Henley on Thames

Alan and Hilary visited with us I  the morning and then took us for a visit to the lovely village of Henley On Themes.  This is a very picturesque village with a walk beside the river.  It included a walk across the weir and swans and other birds were everywhere.  We had a lovely lunch and enjoyed looking at boats tied up on the river wall.

Sept 12 Greenwich, Tate Modern, and off to Abingdon

Our day started with bright sunshine.  We slept late again...jet lag had hit us harder than we realized...so we had the afternoon ahead of us.

We decided to venture out to Greenwich, the home of GMT and the Prime Meridian (the line of longitude which separates the Eastern from the Western hemispheres.  We arrived via the underground and the Light Rail system, through Canary Warf.

Greenwich is a lovely town with streets lined with old buildings.

We made our way to the Royal Observatory which is the location where scientists' work was done to determine precision in time keeping and where the international community determined the prime Meridian would be. 

The park where the observatory is located is beautiful and many people where out enjoying the sun shine.

The Observatory itself was a little underwhelming, but the Prime Meridian was special.  I can now say that, in my lifetime, I have stood on zero degrees longitude and latitude as well (the equator).

We took a Thames clipper back into London and did a very quick look-see at the Tate Modern Gallery.

Most of the works there were baffling to me, but I did see:

A Picasso

A Matisse

A Monet

A Dali

And a Degas statue.

Then it was off to Abingdon for a visit with my cousin Alan.

St. Paul's and Dream Girls, Sept 11.2018

After collapsing into bed at 8 PM the night previous we slept soundly until 10 am the next morning.  Nevertheless we still felt very jetlagged and so our day started slowly.  We struggled to find breakfast and ended up getting underway at about noon.  We decided to spend the afternoon at St. Paul's Cathedral.  We were not sure how long to leave for this visit and so planned to also pop into the Tate Gallery if we had time…Well as they say, one plans and God laughs!  St. Paul's Cathedral is huge and fascinating so we spent the entire afternoon exploring it.

We expected huge crowds but when we arrived there were so few people we were shocked.

Under the assumption that we had hit a quiet spot between groups we hurried directly to the whispering gallery and the stone Gallery, two very popular spots.  We climbed the 376 stairs to the stone gallery where we had panoramic views of the city.  The climb up was interesting as it led around the famous dome, but from the inside so we could see detail of the building’s construction.

We then visited the whispering gallery which circles the bottom of the dome itself on the inside.  This gallery gives a close up view of some of the art work as well as  panoramic view of the floor below.  Unfortunately pictures are lot allowed, so the few that I got were taken surreptitiously.

The crowds never did appear and so we visited the church itself and went finally to the Crypt where we saw the grave of the Duke Of Wellington, one of my ancestors.

We visited until closing and even had a chance to attend part of the evensong service where a combined boy’s and men’s choir sang in the perfect acoustics.

We then made our way to our next engagement, a supper at a restaurant on the River Thames.  We had purchased this as part of a package including a show in the famous London Theater  scene.   We had chosen the musical Dream Girls and supper was the prelude.

We walked to the restaurant  through side streets and alleyways and found that the restaurant was on a boat, The Tattershall Castle.  It is located directly opposite the London Eye and we were afforded great views from our table right at the waterline.

We then made our way to The Savoy Theater along the Victoria Embankment, past one of my favorite points of interest, Cleopatra's Needle which was imported from Egypt  decades ago.

We went to see the show, which was an  outstanding production.

Finally we visited the lobby at The  Savoy Hotel and saw such a beautiful lobby that I just had to see the ladies room!  Thus our second day in London ended!

Kensington and Hyde Park

The first order of business was to reactivate two transit passes (Oyster cards)  my parents had loaned us.  We negotiated the process and were soon on the train speeding through the suburbs of London enroute to the Earl's Court stop.  There we discovered our hotel...on a quaint and relatively quiet side street.

We were so tempted to get some sleep but decided to "tough it out" and get on to London time as soon as we could.  We decided threfore to visit Hyde Park where we could find resting spots if needed.  We used our newly activated Oyster cards and jumped on  bus (the 74) which was headed our way.

Along the route we spied Harrods and made  quick detour there to visit the famous spot and to pick up a snack.  Waht an experience!  It is huge containing some 21 restaurants as well as the wares and goods found in high end department stores.  Paul found a men's light casual jacket priced at £575!!!

We used the underground to get us the rest of the way to Hyde Park and strolled through the Princess of Wales walk past Rose's and gardens.

We visited the Serpentine Lake where there are birds aplenty and found the Princess of Wales memorial, an understated fountain installation.

We continued our walking and happened upon the Royal Geographic Society and the Royal Albert Memorial and Hall.

We spent more time on buses and the tube looking for a recommended restaurant only to discover it had close own...so it was back to Kensington and an Indian meal and bed at last.

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United Kingdom Here We Come

We have hid a jam packed year since our adventure in Egypt.  We have been spending time with our growing family, dealing with continuing maintenance at the cottage and at our home, helping my Mom and Dad move  couple of times and assisting them with downsizing...and so it is no surprise that we found ourselves yearning for another adventure.  We decided to take a trip, this time to somewhere a bit closer as a long flight just seemed like too much.  We narrowed down our choices and decided to give the UK a try and Paul booked tickets in the early summer.   Before we knew it, departure day was upon us.  Our plan-to rent a car and drive around Britain, Wales and Scotland.

When Paul booked the tickets he was given a chance to bid on an upgrade.  He, to our great delight, was successful and so we were treated to business class for the overnight trip!  It was a very comfortable flight and our jetlag symptoms much diminished by our ability to lay down and get a get a bit of sleep.