Day 1
2-12-00
Saturday
Location: Airport (LAX)
Well, we’re in the airport waiting for the plane to get all the baggage loaded, and to be taxied into the terminal; I’m pretty anxious about getting over to London. We’re on Virgin Atlantic flight 8, headed from Los Angeles, California to London Heathrow. The estimated time of travel is: 10 hours, 15 minutes.
Location: In the Plane
We just boarded the plane, and the crew is going through the usual wear and tear of the ‘flight procedures’ (you know, how to buckle your seat belt, how to inflate your life jacket…). We should be taking off in about fifteen minutes.
Location: In the Air
Elapsed time: 2 hrs.
Well, so far the ride has been pretty smooth, and instead of watching just the one movie that most airlines provide, they give you a wide range of movies that you can choose from on different channels in their database; they even have video games!
Day 2
2-13-00
Sunday
Location: Landing; London Heathrow
Well, after twelve tedious hours on a plane, we’re finally going to set down on the tarmac in London’s, ever so famous, Heathrow Airport. We’re down on the ground, and we’ll be getting off the plane in about fifteen minutes.
We’re off the plane, and into the passport control and baggage claim area. We’ve just gotten our passports checked, and are off to claim our baggage. After that, we’ll pass through the ‘Nothing to Declare’ area in customs, and get a company (Kingston Tech.) car to pick us up; actually, we’re off to the hotel, which is called ‘The Petersham’, right now.
Location: The Petersham Hotel
Now,
The Petersham Hotel, a Victorian mansion built in 1865, stands proudly on
Richmond Hill in the heart of 'London's Country', just eight miles from the
center of the capital. Adjacent to the 2,500 acres of Royal Parkland, The
Petersham commands breathtaking views over one of the most famous stretches of
the River Thames. The most notable feature of the interior is its magnificent
Portland stone staircase, one of the largest unsupported stone staircases in
the country. The paintings on its ceiling were executed by Ferdinando Galli
(1816-97), an Italian painter then briefly working in England.
We just checked into the hotel, and I’ve just found out that I get my own room (time to sprinkle talcum powder on my suit case latches, and look for bugs behind the paintings)! We’re all going to go upstairs right now in the elevator.
We’re going to meet a couple of my mom and dad’s friends in the lobby, and then head over to Hampton Court Palace, home of the English king, Henry VIII.
Location: Hampton Court Palace
Built
in the 16th century, Hampton Court Palace was one of the grandest
homes of one of the best-known English Kings: Henry VIII. It contains the King
and Queens State Apartments, the Tudor Kitchens, the Royal Gardens, and much
more. We first explored the gardens, which span over sixty acres of paths,
gardens, fountains, a large maze, and The Great Vine. Most of the gardens are
closed off, meaning that you can’t walk on the paths, but you can still see the
areas. That’s me at the gardens.
Next, we went into the Tudor kitchens where the food was cooked for the Kings and Queens that lived there. It showed the bakery, the meat closet, and the fireplaces; some areas were closed off here also.
Next, we explored a little in the courtyards before going to the Great Halls, which featured six grand tapestries woven for the king in the 16th to the 17th centuries; it also contains a grand ceiling with beautiful wood carvings decorated with colored pendants. From the Great Halls, we stumbled upon the Great Watching Chamber, which used to be one of King Henry’s staterooms, but was later turned into a waiting room for those waiting to see him.
It was about closing time, so we quickly explored the King and Queens State Apartments, and left Hampton Court, headed for the Petersham Hotel.
Day 3
2-14-00
Monday
Location: The Millennium Dome Greenwich
Well,
today I headed over to the Millennium Dome in North Greenwich; that’s me at the
Dome on the left. It was built to bring in the new one thousand years, and was
built in Greenwich to mark the exact time the clock would strike midnight,
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). It has many features inside including a minting
press for commemorative ‘Millennium Dome Coins’ (I already have one that I got
a couple weeks before going to England), and the ‘Millennium Jewels’ presented
by DeBeers that include the Millennium Star, which weights in at 203 carets,
and a collection of about seven exceptionally rare blue diamonds!
Location: Downtown London
After
looking around the Millennium Dome for about an hour, he hopped onto the Tube
(the Underground; the Subway) and headed for the Houses of Parliament, which
weren’t open to the public until half past two, so to pass the time, we went
over to the Westminster Abbey (a really old church). The Abbey was pretty
amazing. It was built in A.D. 957-75; during the reign of King Edgar, who
granted the land to build it. The Abbey holds the distinction of being the
coronation church of all the crowned sovereigns since William I in 1066, perhaps
even since Harold II (earlier in the year), to the present day. It’s also the
final resting place, and also just a commemoration, for many of England’s
finest, including: Queen Elizabeth I, Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, and
Winston Churchill. We stayed at the Abbey till about two o’clock, and then
crossed the street to the Houses of Parliament, which is also connected to ‘Big
Ben’; which is the picture above, and entered. We were searched several times
before being allowed into the House of Commons where the members of Parliament
were having a discussion about a boat accident on the River Thames fifty some
years where 56 people died, and they were debating on whether or not the safety
on the Thames was to be reinforced more. After fifteen minutes of hearing the
discussion, we got back on the Tube, and headed for home.
Day 4
2-15-00
Tuesday
Location: Central London
Well,
today we all took a guided tour of London. We got up at around 7:00 am, and
headed over to the Tube. We departed from the Richmond station, got off when we
hit the Hammersmith station and made a transfer over on the Piccadilly
(Pic·ca·dil·ly) line, where we rode until we got to the Piccadilly Circus
terminus, got off, and hopped on the tour bus.
We
saw many famous buildings on the Central London tour, buildings like the Law
Courts of England, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Bank of England, the Tower of
London, and Tower Bridge. We got off at a stop on the Thames, and took a short
boat tour of the Thames, and the monuments on its banks; monuments such as
Cleopatra’s Needle, the Ministry of Defense (Bond theme kicks in…), and Tower
Bridge.
After the Boat tour, we got back on the bus, and got off at a stop near a McDonalds where we had lunch. Afterwards, we got back on the Tube and headed back for the hotel. Finally, to seal off a perfect day, I got a coke for myself, and a martini for my dad…
Day 5
2-16-00
Wednesday
Location(s): Westminster, Knightsbridge
Well,
today we got on the train headed for Leicester Square in Westminster. When we
got there, we walked over to Buckingham Palace, where the guards were being
changed. When they change guards, the group who is taking over the guard from
the previous group marches with rifles in hand, a marching band behind them,
and a horse brigade bringing up the rear.
After about fifteen minutes, and twenty or so pictures, we left Buckingham Palace, and headed over to China Town for a lunch consisting of barbeque pork, beef on rice (I’m still a little worried about Mad Cow Disease…), and noodle soup.
After having lunch, we took the Tube over to Harrods in Knightsbridge, and got some pork and other meats for dinner. We looked around Harrods for a little while (I was in the watch section most of the time), and then got on the Tube for home. When got to the station, we got a Kingston taxi to take us to my mom and dad’s friend’s house where we dropped off my mom and her friend to cook dinner (with all the meat we got a Harrods), and I went over to the Kingston building to check my e-mail (55 junk e-mails: a record!). After my dad got out of a meeting, we headed back to the house, where my mom and her friend had the dinner ready and raring to go. After a great dinner, we went back to the hotel and I went to sleep.
Day 6
2-17-00
Thursday
Location(s): Dublin, Ireland
Well, today we went to Ireland. The flight there was only about 45 minutes; fairly quick. When we got to Shannon Airport (Dublin’s main [and probably only] airport), we were greeted by a Kingston taxi, which took us to the Kingston Ireland manufacturing building.
When we arrived, we took a tour of their productions facilities. They had memory module machines, which took the memory boards, the memory chips, soldered the chips to the memory boards, the memory boards were sent through inspection and testing, and finally, the chips were labeled.
After
the tour, we went to a local pub (and had a pint… he he) and had lunch. I had
chicken and potatoes for lunch along with a coke. Afterwards, we went on a
guided tour of Dublin. I slept most of 
the
time on the tour due to motion sickness prevention drugs, but when I came to, we were
about to enter a former hospital-turned-art museum. After that, we saw the
‘15-acres’ (which is, by the way, well over three hundred acres), Dublin’s
largest public park (it spans over 500 acres!!!), and the home of the President
of Ireland (this is Ireland’s second woman president).
We got off the tour and walked over to a local pipe shop where my dad got four brand new pipes, and a tin of tobacco. We went to dinner at around 6:30 pm, left for the airport at around 7:15 pm, and took off from a fun filled day in Ireland at 7:40 pm. We got into Heathrow about fifty minutes later where we took a taxi back to the hotel, and I went to sleep.
Day 6
2-18-00
Friday
Location(s): Hampton/Radisson Hotel, The British Museum
We
switched hotels today from the Petersham in Richmond to the Hampton/Radisson in
Westminster right in the middle of Leicester Square. The Hampton is a very nice
hotel, but I’m still having a little trouble finding my way around.
After getting to know our surroundings in the hotel room, we walked over to the British Museum, and headed straight over to the Egyptian exhibit. The had a pretty impressive collection of carved pendants, sarcophaguses, stone carvings, and they are the proud owners of the Rosetta Stone, which is not only impressive in it’s shear size alone, but also it’s historical value as well. Afterwards, we went to a little café for lunch (actually, I just had the last lonely doughnut sitting on the shelf), and headed back to the hotel to rest a little. We were going to go to a show, but as it turned out, we were at the wrong theatre, and the theatre we should have been at was twenty minutes away, but that would be with no traffic, and twenty minutes with traffic in London, on a Saturday evening would be more like forty, so we decided to scrap the show, and we just went to McDonalds for dinner, and headed back to the hotel.
Day 7
2-19-00
Saturday
Location(s): Stonehenge and Bath
Today
we went to Stonehenge and the city of Bath. It took about 1 hour 30 minutes to
get to Stonehenge where we saw the stones that weighed about seven tons each,
and still no one today knows how the people who built them, built them.
After about 30 minutes, we left for the city of Bath. When we got there, we went and took a look at the sacred springs and the Roman baths. We left the ‘bath house’, and went over to the Bath Abbey. The Bath Abbey is very similar to the Westminster Abbey, so there isn’t much to explain there. We ate lunch at a restaurant called ‘Garfinkels’. My mom had a salad, my dad a club sandwich, and I had a pepperoni pizza. After lunch we got back on the bus and headed for home. We got off at our stop in Westminster, and had a fairly long walk back to the hotel. We got back to the hotel room, and stayed there for about 10 minutes before going out to dinner with some friends. We got back to the hotel at around 8:30 pm, where we rested for our trip back home the next day…