Wednesday August 27

For our Wednesday in London, we got up early and were the first to get to Buckingham Palace with hundreds more!! Anyway, the Palace is only open for 2 months in the summer when the Queen is in Scotland. We spent three hours walking a huge number of state rooms. These are rooms that are actually in use the other 10 m0nths of the year. They had a ballroom set up to hold a dinner for 78 and it was amazing to see.

The pictures are:
Westminster Abbey
Tower of London
Outside the Pub - the Audley

They we went to Westminster Abbey. This is the main church for the Church of England. It is very much like a Catholic church except more people buried in and under the Church than you can ever imagine. It is so beautiful to see inside. It will hope 8,000 for a major event and all the coronations are held in this church.

From there we went to the Tower of London, one of the biggest castles in London, maybe the biggest. We had a Beefeater take us on an hour tour that was really fun. From there we saw the Royal jewels that are kept there, including the largest diamond in the work, over 500 carets!!

Then it was on the Eye – this is the new Ferris like wheel on the banks of the Thames River. It takes ½ to go around and each capsule is air-conditioned and holds 25 people. It is over 400 feet in the are at its peak.

Then we ate at a local pub, had desert at the hotel with our friends from Florida.

On the way back, stopped by the local Corvette/Land Rover dealer. The new Z06 sitting in the window is priced at $125,000!!

Didn't get to take it for a test ride.

Well we are about to crash – what a great day.

Tuesday - August 26

Tuesday evening of the first week.

Well after our first nights sleep we awoke to a typical London day, they told us.

It was very cloudy all day, 70 but too cold for shorts.

The first pictures is of the House of Paliament ane Big Ben.

The second picture is lunch.

The third pictures is at Kensington Palace.

The fourth picture is out friends from Florida.

We started out day with a tour starting at the top of Wellington House, walking down and around Buckingham Palace and to the House of Parliament where we had tickets to get it.

They only allow tours of Parliament when Parliament isn’t in session and what a spectacular time we had. We toured the House of Lords first and then the House of Commons. We were actually right on the floors of both houses. We also went into the rooms where the Queen puts on her crown before addressing Parliament. Everything was over the top to say the least.

Then we took the tube to St. Paul’s Cathedral, which is the largest in the United Kingdom, but is only ¼ the size of St. Peters in Rome. But, it was still impressive. We
did not climb the 536 steps to the top.

Another tube ride took us to Kensington Palace were we could go into 30 of the State rooms, which were used in the time of Queen Victoria. The other 430 rooms in the Palace are closed as member of the Royal Family still live there.

We met our friends from our first Rome trip who got in today from their home in Florida and went out to a very old English Pub. Barb had fish and chips and I had bangers and mash – it was fun.

That’s all for tonight a big day tomorrow.

Wow – we are here. We left Chicago 2 hours late and made up an hour so we arrived on Monday at about noon, checked in and we started out on the streets of London. We traveled all about on the tube and had a ball. Finally finished last night with a trip along the Thames river was a blast. We had been up since 6am Sunday morning with a couple of hours of sleep on the plan. on a 2 hour walking tour, it

The pictures are:
Barb out side one of the entrances.

The front of the Marriott with 4 cars from the U A E all owned by the same person, a Lambrogannie( sp), a BMW, a Mercedes and a Bentley. It cost $14,000 to ship each car here for the week. The rich are rally different. I think that there are only a couple of Americans here at this hotel!

The view from our room.

Camden Markets

My first “pint” with St. Pauls across the Thames.

Gotta go – we slept for 9 hours and we have to go see the changing of the guard.

Europe 2008 Itinerary

Departing Bloomington Sunday, August 24 and returning September 11.

Staying at the Marriott Park Lane in London from 8/25 – 8/30.
Phone – 011-44-20-7493-7000

The pictures are:
The Marriott Park Lane
The ship - The Splendor - Carnival's newest


The Ship: Carnival Splendor Departs on Saturday, August 30.

The ships phone is 1-877-225-7447

It is a 12 day cruise of the Baltic from London (Dover), England

1 Sat -8/30
London (Dover), England Departing 5:00pm

2 Sun – 8/31
Fun Day At Sea

3 Mon – 9/1
Copenhagen, Denmark 8:00am - 4:00pm

4 Tue – 9/2
Berlin, (Warnemunde), Germany - 6:30am - 11:00pm

5 Wed – 9/3
Fun Day At Sea

6 Thur – 9/4
Tallinn, Estonia - 7:00am - 4:00pm

7 Fri – 9/5
St. Petersburg, Russia - arrive 7:00am

8 Sat – 9/6
St. Petersburg, Russia - depart 7:00pm

9 Sun – 9/7
Helsinki, Finland - 8:00am - 4:00pm

10 Mon – 9/8
Fun Day At Sea

11 Tues – 9/9
Fun Day At Sea

12 Wed – 9/10
Amsterdam, Netherlands - 10:00am - 6:00pm

13 Thur – 9/11
London (Dover), England - arrive 7:00am

Arrive home on American Airlines flight 3049 at 9:10 pm.

Europe 2008 - The first trip for the Blog and Barb is excited!!

Well - the excitement has started. This is a picture of Barb looking at one of the two binders that we have created about things to do and see on the cruise. Hopefully, by the start of the trip we will have figured out where we are going and what we are going to see.