Day 27: London Day 3

Day three of London was probably my worst failure of the trip.  A series of miscues, miscalculations, and bad decisions made this a frustrating day for me. The plan was to see two important things—St Paul’s Cathedral and Churchill’s War Rooms--and then squeeze in whatever else we had time for.    This was supposed to be the day that we went to Wimbledon but we scrapped it because the forecast called for a heavy dose of rain.

My first mistake was to suddenly decide over breakfast at McDonalds that we should go and see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.  Perhaps it was the Egg Mcmuffin buzz that clouded my judgment; otherwise, I’m not sure why I decided to throw this event in at the last moment.  This little bit of spontaneity started our day off on the wrong foot, cost us two hours we didn’t have, and unfortunately switched the order of sites we were going to see.

Outside Buckingham Palace in the rain.

 At about 10:20, we left McDonald’s at Victoria Station and walked 10 minutes to Buckingham palace, where we arrived about 30 minutes before the official start of the ceremony but about one hour before the procession actually reaches Buckingham Palace.  The first phase of the change takes place at St. James park in a location about 800 meters from the palace, and then it makes it way to the Buckingham where just about very tourist in London congregates to watch the daily spectacle.   We quickly found a spot one row away from the palace fence, and waited, and waited, and waited in the cold and blustery rain.  By 11:35, we were still waiting, and not seeing much except for the other 5 million tourists next to us.  I had read earlier in my Rick Steves’ book that in heavy rain they suspend a good portion of the ceremony, and that very rumor started spreading through the crowd.  We kept thinking, however, that certainly if that were the case that various palace officials hanging out in front of the palace would begin to tell the throngs of tourists that that was the case.  However, that never happened. But by 11:35, I was regretting the hour we had devoted to this exercise, and much of the group felt the same way, so we ditched it.

I have no idea if the spectacle actually happened, but I don’t regret leaving. I just regret going in the first place.  Our plan was to hit St. Paul’s cathedral—the grandest in London—first for two reasons: 

(1) As a self-guided, it is wise to always put your first priority first thing in the morning because you never seem to fully accomplish what you set out to do in the timeframe you plan—particularly with this size of group.  So, do the big stuff first, and then fit it what else you can.

(2) St. Paul’s closes at 4:30 for visitors and the Churchill War Rooms closes at 6:00, so it made sense to put the site that closes later as the #2 place to see.

However, as we stood there at Buckingham palace seeing nothing but the umbrellas of thousands of tourists, I changed my plan again. We were only a 10 minute walk from the palace to Churchill’s War Rooms, and so, at the time, it made sense to go there first, rather than walk right past it, and the backtack to it after St. Paul’s, which was a ways away.  While that made some sense, it also violated the two previously stated reasons for putting St. Paul’s first.    This was bad decision number two.

Churchill’s War Rooms, also called the “Cabinet War Rooms,” was one of things I was most looking forward to on this trip. Steves highly recommends it, as did a friend of mine who was here in the spring.  On the opposite end of St. James Park as Buckingham Palace, this underground structure was the headquarters of the British war team during World War II.  At the time its location was a secret, but this is where the war’s strategy was formulated, debated, and executed.   After the war, they simply locked the doors, turned out the lights and the place remained empty for what I believe was at least a decade (someone correct me if I’m wrong).  Its furniture, maps on the walls with pins and strings marking the location of allied and axis troops, the secure telephone Churchill used to call FDR, Churchill’s bed (should he decide to sleep at the office), conference rooms, and a whole host of other items remain to this date in the same place and the same state they were in when the war ended.  The battle of Britain was won here, D-Day was certainly strategized here, and essentially every battle for which Britain played a part was discussed and debated here first.  The quick witted and strong willed Churchill is an iconic and (as most great leaders) a controversial figure beloved by Brits and Americans and scores of others, and I was very much looking forward to visiting this site.

The tour of the war room, which, like St. Paul’s and Westminster, comes with a complementary audio guide, which leads you through the rooms.  Halfway through the tour you are taken into the Churchill Museum before you finish the second half of the tour.  The museum chronicles Churchill’s life with photos, letters, famous quotes, videos, and all kinds of multi-media displays. It’s great stuff (although a bit overwhelming if you try to digest it all). Pictures from inside the war rooms below:

Unfortunately, after we had spent about 30 minutes in the museum I started getting nervous about the time, realizing that we weren’t going to have enough time for St. Paul’s.  Thus, the last 30 minutes in the museum, I started getting nervous about the fact that we were going to have a hard time getting a full experience at St. Paul’s.  By the time we were done with the museum and went into the second part of the war room tour, we knew we only had a few moments to blaze through them. That was a shame because by the appearance of it, the second half of the war room tour was better than the first.

From the war rooms we zipped over to St. Paul’s, grabbed a snack along the way, and didn’t get there until 3:15—an hour and 15 minutes before closing time.  As we bought our tickets we were advised that if we wanted to climb the cathedral’s dome (and no visit to a cathedral is complete without such an ascent—pun intended), that we should do it immediately, as it would take the better part of an hour to do so.  Photos form atop the dome are below:

By the time we were done with the dome, we only have 15 minutes to do, well, nothing.  We sat under the dome and listened to the first three or four tracks from  Rick Steves’ audio guide to St. Paul’s.   

Had we done St. Paul’s first, we still would have had 90 minutes at this point in our day to leisurely finish our tour at Churchill’s War Rooms because it closes 90 minutes later than St. Paul’s.  Thus, my spontaneous decision to see the changing of the guard, which led to my second mistake of doing Churchill first, made this a C+ day that could have been the highlight of our London tour.  I didn’t enjoy Churchill like I could have because our visit was rushed, and we didn’t have enough time to see 10%of St. Paul’s.

Oh well, such is the case with any long trip—you’re bound to have disappointments, particularly when you’re the one arranging all the tours.  That said, I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Planning and trying to figure this whole thing out is half the fun despite the fact that it causes most of the anxiety and the few disappointments we’re experiencing along the way.  On the whole, I’d say we’re winning the battle.  Good night. More photos from the day below:

A typical crowded London metro as we buzzed around the city.

After St. Pauls, we took the metro to Kensington Gardens in 

Hyde Park and rented bikes for a few hours.  Highlight of the day.

Abby got to ride the merry-go-round at Kensington Gardens while the others were bike riding. 

Sam was kind enough to give up her bike to take Abby here.