Day 17: To the Palace!

Here’s the 14th post sharing our adventures in the British Isles and Ireland from September 29 to October 17, 2025, for genealogy, business, and sightseeing. Hope you enjoy it!

Wednesday, October 15, 2025

We bade a joyful goodbye to the conference hotel (see the review in the last post) and then ordered an Uber to take us to our home for the last two nights of our trip, The Rubens at the Palace, just steps from Buckingham Palace and within walking distance of iconic landmarks, such as Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye, and more.

The Rubens is the kind of hotel where doormen, clothed in resplendent crimson, stand ready at the entrance to ferry your bags into the hotel. When we arrived, however, there was just one doorman in sight, and he was busy with another guest, so we schlepped our bags up the stairs ourselves and presented ourselves at the front desk, where the lovely woman there actually looked happy to see us and made pleasant conversation! A stark comparison to the previous hotel . . . 

It was not even noon yet, so we didn’t expect our room to be ready. We just wanted them to hold our stuff for us while we explored the city. And, of course, they were happy to do so.

Before we headed out, we visited the hotel restrooms and from those, we knew we were about to get spoiled. Jim even took a photo of his!

Off we went in search of a London adventure. For me, as one with undergrad and graduate degrees in English, walking around London offered breath-take after breath-take.

First, we headed toward Buckingham Palace and came upon a crowd waiting for something. There was plenty of police presence and we wondered what huge thing was happening! Jim asked a female police officer and she said, “Just the guard change.” Imagine seeing this so often that it’s “just.” I guess it’s probably like having your commute take you past Stonehenge every day. 

The Changing of the Guard usually takes place at Buckingham Palace on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays at 11:00 a.m. It is a traditional military ceremony featuring Foot Guards of the British Army in red tunics and bearskin hats, accompanied by a military band. The change, in which the New Guard takes over duties from the Old Guard, involves a handover of keys to the palace.

After the guard change, we headed toward the Thames. We wanted to see Big Ben and take a spin on the London Eye. Also known as the Millennium Wheel, the 443-foot-tall observation wheel offers a panoramic 360-degree view of the city from the 32 glass capsules. I was in London for work about twenty years ago and always regretted not taking the time to ride it, so I was excited to do so this time.

We walked across the Thames on the Westminster Bridge and bought our tickets for the London Eye online. Very convenient. It wasn’t overly crowded that day, so we didn’t opt for the preferred tickets.

While we were on the London Eye, The Rubens called and said our room was ready. We had a lot more to see, though, so it would be a little while before we’d make it back to the hotel.

Hunger hit us hard at lunchtime, so we tucked into this historic pub called The Albert. It was built in 1862 and named as a tribute to Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert. The Albert survived the Blitz in World War II and its Victorian features were untouched. The ornate ceilings, hand-etched frosted glass windows, and iron balconies are all original features. Upstairs, where the restrooms are, there are lots of old newspaper articles and artifacts on the walls. 

Have you ever watched the 1970s BBC/PBS series Upstairs, Downstairs? The drama followed the Bellamy family and their below-stairs servants during Edwardian London from 1903-1930. In 2010, the series was revived with a new cast of characters moving into the house. I watched both series just a couple of years ago and really became attached to both sets of characters and their storylines. 

I really wanted to visit was the street where the exterior shots were taken at 65 Eaton Place, Belgravia, London. It was so cool to walk the street and imagine that the characters could materialize at any time. That’s how real fiction can feel sometimes! If you’re interested in watching the series, you can do so on BritBox, Hulu, and Amazon.

Then, it was off to Harrods in Knightsbridge, London. It was founded in 1849 by Charles Henry Harrod. The first building burned down and the present structure, at 1.1 million square feet, is now the largest department store in Europe. It is currently owned by Qatar Investment Authority, which purchased the store from Mohamed Al-Fayed in 2010. Mohamed’s son, Dodi, was killed in a car crash with Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997.

We rode the escalator to every floor and examined quite a few of the million square feet. We forgot to go to the basement, though, where there are food halls, souvenirs, kitchenware, and toys. We saved so much money at Harrods that day, by not buying anything!

After just about 15,000 steps since morning, we cried uncle and headed back to the hotel rather than continuing on to Kensington Palace as we had planned. We spilled into The Rubens and eagerly anticipated seeing our opulent room, a splurge for the last two days of our trip. We reserved one of the royal-themed rooms and I couldn’t wait to see what was in store for us!

The room was one of the fanciest we had ever stayed in, but it was small! We understand that hotel rooms in big cities, like London and New York, are usually on the small side, but honestly, this one was so small, I started to feel claustrophobic! I wondered how much time I could actually spend in that room, and wasn’t that the point of splurging, to enjoy the room? 

Well, I did get used to it, and it WAS a beautifully appointed room. The bathroom was amazing and everything was top notch. Here are some photos:

We had to get creative with where to put our luggage and how to access it, but this was definitely a five-star hotel. Two fancy cookies had greeted us in the room and also two coupons for free champagne at one of the two hotel restaurants, which we would redeem the next evening. 

We were so tired from a day of walking, and still full from lunch, so once we got into the room, we didn’t leave for the rest of the night (and I was able to catch up on my journal entries).

Tomorrow, what Jim had been looking forward to most. Wimbledon!