On the afternoon we arrived we drove through the city, passing row upon row of Barclays rent-a-bikes and paintings lining the fence surrounding Hyde Park. Dad pointed out parts of the city where he'd lived as a missionary. It was curious to imagine a 21 year old version of Dad, in his suit, walking along Peckham high street with all of its noise, and traffic, and people.
An hour or so in London traffic was more than enough for us so, the next morning, Oyster cards in hand, we opted for the train. Followed by the underground. Followed by a brisk walk through Green Park. The timing of our visit worked out particularly well since it coincided with the annual summer opening of Buckingham Palace and, thanks to Mum, we had tickets!
It was so fun to tour the Palace; it was stunning. We walked past paintings by Rembrandt, and Rubens, which hung casually on the walls. We climbed the Grand Staircase and wondered at the beautiful banisters. We stood in the enormous throne room, swathed in red and gold and meandered past case after case displaying the Royal Faberge collection. Walking through those elegant rooms really brought home the excess of Versailles. The renovations at Buckingham palace were once considered flamboyant, and if that's so I have no idea what word describes the the French palace! Sadly, the Queen's request for no photos, and my inability to break rules, means that I don't have any pictures from inside the palace. I didn't get to take a picture of Kate's Wedding dress, or her beautiful lace adorned shoes, but I did get to see them, which I was excited about since the 8 hour time difference meant that I slept through the entirety of the wedding.
We did get a couple of photo's once we were in the gardens, but looking back on it I wish I'd attempted to sneak a few while we were inside, especially in the Green State room which was my favourite one of all. I think I could have done a good job of feigning innocence if I got caught. Alas, here's our lone photo in the Palace gardens:
It started raining moments later so we made a hurried exit along the south side of the Gardens. We took shelter on the underground as we made our way to Harrods, where we managed to lose ourselves just long enough for the shower to pass. Ok, perhaps we were there a little longer than that. We whiled away a pretty good portion of the afternoon, but Harrods is just so magical! Where else can you find Christmas in August and teddy bears that will set you back two thousand pounds?
With the evening approaching Dad and Becky headed home with Charlotte, whose bed time was getting ever closer. Mum, Megan, and I had another treat in store. We had tickets to see Legally Blonde, the musical, at the West End. Mum was a little worried about the whole thing, but Megan and I were both really excited to see it. And quite right too! It was a lot of fun, a tad cheeky, so I had Mum cringing on one side of me and Megan giggling away on the other. I love Megan's laugh, it makes everything even funnier.
Little did we know that the finale of the show was far from the end of the night. We'd decided to take the train home to save anyone from driving to pick us up at ten o clock at night, but it quickly became apparent that the train journey wasn't going to be as straightforward as we'd anticipated. Dad had gone over the route with us earlier so we made our way to the underground that would put us on the right line, only to find that it was closed. There was little explanation; the police had advised the line be closed and we had to find an alternative route. Easier said than done. It turned out that nearly all of the lines had been closed, but eventually we figured out a round about way of getting where we needed to be. We made our way through the virtually abandoned underground and caught the last train back to Becky's. Seated and relieved that we were finally on our way we sat back as the train pulled out of the station; seven stops to Becky's house.
We'd passed through the first couple of stops when an announcement sounded, informing us that the train service would be terminating early due to an advisement from the police. Now what?! They were dropping us off who knows where and we had no idea when another train would be along. We disembarked at the next stop along with the one or two remaining passengers. As soon as we stepped onto the platform we noticed the smell of smoke in the air; it smelled like Bonfire night. A look around and we could see the glow of fires not far in the distance. What was going on? The whole city had shut down and we were stuck in a cold train station at midnight and we had no idea why.
Dad was about to jump into a car and come and get us when a train finally arrived and took us home. Back at Becky's house, warming up and falling asleep I began to forget about the events of the night, the smoke and the line closures. But then I came downstairs the next morning, and the news quickly reminded me of it, and suddenly we knew what had happened.
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