ENGLAND TRIP: Day 3:, Part 1 : A Royal Adventure/ Prince Albert Memorial(VIDEO!)

Victoria Station

Our third day in London was off to an interesting start. Tom awoke with back pain and Rob had stomach issues. After a light breakfast  to get to our tour bus for a tour of the city, we started walking toward Trafalagar Square, which is east of our hotel room. We didn't know that the Queen was opening Parliament until we started walking toward Parliament (which was between our hotel and our destination). We found out that the Queen's event shut down so many blocks that it took TWO HOURS to get 30 minutes away!  

So many streets were shut down that we would up going way out of our way to Victoria Station, and had to take the tube (subway) back to Trafalgar Square!

Queen Elizabeth II. Credit: CBS News

TO SEE THE QUEEN OPENING PARLIAMENT (because we didn't!) WATCH CBS NEWS REPORT: The Queen opened Parliament on Wednesday, May 9th, and we couldn't see her but we did experience  CBS NEWS (2 min. 45 seconds): Britain's Queen Elizabeth opened a new session of Parliament in a very colorful ceremony, one of her most traditional and important roles. Charlie D'Agata reports on VIDEO. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7407984n

TOUR BUS FIASCO - After we finally got there, we finally found the tour bus office after 30 minutes of looking. No one knew where it was, and it turned out to be on a side street and not well marked for some reason! We exchanged our e-tickets and had to walk several blocks to get the bus (back at Piccadilly Circus) because so many streets were blocked off. (Trafalgar Square also happens to be where Buckingham Palace is located). By 12 p.m. we were on the bus, and still hadn't seen the first stop because we were stuck in Gridlock!  By 12:30 p.m. we arrived at Prince Albert's Memorial in Kensington Gardens and quickly got off the bus never to get back on it.

Tom at Prince Albert Memorial

PRINCE ALBERT MEMORIAL -  This gaudy memorial was commissioned by Queen Victoria in memory of her  husband, Prince Albert who died of typhoid fever in 1861. - I did enhance the color on the photo, though, because the skies were gray, and it rained on and off, and high temperatures were in the upper 40s (Fahrenheit). Below is a short video that we made after we arrived at Prince Albert's Memorial! 

Royal Albert Hall

ROYAL ALBERT HALL - is located across from Kensington Garden and the Prince Albert Memorial. According to the hall's website, "The Royal Albert Hall was built to fulfill the vision of Prince Albert (Queen Victoria's consort) of a 'Central Hall' that would be used to promote understanding and appreciation of the Arts and Science."

HARROWING HARRODS - We did venture into Harrod's Department store, just out of curiosity. We only saw designer clothes, perfumes and accessories for sale. Certainly nothing that we could afford, so we used the bathroom!  Well, we had to "Make our mark" in Harrods, right? :)