London and our trip to Southampton

After four sun-drenched, yes, London experienced 30 Celsius temperatures while we were there, we made our way from Victoria to Waterloo Station, where we caught the train to Southampton.  We decided we needed a relaxing day after all that we saw and experienced in London, a city that needs a week to enjoy.  In the time that we did have, we did the usual tourist haunts:  Buckingham Palace tour, Royal Mews, Changing of the Guard, Tower of London, British Museum, Tate Britain, National Gallery, Piccadily Square, Clarence House gardens, Soho, Thames mini-cruise, Greenwich, Westminster Abbey, Portobello, and a London musical--I am sure I have omitted something from this list.

One of the highlights for us was the Royal Day Out, which included viewing some of the Queen's artwork and the  Royal Mews, where the special coaches are kept.  The size of the Gold Coach amazed us--four tons in weight!  Finally, we made our way to Buckingham Palace next door, where we viewed a special Faberge display and.....tra la....Kate's wedding dress, veil, earrings, shoes,(my guess is size 9 shoe), and a replica of the wedding cake (amazing in its intricacies).  No pictures allowed in the actual Palace.

An example of one of the Queen's paintings.

The Gold Coach

The Gold Coach,used for Coronations.

At our B&B I discovered how the toast rack was used, not something that I was familiar with, so what did we see in Portobello Market, well-known for antiques, but this:

Using a toast rack makes the presentation very attractive, but is it practical?  The toast cools down very quickly!

Researching on the Internet is amazing as I discovered that I could buy train tickets on-line and if I watched for sales, I could really save money!  So....for 1 GBP each, we rode the train to our cruise port.  The regular price would be over 30 GBP per person.

After settling in, we went over to the local gorgeous Mall where I had a wonderful time trying on hats:

And of course we can't forget the shoes that we saw:

We had a wonderful time in London, a great train ride to Southampton, and now...the Cruise begins!