there so you can't go off the path. Apparently, we learned that not so long ago, you could walk right up to the stones and touch them. In fact, there would be vendors selling little hammers that you could buy to break off a piece of a stone to take as a souvenir. If there is one life lesson that I have learned, it is that you don't mess with things like this. The Brady Bunch episode where they went to Hawaii and Greg took that medallion he wasn't supposed to has scarred me for life.
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The summer and winter solstice sun line up with these arrows.
After Stonehenge, we headed to Bath. This was by far the most interesting place for me. |
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Apparently, This building is featured prominently in the TV show Bridgerton. I know the show, but have not watched it. Many ladies on our bus squealed with delight when we passed by.
Once we arrived in Bath, we had a couple of hours to do whatever we wanted to do. We did the Roman bath house tour. I could have spent hours in here. It was so interesting! |
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| The Romans basically built a 'spa town' around these hot springs. You get to walk and touch centuries old architecture! |
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| Just like we do now, the Romans would toss coins into the pools for good luck. At some point they drained the pools to look for artifacts and found thousands of Roman coins. Some were loose coins but some were 'hidden' in bags |
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| Roman coins! Can you believe it!! This is amazing! (I think I said that phrase about 1000 times here) |
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| Look at this tile! Are you kidding me??? This is amazing. |
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Also, people lost jewelry in the pools. The sign says they 'threw' them in the pool, but I don't believe that. I think they just came off and got lost. There were stones from rings that they found as well. They said that they thought the stones came out of the jewelry when people were in the pools
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The Romans created these 'hollow floors' so that they could be heated. The video in the upper left shows how the room would have looked with the floor on it. We are standing at the lower level because the original floor is no longer there. Just the support columns of tiles that would have created the gap for heat transfer
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| I just was amazed by the fact that we could walk and touch everything. We were walking on the exact same stones that the Romans did!!! |
At the end of the tour, you could drink the actual spring water. It's hot and has a 'minerally' taste. Smelled kind of sulfury too.
Because I just could not leave the Roman Bath museum in a timely manner, this is the only place that we had time to see in Bath, England. I thought it was amazing....however, when we got back on the bus this group of ladies gushed about how happy they were that they went shopping because the Roman Baths look 'really boring'. To each their own I guess! haha. I can shop on the internet for clothes anywhere...but what I can't do is see a Roman Bath anywhere!
Go to part 2 for the rest of the story!
