Yesterday we went into London via the train and tube to see some sites.
We started with Victoria Tube Station, see Sherlock Holmes stories, and there you will find Big Ben, silent for the nonce, and Westminster Abby.
Ben is impressive, large, with some gold bits here and there. We walked out of the station to see about 20 tourists with their phones snapping away. Across the street we have the houses of the local lords and commons. An impressive bit of building.
Across the street we find a statue of Winston Churchill and WM Abbey. There is a queue for the abbey so we walk around the building and find a tower that was used to store documents for a couple hundred years. Free gift shop!
I go for the ice cream case and find a Magnum bar. Now, we have these in the States these days, but there as a time when that was not true. There were trips to the north of Scotland that took me through airports where the Magnum lay waiting. In those days, a mere pound per bar. It was about $1.70 at the time and I was on an expense account. Not much hesitation.
But now they are two pounds, making the cost about $2.30. That's high and my expense account has gone away. 100% inflation in 10 years! Hmm! Probably the EU's fault. I hear they have 3200 pages on how to sell cucumbers.
It did taste good however. We wandered the gift shop then having rested a bit, off we go. There are a number of grave and monuments in the area and we are snapping pics of them, plus the building bits hanging overhead.
The Abbey has no queue, which was not true a few minutes ago, and we plunge for the self guided tour. David tells me the tour used to be free, but now it's 17 pounds each.
It's a stroll through the kings and queens of England. They were not always nice to each other! Jailings and the odd execution. There is an audio device as part of the entry fee. Narrated by Jeremy Irons, it's useful and educational.
Google comes to the rescue as it's two o'clock and time for us to get some food. The tend to eat lunch about one here and we've been doing that. But it's beyond that and we are hungry Google suggests the restaurant MIO, which is "where the locals eat." Pizza mostly, run by Italians. Food was good, not cheap, but less than the Abbey!
We eat, fill our water bottles and we are off to Buckingham Palace. It's about a 10 minute walk. I'd been there in the mid 70s and was almost run over by the Queen's laundry truck, my one flirtation with royalty. There are barriers up and armed guards and I remember nothing of this.
But it's an impressive building and there are hoards of tourists, taking selfies by the front gate. We decide to head to the British Museum, which is also on the list.
We walk through Green Park to get to a tube station. Our train/tube tickets are still working and we get to a near by station. Out we pop and a ten minute walk and we are there.
It closes about 5:30 and it's not 4:45 or so. I spot a coin shop and in we go. While my penny collection is complete, my Queen Victoria penny is pretty worn and I'd like a better copy. The clerk was helpful and I've got a better copy of Victoria. It did cost a bit more than 50 pence, but as the only souvenir, it's still not too expensive.
We would have liked to spend more time at the museum. But we managed to get in the big two, the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles.
Both impressive. The stone is 8 inches thick - I was under the impression that it would be an inch or so.
As for the Marbles, I thought this was one panel of relief carving. Ha! The Brits dismantled the outer advertising on the Parthenon! They did have permission to do it, but that was given by the Turkish government, who was in charge at the time. The Greeks would like them back. (This is from memory, correct me if I'm wrong.)
There are a lot of big things in the museum and we wished we had had more time. Ah, a reason to go back.
We stagger out of the museum. Barb wants to look at a souvenir shop and I inquire about restaurants in the area. The gal says there is Greek on the next block. We wander over. Three courses for 15 pounds. We go for it and dine in the back patio. Nice! The wait staff was good, the water boy was not a native speaker, but he wanted to go to California and he was friendly and fun.
Our bellies full, we decide to head for Cambridge. It's about a mile to King's Cross station and off we walk. We'd been using phones for navigation and for the most part they have worked well. But my phone is out of juice and we turn to Barb's.
It liked to freeze up as soon as you started to walk and that made making the proper turns an issue.
We asked a couple of times and got Google maps back up and got there ok.
We found an app through the Rick Steve's forum called City Mapper. It was great for the tube with connections. Worth a look. Not all cities are available.
We made our express train with 3 minutes to spare. Crowded, but we got seats near each other. 50 minutes later we were in Cambridge and since the bus was no longer running, caught a cab.
We spent today back in Cambridge. Finished the Fitzwilliam museum, which was worth the return visit. A final lunch with Sue and David, Chinese food this time at Charlie Chan's.
We've got snacks for the plane and in the morning we get a limo to the airport and then a long day to get more.
Cindy, our photo friend among other out standing qualities will pick us up and thus end our grand UK adventure.
Be sure, dear reader, to keep an eye on flickr as I'll be putting up some pics soon.
Many thanks to Sue and David for sharing their lives and home and family with us. Thanks to Mike and Robin for golf adventures and clubs. And many to Cindy for duties well beyond her pay scale!
Rich & Barb
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