This Woman Was HereLondon Archives

London

We left Jim and Dorota’s by 7 and arrived in London by 11.30, no white knuckles this time. We took a free city bus to the Marriott, where the staff was incredibly accommodating, checking us in early, printing our tour tickets, and calling to confirm our tours. They also explained how to take the free city bus to Hatton Cross tube station, where we purchased oyster cards that will hopefully take us through our three days in London.

We took the Piccadilly line to Piccadilly Circus, walked down Regent Street looking for a restaurant and happened on to Inamo, a restaurant with projectors above every table that not only projected images onto the table, but allowed us to select our meal and order it electronically, a delicious bento box with salad, salmon, steak and chicken wings for under 10 pounds.

projected image on table

We walked through St James Park, which was crowded with thousands of sun worshipers enjoying the sunny, warm weather. We missed Westminster Cathedral by minutes (closing time 3:30), but walked down the Themes past this obelisk from 1500 BC flanked by sphinxes.

London Eye

Our destination was St. Paul’s Cathedral where we were lucky enough to catch a choral performance of Evensong.

We walked across the Millenial bridge to the Globe Theater. Tickets for that night’s performance were sold out, but just down the street we found a Southern b-b-q restaurant that played blues and had beer pong tables set up that were crowded with locals within a half hour. We lucked out on restaurants in our first day in London.

After walking for a good 5 hours, the tired travelers headed back to the hotel.

Downtown London

We woke to another lovely day in London. Our tube ride in is about an hour, a great opportunity for people watching. We went first to the 11:30 changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, arriving at 10:50 to a steadily growing mob. It was a bit too much of a crowd scene for any of our tastes, but we can say we’ve done it.

Next, driven by hunger, we found a wonderful Italian restaurant a few blocks away, where we had a fantastic meal. My lasagna was the best I’ve ever tasted.

Then it was on to Westminster Abbey for a self guided tour that takes at least 1.5-2 hrs. Every major political, scientific, religious, and artistic figure is buried there including Darwin, Newton, Kelvin, Chaucer, Thomas Hardy, Lord Byron, Gerald Manley Hopkins, Lewis Carrol, CS Lewis, George Eliot, Jane Austen, WH Auden, Henry James, TS Eliot, Wordsworth, and the list goes on and on. It’s a gorgeous abbey with a history that dates back to 960.

From Big Ben and the houses of Parliament, we walked down the southern side of the Themes towards the Globe Theater. Thousands of people teamed the walk, with musicians and performers dotting the route. We were able to get in on one of the last tours of the Globe, again an education in and of itself. The building is a modern reproduction of the original structure spearheaded by the American actor Sam Wanamaker.

From there, we crossed back over the Themes in search of the charming old Blackfriars pubs we passed yesterday on our way to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Our luck running true, we landed in Shaws Booksellers, where we rested our feet and enjoyed cold guiness and frontier lagers. We ordered a meat and fish plate, both of which were delicious.

Within an hour, the place was teeming with locals, most of whom chose to stand outside with their beers.

By the time we left, both sides of the street were crowded with Friday afternoon drinkers. Once again we lucked out in the places we landed. We haven’t had a bad meal yet. Having walked another 5 miles, we headed back to Heathrow to buy our London Express coach tickets to Victoria coach station for our tours tomorrow. It will be an early morning and a long day. Jordan goes to Stonehenge, Bath, and Shakespeare’s birthplace in Stratford, and we head to Leeds Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, Dover, Grenwich, and a cruise up the Themes. We will rendevouz back at Victoria Coach station for our return trip to the hotel.

An exhausted tube passenger.

Leeds Castle, Canterbury, Dover, Greenwich

We took the National Express from Heathrow direct to Victoria Coach Station, a 40 min drive as opposed to a 1.5 hr tube ride with a walk at the end. The tours didn’t depart until 8:20, so we could have slept later and taken a later coach but at least we made it easily. We were heading off for different tours but planned to rendevouz back at the arrivals terminal of the coach station at 8pm when Jordan was due to arrive. We didn’t realize it was the day before the summer solstice, a day that would draw hundreds of Druids to Stonehenge. We headed off to Leeds Castle, a gorgeous gem of a castle restored to its former glory by Lady Bailey, an Anglo-American heiress to the Standard Oil fortune, who purchased the castle in 1926 when she was 27 and spent millions on restorations improvements.

She entertained lavishly, with guests such as Charlie Chaplin, Errol Flynn, Mary Pickford, Winston Churchill, the glitteratti of her day. The house dates back to the 1200 when it was bought by Queen Eleanor of Castille. It was a house owned by many women. My favorite was Catherine of Valois, the widow of of Henry V who took up with a Welsh servant named Henry Tudor, causing a scandal at court. She had five children with him but they never married. Nonetheless, he is the progenitor of the Tudor line.

Henry Vlll dinning room

Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon used the house on their trips to the continent because it was a convenient stopping off point.

Today the house is filled with bouquets of fresh flowers and art that Lady Bailey collected all over the continent such as this Venetian lion that is said to bring good luck to all those who touch its nose.

This lovely woodwork was rescued from an English manor house that had to be auctioned off after WW1 because of the death of the heir and estate taxes.

The gardens are also lovely and the moat is home to a dozen or more black swans imported from Autstralia.

Next we headed to the white cliffs of Dover to see Dover Castle, which served as a center for the British command during WW11. You can see the caves that were built to be able to observe the war directly.

After that, we headed to Caterbury, but when we arrived, the Catherdral was closed for a ceremony celebrating the 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo. We did get to view the crypt beneath the cathedral, which was magnificent.

The grounds of the cathedral and the houses surrounding it were lovely.

Notice the carriage behind the tree, which holds two actors playing the emissaries from the Duke of Wellington announcing the victory at the battle of Waterloo. It was quite a ceremony, with a band, soldiers, dignitaries. The honorable Michael, Duke of York, a relative of the Queen, spoke.

Royal Ascot was also on, so the shop windows were filled with hats.

Next, we went to Greenwich.

We are standing to either side of longitude east/west line.

All the official measurements.

It started to rain as we descended the hill to our cruise back to London, so we didn’t get photos from the boat. The only glitch in the day was that when we made our way back to Victoria Coach Station where we had arranged to meet Jordan, we were told Premier coaches don’t drop off there, but along the street in front of the train station. We waited for a half-hour, wondering how we would find him since my phone had died. I decided to return to the coach station and saw him strolling casually up the street. He had been dropped off ten blocks away but knew to make his way back here to meet us. We grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to the station for our coach back to Heathrow and our hotel.

This Woman Was Here

A Do-It-Yourselfer's Life Journey

Category Archives: London

London

Downtown London

Leeds Castle, Canterbury, Dover, Greenwich