Crowds!

 Covent Garden, London

Seriously, look at all these people!

Sue making her way through the crowds

Crazy street entertainer

We were tired, but we still craved adventure. I had heard about going to Covent Garden in London and it did not let us down. Despite the enormous crowds, we were entertained by a street vendor, some amazing specialty shops and an outdoor art fair. Sue looked as though the crowds were giving squeezing the life out of her. It surprised me because she NEVER complained. After we had watched this crazy guy entertain us for awhile, I asked her how she was doing. She exclaimed, "These crowds are killing me."

There were some upsides to this place. The people were kind despite there being a TON of them. And, we got to see an outdoor bachelorette party and some singing waitresses, and of course, the basic street vendors hawking their wares. It reminded me of the a baseball game with people shouting at you and trying to lure you into spending money. Too bad these people didn't know we were Battys and very picky about who we opened up our billfolds for!

Sampling teas

This was serious, so we made our way out of the people and found, you guessed it...another pub to catch our breath. Serious situations called for serious measures! Fortunately, our little rest stop helped us relax and plan our next step. What it called for eventually was a taxi back home and an early night to bed.

Buckingham Palace

Waiting for the Queen

Since Deb was insistent that we find Prince Harry for Katie, we took the Big Bus over to Buckingham Palace. Not exactly the royal coach and buggy we were hoping for, but in a pinch we had to make do. And we are particularly good at that. Try as we may, no royalty came to our beck and call despite us waiting patiently at the gate! As it turned out there were a lot of other people there asking for Prince Harry's attention as well. So, after a few strolls among the thousands of other commoners, we went to the royal gift shop in search of a sale. If the royals weren't going to have us, we decided we needed to make a donation to their souvenirs. Perhaps a little dough would soften up Harry...

Harrods vs Battys

Harrods Department Store from the Big Bus Tour

Harrods department store in London is the largest, most expensive department store in the world or at least that's what we were told. It has seven floors and apparently four acres of retail space. When we four Batty's entered, we all clutched our purses tightly in case somebody might pick our pockets. With a store that big, we figured there were bound to be pick pockets. And God knows we had loads of treasures! The place was bustling with foreigners, but the we didn't  believe we were foreign because we had returned to our homeland and figured we qualified as natives.

Because of this, we realized there was no reason to actually see anything in Harrods other than the food. Like good little farmers we found our destination solely on our keen sense of smell. Through expensive perfumes and million dollar handbags our noses didn't let us down and within moments we were in the chocolates, teas, and biscuits (cookies) section. Well, clearly there was no reason to go to any other floor because we got to pick up and handle all the fancy packages of sweets. Being good Battys, we turned over the beautiful packages to check the prices, gave a humph and strolled away in search of a deal. Clearly, the prices were meant for the foreigners, not the natives...but after at least an hour of circling the fancy displays, we had to acquiesce. Each of us purchased at least one chocolate bar, tea, and I splurged and actually had the confectioner select six chocolate truffles to share. I wanted to eat them right away and offered one to Queen Sue, but she said "No, I want to savor them later." Who knew what that meant. Good thing Deb and I are only commoners. We rolled our eyes, shrugged their shoulders, and quickly shoved the chocolates in their mouths away from the queen's view. Every taste bud came alive in sinful heaven, and we suddenly wished we'd bought more.

Following the queen, we headed toward the butcher, fish monger, cheeseheads, and gardener.  All this food overwhelmed us by now, so off we went in search of a proper meal at reasonable prices. Btw, the queen and her trusted lady in waiting, Edith, decided that the cab ride home was the proper time to eat chocolates.

Good luck Harrods. You cannot break our Batty bank even though you tried!

Tower of London and Poncho wars

Another adventure started out today with our start at the Tower of London. Fortunately, our day began with a 77 year old cab driver who took a liking to us beautiful gals. He kept us engaged with hilarious stories of London and didn't even start the meter until we got close to the right district. When we were right outside the Tower of London, right away he pointed out where of where the toilets were! And, he said we were only there to see the jewelry...which was right. He added as we stepped out, "Please don't steal any."

Tower of London was awesome. So much history and so many creepy stories. Towers included the "Bloody Tower,"and "Torture Tower," and the square where people were beheaded. Also, all the knights' swords, armor, guns, and chain mail for fighting and defending the royalty were on display. But, The Crown Jewels really were the highlight. Absolutely the most beautiful diamonds, rubies, and sapphires adorned on spectacular crowns were on display. Edie even sweet-talked her way into having a picture taken with one of the royal guards!

Unfortunately, we looked and looked for Sue's crown, but it turned out it was under repair! She was probably out on the Big Bus Tour when they were looking for her! Luckily, we hooked up with her on the bus where it appeared she was having a war with her rain poncho during a little rain shower. Probably unfitting for a queen, but will let the public decide.

Later we found a McDonald's for the "toilet" as they call it here, and our very own queen had to take off her rain poncho because she was attracting too much attention from the commoners. We had to direct them to Harrods to find queenly ponchos. Perhaps they've become a hit over in the states already!

Battys Invade The Abbey

After indulging in chocolate and a sudden preoccupation of British pubs, we Battys have decided to must confess our sins. What better place to do this, but at Westminster Abbey. Since it was good enough for royal marriages, funerals, christenings and coronations, we decided we might as well go where they belonged and look for a place to light a candle and pray.

Kim knew she'd be praying for all her lost items to show up in heaven with her; Sue prayed to not make a royal ass of herself, so she wasn't the subject of every blog; Deb prayed for Prince Harry to take Katie's hand in marriage; and Dame Edith prayed for the King's hand.

After queuing up for nearly 20 minutes in the wrong line(of course), we rearranged ourselves, and in no time (30 min) we were in the Abbey listening to headphones about all the deceased royal subjects who had tombs erected for them. Each turn became more depressing as yet another former somebody or other was laying beneath an ancient bronze/marble/granite/gold replica of their former living self. Needless to say, we had more fun as we walked down the same aisle as Kate Middleton did when she married the future king of England.

After Edie touched every wall, sculpture, and door in the place, it was time to be done and go into another place of worship...the gift shop! However, Edie insisted on visiting St. Margaret's Church, the official church of the House of Parliament right next door. Apparently we had sinned some more and needed to be in ANOTHER church. It was like some of us couldn't get enough of them! But since we apparently can rack up sins in no time, it was becoming strikingly apparent why our ancestors emigrated from here.

We've arrived!

Bleary eyed and exhausted, we met up with each other at Terminal 5 @ Heathrow airport. It turns out Kim and Edie's connecting flight was cancelled so that put a wrinkle in the plans, but Air France came through and got us on standby for our original flight! Fortunately, Sue and Deb waited for us at Heathrow (2 hours!) long enough for us to meet them. Reunited, we were off to explore our heritage!

The immediate challenge was figuring out the subway system with all our luggage. Nobody ever mentions these little details to you when you travel. Although we kept out luggage to two pieces each, the aisles are narrow, the suitcases are big, and the people who board give you looks of disgust because you are taking up more than one seat. SORRY...we can't help it. With a little jet lag angst, I was ready to pop off at anyone that said something, but fortunately the other riders saw we traveled in a regular little pack and didn't want to mess with us!

Besides, it look a little longer to find the right subway because everyone we stopped said, "It's really easy..." Perhaps it's easy if you have done it before, but since we had never ridden the London tubes it took us a little longer. Plus, none of us wanted to use the handy dandy kiosks they had in the airport that would spit out our tickets. Then there was our lengthy discussion about whether or not we wanted an Oyster card or not, whatever that was!

Fortunately, we managed, as we always do. After riding the subway and getting a taxi, we made it to the Luna Simone hotel. We couldn't wait to take a nap! But first we had to climb four flights of stairs to the top level because there was no elevator! That was after climbing up and down stairs with all of our luggage in and out of the subways. It was like we had signed up for some cruel workout vacation. When we checked in, the hotel manager asked us if we needed help bringing the luggage upstairs??? Sue gave him a look that said it all! Needless to say, the very nice man and his son brought up the luggage a few minutes after we had collapsed onto the teeny, tiny beds. After napping we walked about three miles, but it felt like a lot more and had our first fish and chips with a pint of lager! Delicious haddock, crispy fresh fries, and a hefty local brew.



Still practicing looking the other way for traffic, hailing cabs and reading bus station schedules, we managed not to get killed and carried on despite Kim losing her only jacket at the Paris airport and a walking map that we desperately needed. Sue decided she was not in charge of anything valuable from here on out! It also turns out that Sue is the cab hailing champ. She'd simply step off the curb wave her hand and the next thing we knew, a cute little black cab jetted over to us like he'd just missed an important appointment. From here on out, Sue was in charge of hailing all cabs.That night we saw Big Ben at sunset (9pm), House of Parliament and other cool sites. Topped off by a spectacular sunset, we couldn't have asked for more.

So far friendly people with a genuine interest in helping us along the way:).