A Big Adventure day two

We got breakfast in a box in bed today!!  What we got, then?

A packet of cornflakes and a pot and spoon to eat it in/with, panno shoko LAH, a tub of milk - presumably to have on your cornflakes!, a flapjack and a tub of orange juice.  That'll do nicely!

Let's see now..... looks a bit overcast today.....

We turned the telly on - the Queen of England is having a state funeral today and lots of people came to London to watch.  That's why we thought we weren't going to make it in yesterday because we'd normally come through Victoria station which is very close to Buckingham Palace.

First, we decided to go for a little walk before the funeral, as we wanted to find that art deco building we spotted yesterday.  We think it's near us.

Sheen Road, yeah that's the main road.

That's the Eton Street bus stop....

There it is!!!

Lichfield Court!

On the way back we spotted something really weird.  The snowdrops are out!  In September???

That's weird....

We left another bookcrossing book here too.

And a CD here...

And then we came back to the hotel....

And had a cuppa tea and a cayke

And then put the telly on to watch the funeral.  We later discovered there was a quarter of a million people visited the "lying in state" over the previous four days, presumably more on the procession route - it would've been larger but Paddington Station broke down and a lot of people who were trying to get in to London ended up having to watch on their mobile phones stuck on a train!

First we had the pipes and drums. They were amazing.....

That's the gun carriage used in the procession.

Those chaps did brilliantly carrying the Queen.  Just brilliantly.

Then there was a small procession to Westminster Abbey where the funeral service was held.

It's all very solemn.

Gosh.

(We learned later that the crown, orb and sceptre were bolted to the coffin so they wouldn't fall off)

Afterwards, there was a big funeral procession from the Abbey to Constitution Hill.

You can just see them arriving under the arch there.....

From there, The Queen was transferred onto a hearse and driven to Windsor with the Royal Family following in cars for a small family funeral there.

It was then that we decided to have a break from the sadness and do something to try and cheer ourselves up.

We went round the corner to the bus station.....

And got a number 65 bus to Kingston!!

We tied a CD to the hand rail!

Wonder where this goes to?

It's quite a way off, wherever it is!

We got off here at Kingston bus station because everyone else got off here and we thought it was the last stop!!!  But apparently there's one more stop after this!!! D'OH!!  However, we did discover that we can pick up the number 85 bus from here which goes to Putney Vale Cemetery where Beanie's been to before, and then that bus goes onto Putney Bridge!  And there you can pick up the 14 bus that takes you into the West End!!!  So we learnt something today!!!

We had to ask somebody where to get the 65 back to Richmond though, and they said to go to the Subway sandwich shop over there..... you can just about see the green/yellow/white signage over the road there on the red brick building.

So we headed off in that direction..... you can just see the bus station there on the right!

There's the other side of that round building.....!

Here we are!  This is our bus stop!!

And this is our bus!!!  They normally go all the way to Ealing but this one is stopping at Brentford County Court..... wonder why?

We tied a floppy disc to the handrail!

And we're off!!!

Ooooo..!

Oh, there's the Thames river with boats on it!

OH!!  There's a bacoda in the distance!  Beanie says that's in Kew Gardens and you can climb up it!!

Apparently this is the other end of Kew Gardens and it's getting busy here!

Oh that's a pretty church!!

Then we crossed over Kew Bridge!!

Well I bet those apartments are expensive.....

OOOoooo wonder what that is?

And then we got turfed off the bus here.  A lot of passengers wanted to get to Ealing (the last stop) but none of the buses are going there.  Apparently all the roads further along around Chiswick are totally gnarled and blocked up with horrendous traffic.... we heard on the news later that Paddington Station had been shut down with no trains at all..... people were travelling in to see the funeral procession and ended up having to watch it on their mobile phones on the train!  We think maybe passengers at Paddington were getting taxis into this part of London which is why all the roads were clogged up here.

Anyway, we decided to turn round and go back towards Richmond because we didn't think we'd make it anywhere close to Ealing.

So we got on another 65 bus back to the hotel!!!

They got a floppy disc too!!

Oh!  That's the Musical Museum!!  Oh how interesting!!!

And a bit further on is another museum!!!

The Museum of water and steam!!!  Ooo that sounds like fun!!!

And we went back over Kew Bridge!

There's that brilliant cayke shop we went to!!!!! Can we get some more?

Please??

Over the road, that's the entrance to Kew Gardens.  They're closed today though.

We got off at Richmond Station because we fancied a bit of a walk.

Richmond Station's an art deco building too, you know.

We walked along to this building that we spotted on the number 33 bus yesterday.

Pretty, huh?!

And then went back to the hotel.....

.....for a cayke and a cuppa tea!  Wow, what a day!

We even got our passports stamped!!

Later on, we started getting hungry so we went out for dinner.....

We came here tonight.... apparently it's a French restaurant.  Cocoa's not eaten French food before.

We got another glass of wine!!  Hic...

We had French onion soop..... that was proper yummy!!!

And then we had fish pie with French beans (of course!) and chips!!!

We left there completely stuffed!!!

And then came back to our room and fell into bed!!!

We're exhaustipated!!!