Little Venice

Over the weekend, I took a tour of Little Venice, a rather posh area on the Grand Union Canal, just north of Paddington. I also walked around Regent's Park to take some pictures of the flowers which are all blooming and are really beautiful.

A view of the canal with the houseboats moored alongside it
Another view of the canal with a narrowboat coming by

Joan Collins used to live in this house

Another mansion- Lily Langtry lived here- mistress to Edward VII, among many others!

The Little Basin of the Grand Union Canal

Flowers from Regent's Park

Roses near Queen Mary's Rose Garden

Flowers near the Open Air Theatre in the park

More flowers

Flowers in Regent Park

My room at International Hall

Trooping the Colour

Saturday was the Queen's official birthday- her actual birthday is in April, but they celebrate it with the Trooping of the Colour parade and review in June. I went to see the procession down the Mall- saw all the main Royals-the Queen, Philip, William, Camilla, Charles (though no picture of him, he was on horseback so didn't catch him on film!), Andrew, etc. The pictures are took of them all are slighty blurry as they were all in carriages.

The Mall earlier in the week after it was blocked off to traffic

Buckingham Palace set up for the day

Soldiers lining up down the Mall for the Queen to come by

Soldiers processing down the Mall to Horseguards

Some Horseguard soldiers

Band on horseback

More members of Horseguards

The Queen and Prince Philip

Camilla and Prince William

Prince Andrew with his daughter Beatrice- the other daughter, Eugenie was sitting across from him out of view of the camera

Salisbury,Stonehenge, Avebury and Old Sarum

Jessie, Bill and I took a great day trip out of the city. We went to Stonehenge and Avebury- which is another ancient stone circle, larger in circumference than Stonehenge with a village in the middle. We also went to Salisbury with its famous cathedral which was really beautiful, much prettier than Westminster Abbey which Jim said looked like a dollar store with lots of stuff in it!! We also visited Old Sarum Castle, which is the remains of an old castle from the Norman Times which was built on Iron Age fortifications.

Some of the stones at Avebury
Jessie and Bill in front of one of the stones

Avebury Manor House-built in 14th and 15th centuries

St. James at Avebury church- begun in the 1100s

A medieval thatched barn- now a museum and shop

A typical cottage in Avebury

A 16th century dovecote

Sheep amongst the stones

Remains of a wall at Old Sarum

The remaining foundations of a cathedral at Old Sarum

Remains of the moat with the Iron Age earthworks beside it

A RV park from Old Sarum (called Holiday caravans over here
)- for Dad!!

House opposite Salisbury Cathedral

View of spire at Salisbury

Another view of the cathedral

View of the cloisters

The painted ceiling

The nave

Some of the stained glass windows

Another view of the ceiling

St John's gate- from 14th century

View of Stonehenge

Another view of Stonehenge

Views of London during Jessie and Bill's visit

These are the pictures I took of London during the ten days or so that Jessie and Bill were here.

The Royal Albert Hall

Jessie in front of the Sticky Fingers Cafe, owned by Bill Wyman

Sign for the play, The Woman in Black

The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square

Me in the Hard Rock Cafe with straw in my mouth (Jessie insisted on taking the photo)

Jessie and Bill on the boat that we took from Westminster to the Tower

Jessie and Bill in front of Kensington Palace

Ponies and horses in Hyde Park- they were having a riding lesson

Guards at the Tower of London

The guards changing at the Tower

One of the ceilings in Harrods

An Egyptian statue in the Egyptian Hall at Harrods (the statue is not real)

The Diana and Dodi memorial at Harrods- really, really tacky- she would have hated it!!!

A victorian building near the Royal Albert Hall

Pigeons on one of the gravestones in Old Brompton cemetary

One of the tombstones that Jessie liked

Part of the cemetary where soldiers from World War One were buried

Another tombstone in the Brompton cemetary

Beatles graffiti on the wall in front of the Abbey Road studios

Abbey Road Studios- where the Beatles, etc. recorded