London 5-18-2009

The Renaissance is a Marriott Hotel ten minutes from Heathrow Airport, the London Underground, and on the local bus line. It was built in the 1930s, which shows in the hallways of the floors with the rooms.

This is the view from across the street from the hotel. There is a residential neighborhood behind these businesses and a McDonald's in the next block.

The Underground is very deep at Picadilly Circus in London. Riders must take two escalators like this one to reach street level.

The Horse Guards are located between Trafalgar Square and Parliament.

We happened to get there as they were changing the guard. It is always fun when the unexpected occurs.

No. 10 Downing Street is out of sight. I have a photo of my dad standing just a few feet from the front door in the 1970s. Times have changed.

Churchill had secret war rooms under the Foreign and Commonwealth Office near Parliament and No. 10 Downing Street. They were to allow the government to conduct the war during the bombing of London. It is now open to the public and also houses a museum about Churchill. The war rooms are just as they were left when WWII ended.

This is the War Room. All figures are made of wax. Ted's camera has filters that made this photo good through glass and in a dimly lit space.

This was one of several bedrooms for officers. Note the chamber pot. There were no flush toilets in this safe space.

Mrs. Churchill had this room available to her.

This was the Churchills' Kitchen.

When the bunker was reopened, sugar cubes were found in a envelope with the name of the officer to whom they belonged, written on the outside. Sugar cubes were a precious commodity during the war. When the war ended, the officers working here left everything, including the cubes, where they lay and walked out.

We walked across Westminster Bridge to get to the famous ferris wheel, called The Eye. Can you picture King Henry VIII's barge pulled up to these steps?

The Eye sits on the south side of the Thames. That is the Aquarium to the right of it.

The pods are big enough for about 10 people to move around easily.

The "flight", as it is called, was so smooth. Close your eyes and there is no sensation of moving.

The mechanisms of this giant were amazing to watch, too. It is suspended from the hub by cables, not steel girders.

The views of London would have been impossible without going up in The Eye.

This is St. Paul's Cathedral from The Eye. It is where Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married.

This photo gives some sense of the view from The Eye, but there is no way to capture seeing the city from 360 degrees.

It was fun to see the line-up of double-decker buses from The Eye.

Big Ben and Parliament are very spectacular from the top of the wheel.

The zoom gave us this shot of Big Ben and Westminster Abbey as we descended in The Eye.

This is the Foreign and Commonwealth Office where Churchill's War Rooms/Museum are located underground in the top right corner. No. 10 Downing street is just out of the frame to the right and Westminster Abbey and Parliament are just to the left.

Brent asked for photos of us in front of somewhere famous so here they are. That is Parliament behind us.

A view of Buckingham Palace we couldn't have gotten from anywhere else.

Two views of the Thames and shore line as we descended. This ride was well worth the time and money.