Last day of London sight seeing

We planned a fairly easy day today but it didn't quite work out that way.

Just to catch up I'll tell you that we hopped on the train to Redhill yesterday to visit my 90 year old aunt. Boy! if I'm in half as good shape when I'm 90, I'll be doing well. Michelle was looking forward to meeting her and she wasn't disappointed. My aunt, always a beautiful woman, looked amazing. In her fashionably modern sweater and beautiful white hair, she smelled so good when she opened the door to us.

Sue and Aunty Katja

Although she relies on her walker (zimmerframe) to get around she is full of jokes about the junk she carries around with her in the storage compartment and full of stories about her life's experiences. Michelle thought she might be reluctant to speak of her time in several concentration camps during WWII but she was very down to earth about that period and continued on to tell us many stories about her subsequent life and work experiences. Sitting in the sun room of her beautifully furnished and spotlessly clean bungalow she served us up a lovely cake and tea and we were amazed that 4 hours slipped by very quickly. As always I was really sorry to take my leave of her and regret very much that I don't live closer and could visit her more often. Unfortunately her two daughters with whom I spent time as a child, were both out of the country yesterday.

So...on to today. On our way home last night we bought tickets on-line to go up The London Eye for 10.30 am today. The tickets are cheaper if you buy on-line but you need a printer to print them off so we had to go to an internet store that is close to the apartment. We were hoping that if we got there early in the morning (they only open at 10) we'd miss the crowds and we seem to have been successful although once we started lining up to actually get on, we noticed that we hadn't beaten the hoards by more than a few minutes. It was a very grey and cloudy day today which you will see by the photos but the clouds were high up enough that it didn't interfere with the sights.

A grey day at the London Eye

An empty compartment of the London Eye

I'm not sure what they call the "compartments", "bubbles", "cars" whatever...the containers that you go up in, but there were about 22 people in ours and plenty of room to move around and take photos without other people getting in the way. The wheel does not stop on the way round and you just get in and out as it moves very slowly. At the bottom it meets the platform for long enough that two people with equipment go through every "compartment" checking for bombs between every group of people and we also had to submit to a very quick check before we got on. The complete circle takes half an hour and so by 11 am we were out of there.

Big Ben from half way up on the London Eye

Statue of Bodicea in the centre

Big Ben and Houses of Parliament from the top of the London Eye

Round building is new Hotel

Front right: Charing Cross Station

Back tall column: BT tower (where my mum had her gall bladder attack)

Left centre: Nelson's Column (white with black top)

Nelson's Column, Trafalgar Square

St. Martin's in the Field, Trafalgar Square

Looking down river, Charing Cross Bridge

The new London Bridge

For some reason a single man in the next compartment

They call the pointed highrise "The Gherkin"

Looking down river

Looking straight down to the ground

Although we had some things planned for the afternoon we decided, as we crossed the Westminster Bridge back to the bus, that we had time to take a short river cruise so that Michelle could at least see the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.

We hoped aboard one of the many boats and I actually got a seniors discount for the first time on this trip. The journey down river took about 45 minutes and the trip back only about 15 minutes but as you will see, Michelle took some nice photos despite the weather.

One of the river cruise boats coming out from under Westminster Bridge

A different cruise boat

Westminster Bridge and London Eye from up river

The Milenium suspension bridge

Old Buildings converted to condos with St. Paul's in background

Tower of London

Tower Bridge

Reproduction of original Globe Theatre (with thatched roof)

Old docklands building converted to condos (flats)

Other buildings with new covered portion in the middle

Another old docklands building

She is always taken with the new glass buildings alongside buildings that are hundreds of years old. When you are up on the London Eye you really do get a better sense of how much the older and much smaller buildings are being crowded out by the new glass towers. Some of those old buildings are so gorgeous but it is hard to appreciate them because the view of them is never from a proper distance where you can take in the decoration at the tops and/or the roofs, but you are always looking at them from the sidewalk right out front.

Here you see the small old building right next to monster glass tower

Anyway, coming back up river from Tower Bridge it was very chilly and neither of us were properly dressed for the occasion. When we hit the Embankment again which is right around Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, we were right back into the thronging masses and so we jumped aboard our favourite Number E-L-E-V-E-N bus and headed back towards home. We had to call in at the bank, which amazingly went very smoothly..you know the fun I have with banks here... and the young receptionist gave us great directions to some eateries away from the main road where we found a relatively empty pub and had a fabulous lunch. One Fish and Chips and one Steak and Ale pie....both excellent!!!

On the way home we stopped at Marks and Spencer. I've already had the packet of lox I mentioned in an earlier blog but oh M&S do such wonderful desserts that I'm afraid I set a very bad example to my child and had to buy a Mocha Chocolate light as a feather yummy thing and a chocolate eclair for tomorrow.

Our agenda for tomorrow is to pack up as if we were leaving for good, except of course we are now off to the Czech Republic. However, when we get back we're only here for one night before picking up a car and heading north. We are staying in small hotels while we are in Prague and Karlovy Vary but we think they both have internet available to us so we'll try and keep you posted even if it is without photographs for now.

Thanks again for all the positive feedback. Your responses to the blog have made it a lot of fun for us too. On to Prague!

We had a lovely lazy day on Saturday. Michelle plays a British program called QI for me every morning as we eat breakfast and after that we took care of a lot of chores.

In the evening we set out early for dinner and called in at my old junior school which is attached to a lovely church in Kensington. I showed Michelle where I think all my back problems started...a very, very long playground where we used to walk "like crabs" from one end to the other. The church was open so we went in and the photos came out better than we expected.

St. Mary Abbotts Church 

Entrance to St. Mary Abbotts School

(Note that it says 'Girls' above the small door and 'Boys and Infants' above the big door)

 Enterance to St. Mary Abbotts Church

 Inside St. Mary Abbotts Church

 Stained Glass Window, St. Mary Abbotts

Door from entrance into the chapel, St. Mary Abbotts Church

Then we wondered through the park, past Kensington Palace where there are still tributes to Lady Di. It seems it would have been her birthday on 1st July and there were many birthday cards wrapped in plastic and lots of flowers.

Sunken garden behind Kensington Palace

Birds by the pond, garden at Kensington Palace

We had dinner with my friend Wally, his sister Barbara and his partner Caroline. Wally, Barbi and I have known one another since birth and our mothers, although they only met one another in England after the war, were great friends. It was really nice for Michelle to meet such old friends and give meaning to all the old photographs of us as children. We both absolutely loved the Greek restaurant where the humous was to die for and my lamb roasted on the spit was wonderful. In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we went back there on Sunday.

First, on Sunday, we went to Speakers corner but didn't linger for too long. It all seemed rigged to me. There was a woman spouting on about spirituality, egged on by an old guy telling her she was a miserable and wicked old bat

Crazy Lady at Speaker's Corner, Hyde Park

Crazy Man fighting with Crazy Lady at Speaker's Corner, Hyde Park

and there was a black man, with a huge crowd around him, who was talking a load of rubbish about the Israelis and the Palestinians. I suspect it was all staged for tourists. Either that or all these people were a bunch of nutbars!

Left: Black Man going on about the Israelis and Palestinians

Right: Black Man blessing his spot on Speaker's Corner before he starts preaching

From there we went to see the Serpentine where Michelle took lots of pictures of the many different ducks and particularly the little babies which were just balls of fur.

Fountains at the top of the Serpentine

Swan and Signets in the Serpentine

(The Signet on the left had a deformed leg)

Mummy Duck and Ugly Baby

Mummy Duck and Pretty Babies

Ducks sitting on the posts across the Serpentine

Heron on a post

Duck with Strange Colours

We also saw the statue of Peter Pan which has been there since I was a kid

Peter Pan Statue

Figure on Peter Pan Statue

Faeries on Peter Pan Statue

Mice on Peter Pan Statue

and then we walked along the Bayswater Road and looked at the paintings for sale by many different artists who exhibit their art on the park fence. We understand from a conversation with one of the vendors that this walk is not as popular as it once was and sales are down considerably. By the time we'd done this walk we were close to the restaurant that we visited last night and decided to go for lunch...more humous and a lot of other Greek goodies. We were torn between enjoying the food and the fact that we were heading for real English tea at the Orangery in Kensington Gardens.

The Orangery, Kensington Gardens

The Orangery, Kensington Gardens

Inside the Orangery, Kensington Gardens

This was another treat Michelle had set her heart on....little sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and little cupcakes.

Table Setting and Menu, The Orangery

Afternoon Tea for One, The Orangery

(£15 include pot of tea, sandwiches, scone and clotted cream, and small pastries)

She liked the place, the nice teapots and the fact that this was afternoon tea English style, including the half hour queue to get in! Meanwhile, outside on the lawn they had erected a large open sided tent where they were having a dance 60's style.

Lawn Between the Orangery and Kensington Palace

(The tent on the left is where the dancing was held)

Young and Old Dancers

Many young people as well as old guys and women like me jiving and dancing to traditional jazz just like I did when I was 17. A really mixed crowd. It was fun to watch and I think that Michelle was quite surprised at how well some of the couples danced together. On the way out of the park Michelle mentioned that she would like to wrap this part of London up and take it back home with her.....a warm Sunday evening in the park, lots of families, some strolling around or cycling, some picnicing on the grass, and all of us "people watching".

Today we met a friend for lunch and then walked over the Charing Cross bridge to the south bank of the Thames, walked up river past the London Eye and crossed back over on the Westminster Bridge. We still hope to go up on the London Eye but that will have to wait till we come back from Sandwich.

Charring Cross Footbridge across the Thames

(next to the railway bridge)

View from Charring Cross Footbridge

The London Eye

Michelle did take some photos of Westminster Abbey but we have no intentions of going inside at £16 a pop! ($25 each when so many wonderful things are free) She also took photos of Big Ben and the houses of parliament but won't get a chance to upload pictures for this blog until the weekend.

Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey, Side View

Statues on Westminster Abbey

Inscription Carved on the Wall of Westminster Abbey

Big Ben and Parliament Buildings

Westminster Bridge and Big Ben

I'll post it anyway and you'll have to backtrack for the photos whenever Michelle can find the time to do the work. Thanks for all the great comments about our blog. Someone said that the last time they logged in they got a message suggesting the site wasn't safe. Please let one of us know if you've had this same problem.

If this is Tuesday, it must be Sandwich (by the sea)!!!

Sue