The Queen's Flotilla

The Queen's Barge - all the flowers came from the Queen's gardens.  The Queen (85 years old) and Prince Phillip stood on the barge for the whole journey and then some - even with the cold and rain (they were covered and they did have seats/thrones to sit on...)

The barge with the church bells.  The churches along the route responded to the chimes

Jack and Sam cheering the Flotilla!  These are the flags they received at the airport after they signed the guest book for the Queen

The barge leading the man-powered boats

The American Indians gave their support

The Canadians gave their support (in more than 1 boat...)

The Italians (Venetians) gave their support... again more than 1 boat but this was the longest

The Commonwealth countries gave their support

The military was (very) present

Single boats

Tug boats

A boat with a pink hat...?

Ambulance boats

Fire boats...

Narrow boats (a.k.a. house boats)

The larger boats did not make it as far down as our flat but here are some as they were making their way up river before the Flotilla

It was an amazing event!!  Much bigger than we expected.  There were more than 1000 boats in the Flotilla and the Queen was awesome!!  Over 100,000 people turned out for the event.  Some camped out the night before to get a good spot.  The temperatures were in the 50's and it was a very rainy day!  It was wonderful!!

Hope you enjoyed!!

Our First Visitor!

Katie was our first visitor to London!  The first day was a little bit of a challenge.  She only slept 2 hours on the plane so jet lag was killing her.  Also it was a very rainy day.  The weather was a little more cooperative through the week.  It was on the chilly side but it did not stop us from seeing the sites!

We saw the London Eye and road the London Eye.  I did learn to get tickets ahead of time so we only stand in one long line!

We saw Big Ben and the Parliament building (which is huge!)

We saw the Tower Bridge

Westminster Abbey

St. Paul's Cathedral

We checked out Soho

Went to Canary Wharf 

Saw the Cutty Sark in Greenwich (the 'W' is silent)

We even drug Katie to a museum... National Wartime Museum at the Royal Navy College

Saw Buckingham Palace... if you look real close, the Queen is peeking out the upper left window ;-)

And saw the guards

It didn't take Katie long to learn how to get around London... the bus pass is important

We checked out a few pubs... Dog & Duck in Soho

The Prospect of Whitby in Wapping - oldest pub on the River Thames

And The Narrow - Gordan Ramsey's pub on the River Thames (a short walk from our apartment)

And tried the local fare - meat and onion pie

Marco's Scottish Egg... somehow we didn't get a picture of Fish & Chips...

And we hung with the locals

Pigeons are everywhere you look.  If there is water, there are Coots (which do not have webbed feet but are good swimmers)

We had a great time and Katie can't wait to come back!!  Our next visitors will be here in less than a week.  They will be here just in time so celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee!  It will 3 days of celebrating the Queen's 60 years on the throne.  She is only the second monarch to reign this long.

Hope you enjoyed!!

Geography Lesson

Marco and I were out and about the other day and we stopped into a pub for a snack.  There were red and white flags strung all over the pub.  I asked Marco what the flag was and he told me it was the flag of England.  I assumed the flag of England was the Union Jack flag... I decided to do a little research.

The Union flag represents the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (a.k.a. United Kingdom, U.K. or Britain).  The United Kingdom consists of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.  Great Britain is the largest island of the British Isles and it consists of England, Scotland, and Wales.

Flag of England - England takes up the southern part of Great Britain

Flag of Scotland - Scotland takes up the northern part of Great Britain

Flag of Wales - Wales sits to the west of England (and do NOT call a Welsh person English!)

Northern Ireland sits to the west of Britain and takes up the northern part of the island of Ireland (Republic of Ireland) and does not have a flag of it's own.  The above flag or banner was Northern Ireland's flag until 1973 when the parliament of Northern Ireland was dissolved by the British government.  Northern Ireland uses the Union flag.  The above flag is used but primarily at international sporting events.

Most of us remember the troubles in Northern Ireland between the Nationalist (mostly Roman Catholic) and the Unionist (mostly Protestant)...  The Nationalist want(ed) to join with the Republic of Ireland and the Unionists want(ed) to stay part of the United Kingdom...  Some Northern Irish will display either the Union flag with the above banner or the Irish green, white, and orange flag to show their political view.

So, there you have it... hope you enjoyed the lesson!