UK Christmas: December 26, Windsor

On December 26^th, Boxing Day, public transportation in London was going to be limited and the many museums and other sights we would’ve wanted to see on our trip would be closed for the holiday.  So, we decided to forgo the city crowds and get out of town for the day.  Before sunrise, we hailed a taxi (our only ride in an iconic black cab—loved Jack’s “Thanks, Mate!” to the driver as we got out) to Victoria Station to board a bus for our guided tour of Windsor, Salisbury, Stonehenge, and Bath. 

Just 20 miles southeast of London, Windsor was our first stop of our day trip.  Our tour buses pretty much had the quiet streets of Windsor to ourselves to explore.  Windsor Castle was closed for touring on Boxing Day, but we enjoyed seeing what we could from outside the gates and walls.  Our “tour guide” just did a little historical spiel at the Queen Victoria statue and then let us wander on our own.  I’m glad I remembered to look for the “Long Walk” where we ran in to a family from our church and tennis club who were also in London over Christmas and just happened to be on the same Boxing Day tour with the same tour company, but just on a different bus.  My friend Katie took a few great photos of our family of four right there on the Long Walk, our only of all four of us (besides selfies on iPhones) from our trip.  I’m so thankful for these!

After all the hustle and bustle and crowds of London, I truly enjoyed exploring a small, charming town in England.  Harry and Meghan had been married here in Windsor just the May prior and I can hardly imagine Windsor accommodating the sheer number of people who ascended upon this quaint town for that event.  Luckily, it was all quiet for our time in Windsor and, after about 45 minutes of exploring, we were back on the bus to continue on our trip. 

We enjoyed taking in the English countryside from the bus.  The “Salisbury” part of our day trip was actually just driving through the small town and seeing Salisbury Cathedral’s famed highest steeple in the country from a distance.  Between Salisbury and Stonehenge (only about 30 minutes apart), we stopped at a pub for a traditional English pub lunch, complete with roast beef, mushy peas, and Yorkshire pudding, and capped off by sticky pudding.  Back on the bus with full bellies, we were on our way to Stonehenge.

UK Christmas: December 25, London

On Christmas Day we roused later than we’d really intended to, or had thought we would be able to be honest, but the late night after Midnight Mass at Westminster Abbey took its toll.  After opening some presents and English Christmas crackers that Santa had delivered and grabbing a midday bite from the Executive Lounge, we headed out to explore the city a bit.  We had Hop-On Hop-Off bus tickets for the day as there would be no public transportation on Christmas Day, so the thought was that we’d use it to actually get on and get off buses wherever we wanted to explore.  However, once we got on at the Marble Arch stop (at the corner of Hyde Park) it was apparent that it was not a quiet Christmas Day in London, other tourists were out in force.  With all of the museums and tourist attractions closed for the day, I guess the tourists had no where else to be but outside on the streets of London.  We sat outside on the second level of the double-decker bus as soon as we could snag seats up there and decided quickly to just stay there for the entire loop, not wanting to battle the hoards in Trafalgar Square, near Westminster or, most of all, in the Tower Bridge area.  Honestly, it suited us just fine, staying on the bus for a couple of hours enjoying the views of London.

The double decker bus—which provided earbuds to listen to information on the sights on our drive—took us from the Marble Arch at Hyde Park by Buckingham Palace, the Churchill War Rooms, Whitehall, 10 Downing Street, the Horse Guards stables, and then by Westminster Abbey.  We continued on to Trafalgar Square, getting our first look at the lions and Nelson’s Column in daylight.   We then headed down Strand on to Fleet Street, passing cool pubs, such as The Wellington and The Old Bank of England, and also seeing the Australian Embassy (which was used at Gringott’s bank in the Harry Potter movies), the Royal Courts of Justice, and Temple Bar Monument (griffin statue).  The bus then took us by St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Duke of Wellington statue, the Bank of England, and the Monument to the Great Fire of London (1666) before crossing the Thames on London Bridge (the first of four times we would cross the river on our tour). 

On the south side of the Thames, we drove by the Shard and then over the Tower Bridge to the Tower of London.  On the Lower Thames Street for just a few blocks, we headed back across the Thames (third bridge, in case you were counting) towards the South Bank via Southwark Bridge.  We passed Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Waterloo Station, and the London Eye before making our last trip over the Thames River, this time via Westminster Bridge.  We retraced our steps a bit by Westminster Abbey, Parliament Square, and St. James’s Park, but then took a detour to Piccadilly Circus, allowing us a peek at the beautifully-decorated Christmas windows of shops such as Fortnum & Mason and Alexander McQueen (plus a look at The Ritz where we would enjoy a Christmas Afternoon Tea later that afternoon). 

The last leg of our ride took us to Knightsbridge and South Kensington, where we got a look at the Wellington Arch, Harrods, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum, and a quick peek at Kensington Palace (you really can’t see much looking through the gardens). 

Our bus tour was a great way to really feel like we got to see a ton of London.  As we were going on a day trip out of London the next day, Christmas Day really was our last opportunity to see London in daylight. I am definitely satisfied that we made the most of it.

We donned our Christmas finest and walked to The Ritz for our 5pm Afternoon Tea (a little late for afternoon tea, but we didn’t want to waste any of the daylight for touring).  As if flying first class to London and basically having the run of the Executive Lounge at a fancy London hotel weren’t enough to make this trip feel lux, Christmas Afternoon Tea at The Ritz definitely put us over the top.  This was a special experience and we were treated like royalty—a great Christmas present to ourselves.  And, honestly, I was surprised how much Jack was in to the whole thing.  We each ordered our own pots of tea and Jack loved his ‘Moroccan Mint’, finishing off his entire pot.  We were served finger sandwiches, scones, and tea cakes and pastries to our heart’s delight.  Jonathan and I enjoyed some champagne, too, while the kids received gifts from Santa.  ‘Christmas Cake’ was offered at the end, but we were all too stuffed on mostly finger sandwiches and scones by then to partake.  It was a lovely ending to a very extraordinary Christmas.         

UK Christmas: December 24, London

On Christmas Eve, with a limited number of London sights open, we had morning reservations on the London Eye and then an afternoon Thames River cruise.  We also had Christmas Eve tickets to Midnight Mass at Westminster Abbey (free tickets, but I had to wake up in the middle of the night to snag 4 online several weeks earlier).  No public transportation would be running after about 6pm on the 24^th and we were told that the only way to get a taxi to take us to and/or from Westminster Abbey for Midnight Mass would be to pay the taxi driver for the entire time he waits for us during the service.  That didn’t really seem reasonable so we made the decision that we were going to make the walk from Westminster Abbey back to our hotel in the early morning hours of Christmas Day after the service.  Our walk would take us by Buckingham Palace and then through an upscale residential part of London, all areas that felt pretty safe.  Regardless, making the walk in the daylight to get the lay of the land seemed like a good idea and Westminster Abbey was on the way to the London Eye anyways.

Our morning walk took us through beautifully festive and fancy Mayfair (see Instagram photos of the Bentley, Annabel’s storefront covered by a Christmas tree, and garland-framed doorways), on the paths through a muddy (from the previous day’s rains) Green Park, and right up to Buckingham Palace.  After two days in London, this was our first glimpse of Buckingham Palace (and later Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the London Eye).  The Queen wasn’t in residence, spending Christmas with her family at the Sandringham Estate (“the much-loved country retreat of her Majesty the Queen”, about 2 ½ hours northeast of London), but we didn’t miss her and enjoyed exploring the grounds.  From Buckingham Palace, we walked along St. James’s Park on the Birdcage Walk and on to Westminster Abbey (about a 35-minute walk in total from the hotel…it was going to be a late night). 

From Westminster Abbey, we turned the corner past Winston Churchill’s statue at Parliament Square and there was Big Ben!  And it was anticlimactic—although, we knew Elizabeth Tower and the Houses of Parliament were in the midst of a multi-year renovation project—because it was a bummer that this icon of London was completely covered in scaffolding during our visit.  We’ll just have to come back to London when it looks shiny and new again.

Recently, when I asked Ella and Jack apart from each other what their favorite activity in London was, they both, without hesitation, said the London Eye.  We did have quite the view for our 30-minute ride and the sky had really cleared by the end of it, but I think Jonathan and I were happy to have our feet on solid ground again at the end.  We had some time to kill before our River Thames cruise so we made our way back to St. Paul’s Cathedral.  We decided against taking the time for an inside tour as the cloudy and gray morning had turned into a glorious clear and crisp blue-skied midday.  From St. Paul’s we crossed the Thames via the Millennium Bridge to the Southbank and walked along the Queen’s Walk back to the London Eye.  Before our river cruise, we stopped for a delicious ramen noodle bowl lunch at Wagamama.  Our Thames river cruise provided some terrific views of the House of Parliament, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, the HMS Belfast, and Tower Bridge.  Unfortunately we didn’t get seats up top outside, so all of my pictures from the cruise have the glare of the window.

After a few hours rest back at our hotel, we dressed up for our Christmas Eve service and headed back out for a dinner at Jamie’s Italian (Jamie Oliver’s restaurant—love him, but the meal was just okay).  We were among the first group in line for the Midnight Mass service and therefore got seats just to the side of the priest at the pulpit.  While we waited for the service to begin, we used the excuse of trips to the bathroom to explore a little bit and take in our surroundings a bit—see Poet’s Corner, the Cloisters, and the Christmas Crib nativity display.  As Episcopalians, we felt very at home with the traditions of the Anglican service, but the immensity of attending a service within Westminster Abbey did not escape us.  Christmas Eve Midnight Mass, with communion, in Westminster Abbey is not an experience we will soon forget.  I think I’d have to say that was my favorite experience in London, one of those once-in-a-lifetime encounters that is truly special.  It was 1:30am by the time we made it back to our hotel after the service.  Merry Christmas!  And time for bed…