Today is a different adventure on Travel Tuesday, this time pictures from my recent visit to the 2010 RWA National Conference!
I had a great time meeting with fans, fellow authors, editors and agents. The book signings went well and at the public book signing, RWA raised $55,000 to contribute to its literacy campaign. Awesome news.
The days were long and filled with appointments, even on Thursday when a few of us went over to do a run through all four Disney parks. Yes, four of them in one day!
It was wonderful to share the time with my friends and fellow authors, especially my buddy Shelley who was visiting Disney for the first time. Big hoorah to Rayna for organizing a whirlwind tour of the parks for us. Not only did we see so many interesting things and enjoy a mess of rides, while waiting in line we worked on book plots and titles and discussed market trends. We even met an interested reader on the little tram on the way back to our car!
So don’t be surprised if I end up doing a story titled ONE DAY PARK HOPPER. LOL!
Today’s Tuesday is some more photos from my trip to London. This time I’m taking you to Buckingham Palace and the Mews where the Royal horses, carriages and the like are stored.
First thing — the Queen’s Apartments in the Palace are only open in August and September when the Royal Family retires to Scotland for the summer months. During the winter you have to content yourself with views of the exterior, the changing of the guard and the museums at the Palace.
We watched the changing of the guard (some of the last slides you’ll see), but it was packed. We clearly had to get there a lot earlier than we did, but despite the crowd, we were able to see the nearly 45 minute long ceremony as the one group of guards is replaced. Mind you, it’s not just the guards, but their band and everything that is changed. So, there’s a lot of pomp with all the turnover.
We also had an opportunity to visit the Royal Mews and it was really interesting. We got to see some of the horses (huge huge animals) that pull the carriages as well as various carriages, limos, carts, etc. The most interesting one — a golden carriage made for Richard III. It was stunning and the artwork on the doors, etc. was amazing.
It was interesting to see all the different carriages as well as learn how some are postillion driven (riders are on the horses pulling the carriages) versus being driven by a driver on the wagon. A bit of trivia I know I’ll put to use in one of those historical flashbacks in a future novel!
Yet more photos from England for you, this time of the area around Westminster Abbey and Parliament (aka the Palace of Westminster)!
We had a great time strolling around this historic area. The only bummer was that you couldn’t take photos inside Westminster Abbey. There was so much to see there and that I wanted to share with you. But the good news is that Westminster Abbey has some great information and photos. You can click here to see some of the sights and get an idea for yourself of the immensity of this cathedral which was built in 960 and holds hundreds of tombs and monuments.
My favorite was the Poet’s Corner where many famous writers are honored, starting with Chaucer. Dickens, Thomas Hardy and Rudyard Kipling are buried in the Abbey and there are monuments to Jane Austen, William Shakespeare and T.S. Eliot just to name a few you might know! We also took a moment to check out where Charles Darwin was buried beside a number of other famous scientists because the geek in me just couldn’t resist.
Big Ben (apparently the name of the big hour bell and not the clock!) is nearby as are the Houses of Parliament. Unfortunately Parliament was closed due to the “bank holiday”, so we missed seeing the House of Commons and House of Lords, but the outside is quite impressive and we had the treat of getting a glimpse at English politics at work when the Prime Minister asked the Queen to disband Parliament and set a date for new elections.
In Britain they only have a month to campaign. What a grand idea! Too bad we can’t do that here!
Almost directly across the way from the Westminster area is the London Eye — a giant ferris wheel of sorts. I wanted to go for a ride, but the lines were very long and my family – knowing my fear of heights – feared I’d freak out since it takes at least 45 minutes to make a complete loop on the Eye.
We took a lovely train ride out to Windsor to see Windsor Castle and the quaint town nearby, also the home to Eton, the exclusive school. Weather was a bit dreary, but not too cold. Unfortunately, Her Majesty was in residence which meant we could go on the castle grounds for free, but were unable to get into any of her “apartments.” Major bummer as I was dying to see the various bedrooms, kitchens, dining areas, etc. that we had seen on the PBS special about a year in the life of Windsor Castle.
Nevertheless, we were able to walk around all the grounds and see St. George’s Chapel. The guards were patrolling all over the area and are quite attractive in their bright red coats and furry hats. Real guns — no one will mess with them.
The gardens and areas in and around Windsor Castle are lovely. Well-kept and so green thanks to the spring rains. If you see the picture of the entrance to the Moat Path in the slide show below, it is now the entrance to the gardens that have replaced the moat.
We then headed to town where we had fish and chips in a delightful pub and walked around town before returning to London. The train ride was nice and it was a good way to also get a glimpse of the suburbs and countryside around London.
If you’re like me, you’ve got a list of places you’d like to see sometime in your life — Grand Canyon, Mt. Rushmore, Great Wall of China, etc. and possibly also Stonehenge.
Well, I’m so happy I could take Stonehenge off the list because we took a tour to see it during our visit to London. It took about an hour and a half to get there, but it was worth the trip since we got to see the English countryside and then went on to see Bath (more on that in another post).
Some interesting things about Stonehenge. The word “henge” derives from either “hanging” or “hinge” which makes sense considering how the stones hang on each other.
Even before Stonehenge was built, the area was used as a burial place and there are several burial mounds in and around Stonehenge. Eventually, the closer you got to be buried next to the stones, the more important you were. In this shot from the bus (a little blurry), you can see a burial mound off to the right of the photo. The mounds are known as barrows.
It’s believed that construction at this site began around 3100 BC and continued until about 1600 BC. Archaelogists believe the site was constructed as a monument by early civilizations and the connection to Druids apparently comes much later in the history of the monument.
This shot was taken from what is known as the “Heelstone” (which you can see in the album as the one lone stone apart from the monument). The smaller stone laying down in front is the “slaughter stone.”
Sadly, you can no longer touch the stones or get very close to them. It would have been nice to get in the center and see what kind of energy, if any, exists there. Unfortunately, that was not possible and so the only thing we felt was the cold wind blowing along the fields.
I hope you’ll enjoy today’s behind the scenes look into a writer’s brain!
As I mentioned, I needed to do some research and spark story ideas for the new book that I’ve been plotting in my brain, hence the cashing in the frequent flyer and hotel rewards for a trip to London.
The book is contemporary and revolves around some secret orders of knights, mystical relics and the need to save the world from demonic forces. But there are scenes set in ancient London and other interesting spots in both the United Kingdom and elsewhere, including New York City.
One of the places I could envision doing some flashback scenes was the Tower of London. It was a fascinating place to visit and some of the things we saw already inspired ideas – like the “Entry to the Traitor’s Gate” that can be seen from boats on the Thames (see below).
View of the Gate from within the Tower of London
I could so picture one of my heroes being rowed through the gate on the way to some punishment in order to get information from them. The guide on the boat trip we took mentioned that the last man to be rowed through the gates was William Wallace (of Braveheart fame).
While we were in the Tower there was an amazing exhibition of armor as well as the Crown Jewels. Unfortunately, you’re not allowed to snap pictures of the jewels. Bummer. I had hoped I could use one of them, or maybe one of the stones in them, as part of the collection of mystical relics in the story. I guess that will require additional thought on my part as well as more research.
I’ll be posting more Tower of London photos to my Facebook page shortly (something wonky is going on with uploading!). As soon as I have the link to those photos, I’ll post it here.
I’m back! Sorry I wasn’t back yesterday as promised but computer issues ate up most of the day.
So you may have been wondering where I’ve been. Well, hubby and I had been planning this trip for some time and we cashed in all our frequent flyer and hotel miles and headed off to London for a variety of reasons.
We visited our best friend in London and I got great inspiration for new stories and research one in particular.
We had a wonderful time and the break from legal and writing work did me a world of good. After feeling a wealth of frustration over a number of projects in the last few months, all the new sights, sounds and foods revived my flagging creativity.
I hope the sights and info will inspire you as well as over the next few months Tip Tuesdays become Travel Tuesdays as I share some of the 600+ photos that I took all over London and nearby environs.
Today’s photographs are from some of the parks in London as well as the gardens in the area. The Brits love their gardens and it shows in the neatly manicured plots in front of many of the homes. In particular, the camelias caught my eye as they were in full bloom in an assortment of colors. I’ve always wanted to plant a camelia, but NJ is just too cold. Surprisingly, London which is far more North of NJ, has more temperate weather and because of this palm trees, camelias and other plants seem to thrive there.
The weather during our visit was a little drizzly, but not cold which made it just fine for the long walks we took through the various neighborhoods and parks. We even had two beautiful sunny and warm days and when that happened everyone seem to come out of their homes and offices and head to the nearest greens.
The photos in this collection are of three different parks:
St. James Park is located directly behind 10 Downing Street and Whitehall Chapel and in front of Buckingham Palace. It is a lovely park with a lake in the middle of it. Lush lawns, trees and flowers were all over and since this park was close to offices, Parliament, etc. it was mobbed when the sun came out.
Regents Park was right near our hotel in the Camden area of London. It’s also right next to the London Zoo or ZedSL as they call it (ZSL in American Speak). Even bigger than St. James, Regents likewise had lovely gardens and an immense lake filled with an assortment of very interesting water fowl.
Finally, St. John’s Wood Church Grounds was a smaller park along the route to the Tube (aka the subway). We passed by the park several times as they had closed our Tube line for servicing during their “bank holiday” (aka public holiday) over the Easter weekend. Take a moment to notice the very old tombstones scattered in the park and buried beneath the flowering camelias. It was rather creepy to walk past them at night, but it got my writer’s mind going about what might happen in such a place in the dark!
We spent over a week in London and also did a daytrip to Stonehenge and Bath, so look for tons more photos in the coming weeks as well as some video.
