After a long night of sleep (I think I slept roughly 12 hours) we started our first day of the tour we’ll sort of tour light. Prior to the tour starting tomorrow they planned a few tours in London. So today we are seeing the Temple Church, touring the Middle Temple which is basically England’s version of the bar and kennsington palace.

Our hotel was within walking distance of the first stop Middle Temple. That is if you walk down the right street. Instead of turning left out of the hotel we should have gone up a street and turned right. Of course we walked for quite a while before we realized we were wrong. Instead of trying to work our way back up (no street runs straight in England nor do they maintain the same name as they amble through the city) we jumped on the tube. We arrived just a few minutes late. Sadly we had planned to grab breakfast prior to the tour but the best place we saw was as we exited the tube station and met up with the group. So no breakfast for us today which was poor planning since the stop for lunch was hours away.

Our first meeting of the group went well. Everyone was very nice and Siobhan who organized this outing was the perfect guide. We headed off to Middle Temple, which was the original location of English barristers. It was originally set up as a kind of dorm type hall with big dinning room, meeting rooms and bedrooms. They actually saw their clients in their bedrooms which led to the use of the term chambers for the judge’s offices. The buildings dated to queen Elizabeth’s time and had that wood Tudor/Shakespeare feel to them. There was some great medieval stained glass that they had smartly removed and stored during the war. (The building took a direct hit and lost several of the outer buildings and the back wall thankfully the church was not damaged) It is said that (sadly can’t remember who and my service is not good enough to look it up) got the character names of Jekyl and Hyde. The hall has plaques of all the old members and in 1603 Jekyll and Hyde served as readers and had adjacent plaques. I learned a lot about the life of English attorneys but I won’t bore you with all that.

From there we headed to the Temple Church and got a brief history of the downfall of the Knights Templar. I did not remember in all the Templar movies that they were actually the first bankers. The king of France owed them too much money and decided it would be better to have them disbanded than be required to pay.

This church was quite stark it is a round knave with a small bell tower. Everyone has seen it if you watched Da Vinci Code. It is one of the first stops he goes looking for the effigy of Lord Marshal, some say english’s greatest knight (including our guide).

Outside the church in the Templar garden legend and Shakespeare believe was the location of the ate start of the war of the roses. Supposedly a fight between a york and a Lancaster broke out that somehow involved the selection or throwing of flowers.

Another side note the grounds around the church which were originally Templar land now belong just to the Middle Temple inn organization. So it had no city or state regulation. Which I guess is why a lot of period films are shot using the grounds and streets (which are cobble).

After the church we take the tube over to Kensington Palace. First we walked through the Diana memorial garden made up of all white flowers except one small group of yellow daisy like flowers. Not sure if they expected them to bloom white or just liked the one bit of contrast. Nonetheless the gardens were quite beautiful. After that it was finally time for lunch. I am never going to skip breakfast again. I was starving. The bacon and tomato sandwich although I would say the bacon was almost raw and the bread quite mushy tasted like heaven.

The Palace itself is all about Victoria. If you are watching the PBS show then it looks basically the same. It does have several of her dresses on display and she was tiny. We toured all the grounds including the room in which she was born and also her nursery for her children. We saw her bedroom and the staircase she walked down to learn that she was queen and the stairs where she first met Albert. It was great to go through it with someone who could point out the highlights. It was a great tour.

We walked through Diana’s dresses which are more beautiful upclose than I expected. Also she appeared more normal size than I expected. The dresses were small but not tiny. They had the black dress she wore to the White House along with that great light blue short tight dress she wore after the divorce. It was a great collection.

By the time we were through it was late afternoon and we were again worn out. We shopped a bit on our way home. Val bought a pair of great shoes. My quest continues but I feel certain I will find a pair I love and need. Our last stop was Foyles bookstore four stories of books. A great end to a great day.

But not quite over we went out for fish and chips. The restaurant I wanted to eat at last night that was closed on Sunday. Wasn’t much of a restaurant really more of a take away place with a few tiny booths. But the fish and chips were well
All the hype and much better than the version I had the day before.

Back to the hotel for bed. Had time to watch a little TV and for those of you who watch the Great British Baking Show sadly Mary Berry and the two host are not on the next season and it wasn’t near as good. They have some crazy 70s looking guy has the host who just seemed out of place. Anyway I can’t say I recommend it.