Walking Around London - and a Bit More

With Glenna and JR’s wedding occupying the major part of my attention for a year, I thought it would be nice to go back to London in September to do some looking but also some relaxing. Those of you who know me know how that last part was destined to go. When I was a kid I envisioned one day having a house with a large yard which would have benches among the flower gardens where I would sit and read a book for hours. I guess that’s why I buy garden calendars each year. Of course, the reading in the garden seldom happens, just like the relaxing on a trip.

The line I was in at Heathrow

But this time I really overdid it. When I got back I literally could barely walk. My legs and feet shouted at me with every step. By now, three weeks later as I write, my legs have recovered, so luckily it was just overuse and not something worse.

The wedding was wonderful, and I loved every minute of the planning and execution. But that didn’t leave me much time to plan my trip, so I worked furiously the week before. This time I planned to stay in the same hotel room for 13 nights which was quite nice, but that necessarily meant the trip did not have the same variety of experience that the one I took two years ago had when I was one week on the road and one week in London.

On the wall of my hotel room

I left on a Tuesday, driving to Atlanta and parking at a hotel where I intended to stay on the return. I had a direct flight to Heathrow. I watched My Cousin Rachel and did some puzzles and actually got some sleep. So my trip started on Wednesday with the very long walk in Heathrow and the short train trip to Paddington. 

My hotel was The Cardiff just 2 blocks from the station. I would recommend it. My room was small but adequate with a miniscule shower. They accommodated my request to be no higher than the first floor. The breakfast was boring after 13 days but was actually fine. So a good beginning.


Within a half hour it was back to Paddington Station to get a train to Newbury from which I took a taxi to Highclere Castle. Downton Abbey fans know this is where part of the series was filmed—in particular the bedrooms of Cora and Robert as well as Edith and Sybil and the music room, drawing room, study, and most memorably library and dining room. Lady Mary’s bedroom, the maids’ bedrooms and downstairs were filmed in London’s Ealing Studios. We walked right on the carpets—no runners put down as is usual. The docents were very well informed and willing to answer questions. Annoyingly, they didn’t let us take pictures inside (so I found a few online as a reminder). In the rooms that were used for filming, they had large posters of a scene from the series. It was fun going through and recognizing bits and pieces. 

The Highclere library where so many scenes centered around the fireplace

The Highclere dining room, probably the most used room in the series

Highclere Castle and its 5000 acres of woods, meadows, and gardens is owned by the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, some of whose ancestors were colorful characters. The most famous was the 5th earl who, along with Howard Carter, discovered King Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt in 1922. The entire basement was given over to an exhibit of that exploration and contained both original objects and recreations. I found the panels about the relationship between Carnarvon and Carter most interesting. Amazingly, neither of them got any sort of honor from the government for all that they had done over several years.

Recreations of Tut's tomb and mummy

The taxi driver was an amateur historian and regaled us going and coming on local history as well as current events and his opinions on national politics. It was both informative and amusing. One thing we learned was that the neighbor next door, who has 6000 acres, is Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The house is Victorian made to look Elizabethan. The architect, Charles Berry, is the same person who designed the Houses of Parliament. You can definitely see the resemblance.

Approaching Highclere Castle 

A closer look at the castle

Closeup of the front door with its beasts

This phrase was everywhere outside; it means
One Will I Serve

After a traditional lunch of beef pasty and before I visited the house and Egyptian exhibition, I strolled around some of the grounds. For me, that was actually the highlight of the visit. 

Off in the distance is Andrew Lloyd Webber's hill

Hedges with several varieties of bushes

A view of the beautiful grounds

Sheep in the pasture

The wildflower meadow long past its prime

A few flowers left in the wildflower meadow

The gardens, though past peak, were beautiful. They must be spectacular in the spring and summer. I couldn’t stop taking pictures in the wildflower meadow and the flower gardens—the Secret Garden and the Monks Garden. They were very English—many varieties of flowers planted side by side with very little dirt showing. The bushes were placed that way too.

Beautiful foliage hedge

Gorgeous deep red dahlias

Garden urn among the flowers

Orange daisies (I think) among the purple buds and deep green leaves

White daisies with the same purple buds and deep green leaves

The path in the Secret Garden

Maybe red daisies?

Typical English garden

Sculpted hedges in the Monks' Garden

Garden edger which clipped the grass moving into the bed very effectively

One of the earls long ago imported trees from all over the world. The most dramatic were the majestic cedars of Lebanon. 

One of the cedars near the castle

Lots of cedars in the beautiful grounds

Two huge cedars flanking the castle

Looking up into a cedar

A folly which is a totally useless 

building in a landscape

Back in my room in London and after salad, spaghetti, and wine in my favorite San Marco restaurant, I, not surprisingly, fell asleep. 10,906 steps this day.

The folding chair I bought

Thursday morning was the time I had set aside to find a folding chair for my adventure on Saturday. I had intended to try a super Tesco, neither of which was easy to get to. But I asked at the hotel desk, and she suggested Argos which was nearby on Edgeware Rd. It is more or less a catalog store; you look in the catalog or online, take your request to the desk, and they get the item and bring it to you.  They didn’t have one, so I had to go to the Tottenham Court store where I got the last one.

After returning it to the hotel, I decided to go to Hampton Court Palace, a place I have been to several times but not for several years. The train station is not far from the entrance which I appreciated when I left. 

Hampton Court from the Thames bridge

Look at all the chimneys!

The mythical beasts flanking the main entrance

The second court, the Clock Court

The astronomical clock in the Clock Court

The third court, the Fountain Court--note the difference
in the architecture from the Clock Court

Catherine Parr reenactor

As I went into the first courtyard, I saw that there were some re-enactors. Dressed in period costumes, they were doing a scene from the time of Catherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII, who got into trouble with Henry for her Protestant leanings when some around Henry were wanting to go back to Catholicism. It was done really well, and I stayed with them until they were done.

I then went on my own through the rest of the palace, the Tudor parts including the kitchens and the later Stuart and Hanoverian parts. I love Henry’s Great Hall. So much history happened at Hampton Court, so it is a fascinating place for me.

Henry VIII's Great Hall

The wonderful hammer-beam ceiling of the Great Hall

Prie dieus for the king and queen in the chapel 

I've always loved the linen fold walls of the Tudor period

Gaming room in the Georgian Apartments

The Royal Bed in the William III Apartments

Wonderful ceiling and skylight 

A bonus was a display of paper costumes in the Stuart and Hanoverian rooms, left over from an exhibition. They were absolutely gorgeous. The paper actually felt like vellum.

Paper duck in the dining room

Wonderful male costume

The detail in the costumes was amazing

Dress for Sarah Churchill who will turn up later in my trip

After spending a long time upstairs, I toured the kitchens. Many years ago, I had a strong feeling that I had had other lives. One of them was here at Hampton Court where I was a scullery maid. I found again the little niche where I sat shirking my duties.

One room of the Tudor kitchens

See my niche to the right of the doorway?

The walkway outside the kitchens

Outside I saw some of the gardens which were also beautiful. I didn’t have the time or energy to go everywhere. I also saw the indoor Royal Tennis Court where two men in white were playing. 

Wonderful trees in the Great Fountain Garden in the back

Another typical English garden on the west side

Gorgeous dahlias in the gardens along the back wall

Pretty purple daisies

One beautiful rose in the Rose Garden

New type of metro cars where they hug one another

Back in Paddington and after another Italian meal, this time pizza and salad, I fell asleep reading after making preparations for the next day. 15,406 steps.

Friday was Paris day! I had never gone through the Chunnel, so I decided to go to Paris for the day. It’s the Eurostar train that takes you there, and it goes from St Pancras to Paris Nord.

Les Invalides from the Rodin Museum

I had an early ticket and then missed the half hour window for getting on by two minutes because I stopped to get a pain au chocolat and hot chocolate. But there was another one within an hour. An unbelievable number of people were in line, but the process, carried out by the French, was very efficient. Even customs was there instead of in Paris. The train was comfortable but otherwise unremarkable. On the way over I didn’t notice the moment when we went into the chunnel which is 31.4 miles long (23.4 miles under the English Channel), so on the way back I paid better attention and saw the structure on both ends, as well as one can. I have a good mental picture of it anyway from the wonderful PBS series The Tunnel.

In Paris, I soon got my Metro pass and was on my way. Glenna and JR were in Paris for the end of their honeymoon, but we just didn’t connect all day which made Glenna feel very bad and disappointed me. But I still had a good time. I went first to the Musee Rodin where I had not been before. 2017 is the 100th anniversary of his death, so they had a special exhibition comparing some of his works to those of the modern artist Anselm Kiefer.

The museum is housed in a beautiful building, and many of his sculptures are outside in the gardens. It was really cool to see some of the famous ones, particularly The Thinker (Le Penseur) and the Kiss (Le Baiser). He also painted which I hadn't known.

The Thinker beautifully set in the gardens

Les Trois Hombres (The Three Men)

Monument aux Bourgeois de Calais and the museum behind

Adam

Eve--they flanked The Gates of
Hell in the Gardens

Le Baiser (The Kiss) in the vestibule

The Cathedral

Flesh and Marble

I was hungry after walking around but didn’t like the prices in the nearby restaurant, so I made my way over to Ile de la Cite to Notre Dame. Of course, I have been there several times also, but I wanted to go back. Architecturally, we know Notre Dame mostly because of the flying buttresses. I don't pretend to know how all those stones stay up there (My all time favorite book is Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth about the building of an English cathedral), but I can appreciate the beauty of the style.

The approach to Notre Dame

The West Towers

Gargoyles on the towers

Row of notables over the three doors

Our Lady over the center doorway

The flying buttresses which hold the whole thing up

Inside it was darker than I remember. There were mobs of people. I absolutely love Gothic architecture, and this one is definitely Gothic. There was a very nice display of the cathedral through the centuries which I read mostly in French as well as a set of stone plaques of the life of Christ. 

Nave of Notre Dame de Paris

Wonderful Gothic arches

The North Rose Window

Plaque about the founding of the church: In the year 1163 under the pontificate of Pope Alexander III and the
reign of King Louis VII, Maurice of Sully on the Loire, Bishop of Paris (1160-1196), undertook the construction
of this cathedral in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary called Our Lady of Paris.

Model of the construction of Notre Dame--I love models

Wall plaque of scenes from Jesus' life--this one
Joseph, Mary and Jesus fleeing to Egypt

Jesus washing the feet of one of his followers

Outside, I was struck by the very obvious presence of the French military. They periodically marched around, making sure we knew they were there. 

French guards on patrol

I was still hungry, but I wanted to go to the Crypte Archaeologique which is right under the square. These are the Roman foundations of Paris, settled first by the Celtic Iron Age Parisii people right there on the Ile who were later supplanted by the Romans. I’m always fascinated by the fact that one civilization literally builds on top of another one. The ruins were pretty extensive. 

Roman stairs in the Crypte

Part of the remains of the ancient thermal baths

There was also a very nice exhibit of Roman and later gold coins that were uncovered in the excavations. The commentaries were quite good; I read most in French.

One of the gold coins--this one from 1311

My salmon and toast late lunch

My feet were hurting at this point. Glenna had texted earlier that maybe we could meet in the Tuileries after they visited the Louvre. I saw on my map that there was no good way to get there from where I was and I hadn’t heard from them yet, so I went on back to the Gare du Nord area where I finally sat down to lunch at 5pm! It was beautifully presented—salmon salad with crusts and tomato garnish and a glass of wine.

I just made the train back too because I stopped for an Orangina. The walks are so long. Back in London I was still a bit hungry, so I had an Asian beef and onion soup. I then took my aching feet back to the hotel. 13,248 steps and 22 floors—the French don’t seem to believe in escalators.

Saturday morning I dawdled and was the last one down to breakfast. After eating my breakfast that was already getting boring, I set off for Kensington Palace, another place I have been before. But it is the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death and this past year I watched the first season of another wonderful PBS series Victoria, so I wanted to go again to where they both had once lived. This palace, incidentally, is also where William and Kate live when in London, but you wouldn't know it. 

Kensington Palace east side

Portico added for the Queen's Jubilee

Victoria statue and palace in background

The gardens right near the house had been planted this year almost all in white in honor of Diana. (Harriet--I know you are reading this—you would have loved it.)

Sign for the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Diana's death

The white gardens

Another view of the gardens

Inside the palace I first went through the King’s Rooms (George II) and then the Queen’s Rooms (his queen Caroline), decorated of course in the style of that period. The palace, however, had first been occupied by William III and Mary II.

The gallery in the George II rooms

The view from an east window looking toward the pond

Dress from the time of George II and Caroline

The next section I visited was a special exhibition of some of Diana’s clothes. I always think it’s amazing how clothes hanging on a mannequin don't look half as good as when they are on a person. That is particularly true of Diana, I think. Some of the outfits looked almost mundane, but she always wore them with style. 

Wall sign in the Diana exhibition

The last part was an exhibition of the influence of three women on their times--Queen Caroline, Augusta, the mother of George III, and Charlotte, the wife of George III. But my favorite was the Princess Victoria rooms. Victoria was born in Kensington Palace and lived there with her mother until she became queen. We saw the room where she was born, the staircase where she was standing when she heard the news of her accession from the night messenger, and the room where she held her first Privy Council meeting the next day. In that room, I happened upon a lively talk given by a young woman about the accession and first day. Well done.

An excerpt from Victoria's journal describing her upbringing at Kensington Palace

The balcony where Victoria stood when she learned she was Queen

A painting of the first Privy Council meeting hanging
in that very room

Victoria's wedding gown--she
established the tradition of a
white wedding gown

A wall decoration showing Victoria and Albert and their 9 children

After a lunch in the palace’s Orangery, I set off on a walk through Kensington Gardens and part of Hyde Park. I was amused by the ducks and swans and passed the Albert memorial which Victoria had built after he died.

A preening duck in the Round Pond

Wouldn't it be amazing to have the flexibility of a swan?

The Albert Memorial and
Albert Hall behind it

My goal was to get to the Diana Fountain in Hyde Park and relax a bit. I’ve been there before. It’s a lovely, simple fountain built of Cornish granite. Water flows slightly downhill in both directions on an oval path, one side in gentle ripples and the other in less predictable patterns, meant to illustrate the happy and turbulent times of her life. It is such fun to watch the little kids, stripped to their underpants, playing in the water and shouting their delight, as their dads call to them that if they get their pants wet they can’t complain later.

The Diana Fountain in Hyde Park

Kids playing in the Diana Fountain

After awhile, the sky looked threatening and people were clearing out. I left and started walking along the Long Water though it only rained for a few minutes. I eventually came to the Italian Gardens, new to me. These were commissioned by Prince Albert as a surprise for Victoria.

The Long Water through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens

The Italian Gardens

You can see the interlocking V & A
on the stone pedestal

Then it was back to Paddington to get my picnic supplies and my folding chair and head to Hyde Park. This was the last night of the Proms (which I went to once in Albert Hall and loved). Tickets for the hall were sold out, so I decided to go to the park, along with many thousand others. The getting-in process near Marble Arch was really well handled as was the whole event start to finish. I set my chair down near a group of older ladies, another one of thirtyish women, and a third of three twentyish men and one woman. It was as much fun to watch all of them as it was to listen to the music.

The crowd in Hyde Park

There were loads of British flags

The night is given over to a concert of various kinds of music, and about 9:45 they join the festivities in Albert Hall by video hookup. I came in when the Steps had just started. I didn’t know them, but I did know some of their music. They were great—very upbeat. Then came Sir Brian Terfel, Elaine Page, and Gilbert O’Sullivan, all of them well known to the audience. The main act was Sir Ray Davies of the Kinks, wildly popular if, again, unknown to me. All night long people were singing along, dancing along the walkways, and waving their British flags. For the finale from Albert Hall, they played all the standbys—Rule Britannia, Land of Hope and Glory, Jerusalem, God Save the Queen, and Auld Lang Syne. It was wonderful. I’m glad I went. 14,069 steps

Fireworks at the end

Sunday morning I went to an antique show in the Royal Agricultural Hall in Pimlico. That’s always fun. I only got one thing and passed on several royal items for my collection. 

My first antiques fair of the trip

At the tube stop I discovered that the Victoria line was closed because one of the trains had hit someone. It was close enough to lunch, so I had Sunday roast at a nearby pub.  Roast pork with gravy, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, broccoli, swede (English version of rutabaga), and a lager. Delicious.

My delicious Sunday roast

The Gallery pub where I had lunch

School of Rock performance

That afternoon I had a musical to go to, so I had to get there somehow and the Victoria line was still not running. So I walked to Victoria Station and got a taxi, the only one I took on the trip. The taxi queue took a half hour; I was worried I would be late. But I made it on time and saw the wonderful Andrew Lloyd Webber musical School of Rock. 

At the beginning we hear his voice saying that people often ask him if the kids really play all those instruments. He said the answer is an emphatic yes. It’s the story of a 30-something guy who hasn’t grown up, who loses his job with a band and takes a substitute teacher position meant for his friend with whom he is (over)staying. He sees the musical talent of the kids, schools them in rock and enters them to compete in a rock band contest. The music was catchy, the kids were great, and the lead was fabulous. Of course, I got my little paper cup of chocolate ice cream in the interval.

The Monument alongside a modern
building

Outside it was spitting rain and not fit for sightseeing. At this point I figured I might as well try to get at least 10,000 steps a day, and I had a long way to go. So I walked down toward Leicester Square and then up to Piccadilly to get the Bakerloo line back to my refuge. For dinner it was San Marco again but just for minestrone soup, insalata mista and wine. I made it! 10,002 steps.

Part of the original
London Bridge

Monday I had planned to take a London Walk, a 2-hour walking tour with a well known London company. It began at the Fish St exit at Monument station. Our guide Shaughan, like many of his fellow guides, is an actor who does guiding on the side. This tour was called Hidden London, and he showed us things that you wouldn’t usually notice or choose to visit. His tidbits of information were really interesting. 

Crest of the Apothecary's Guild

I’ve always enjoyed hearing the origin of idioms. Here are a few. When the printing press was invented, the block letters were placed on racks, the capital letters on top and the others on the bottom—thus: uppercase and lowercase. Two medieval guilds, cloth makers and furriers, fought over 6th and 7th place in the pecking order of guilds for a position in walking behind the Lord Mayor in processions—thus: at 6’s and 7’s. There were others that I can’t remember.

Among the items we saw were a 2000-year old piece of wood from the first London Bridge, the only one across the Thames until 1760. The rhyme, London Bridge is Falling Down, speaks to the many repairs and changes over the centuries, if not actually falling down.

Sign on Tallow Chandler's guildhall

We walked past several of the guild associations with their fancy quarters and went into several out of the way churches (St Mary Abchurch, St Michael Paternoster Royal and St Bride’s) and saw the remaining stone wall of the Blackfriars Abbey, the other friars active in medieval times being the Grey and White. 

St Mary Abchurch interior--I love that name

St Michael Paternoster stained glass and altar

Bollard with the crest also

The entire walk was in The City which is the one square mile area within London where London began and which still contained it until the Middle Ages. Today it is the financial center of the UK (along with the new Canary Wharf area) and, in fact, is the top Global Financial Center in the world as of Sept 17. At one time there were 400,000 people living in The City (or City of London, the actual name). Today there are only 9000 though it expands to 300,000 during th

The crest of the City of London on the left
which is seen everywhere in the City

Sign outside a City pub

Steeple of St Bride's Church

St Paul’s Cathedral, The People’s Church as it is called, is within The City also. There have been 5 churches on the site. This one was designed by Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of 1666, as so many other churches and buildings in London were (and I saw a bunch of them). I have no idea how he could have done so much designing, especially since they aren’t carbon copies of one another.

St Paul's east side

St Paul's reflected in a mirror sculpture

View of the Millenium Footbridge across the Thames

We ended at Gough Square where Samuel Johnson lived. His beloved cat Hodge is memorialized there by a statute.

Pub sign for a famous pub

Samuel Johnson's Hodge

After we left Shaughan, I had lunch at Blackfriars pub—nicely done roast chicken, ok chips, slaw and a lager. I had planned to do much more in East London, so I figured I might as well do it while I was here. So I trudged on.

Mural above the bar in Blackfriars Pub where I had lunch

I first went to St Mary-Le-Bow Church, famous because the saying is that if you live within the sound of the Bow bells, you are a Cockney. Note that I didn’t hear them.

Interior of St Mary-le-Bow church

Bell tower of St Mary-le-Bow church

A cool addition to London--speakers which broadcast famous
speeches in the actual voices 

No Temple of Mithras, only a construction wall

Then I walked past the new Bloomberg building. When they were digging in the 50’s, they discovered the remains of the Roman Temple of Mithras along with several deity figures. The remains were relocated elsewhere. Now, with the new building, it was decided that they should be returned to their original place. I had read that it was opening in September. But not by the day I was there. So all I saw was a temporary wall.
I walked by another church, St James Garlichythe, another Wren church. The church wasn’t open but I was intrigued by the name. It means the place where garlic was sold. I went in St Stephen Walbrook which I thought was particularly beautiful.

Interior of the beautiful St Stephen Walbrook

Ceiling of St Stephen Walbrook

Lastly I wanted to find the place where the Great Fire of 1666 had started. This year I watched another PBS series, The Great Fire, which told the harrowing tale of the four-day fire. I found the spot on Pudding Lane where the fire started when sparks flew from the oven of Thomas Faryner, the baker to the king, and caught the rushes on the floor.

Pudding Lane sign

Sign on a modern Pudding Lane building where the infamous bakery once stood

The partially shrouded Tower of Big Ben

By this time, I couldn’t walk much farther, and I had planned to go to Evensong at Westminster Abbey at 5:00. I was a little early and so had time to visit the great gift shop where I got several things. When you go for Evensong, you don’t get to walk around but are ushered to your seat and ushered out afterward. But I’ve been there many times, so that was okay. I had decided I’d go to a service where the boys’ choir was singing. By the end I decided that I would rather have heard the men’s choir. It was mostly chant, and the boys’ voices don’t have the haunting sound that I like with the men’s voices. At the end there were intersessions by the priest. This was 9/11, and I was pleased to hear it mentioned.

I like this picture because it shows a
tower of Westminster Abbey and of
Westminster Palace in the background

Statue of Ghandi in the square across
from Westminster Abbey

Nelson Mandela is also here

The finally all cleaned up Westminster Abbey

That evening I had Greek—pastitsos, salad, pita, wine and fruit bowl which didn’t contain melon. Yay. 16,147 steps—and feeling every one by the end.

Tuesday was another gloomy day (they were mostly that way at least for part of the day), but it was ok because I was going to the huge Sunbury Antiques Fair at the Kempton Park Racecourse. I took the train. Lucky them (and me), the station is right at the racecourse. I went through the spacious inside and noticed at the end that there were some dealers outside. Some! There were probably three or four times as many as inside. I finally got tired of looking and rushed through the end. I had spotted a few things inside and didn’t want those dealers to close up before I got back. Turns out I only got one item—a George III tankard (marked GR only), supposedly made in Germany, shipped to South Africa, lost in a shipwreck, recovered and repaired. Quite a story if true. I decided to take a chance on it. 

Back In London I got a sub and chips and ate them as I walked and sat along the South Bank, my choice of walk for the afternoon. The recommended 2.5 mile walk is from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge, but I was already two bridges down at Waterloo. 

This picture shows the cheese grater and the walkie-talkie

The walk affords great views of the other side with its mix of old and ultra modern. Prince Charles once famously called modern London buildings monstrous carbuncles. But I find them interesting. They don’t tear down historic structures, just build along side them—and there were cranes everywhere. Londoners have named several of their new buildings: the gherkin, the shard, can of ham, the cheese grater, the pringle, and walkie-talkie.

The shard next to Southwark Cathedral

Walkie-talkie, the gherkin and lots of cranes

On the South Bank where I was walking, I passed the National Theatre, the Tate Modern, the Globe Theatre, Sir Francis Drake’s Golden Hinde, Southwark Cathedral, Borough Market, and the famous World War II cruiser HMS Belfast in the middle of the Thames and passed under all the bridges along the way. Eventually I got to Tower Bridge which I had never before walked across.

National Theatre on the South Bank

Yes, the Thames River is tidal, and
this is low tide

Blackfriars Bridge with St Paul's and cranes beyond

One of the murals under Blackfriars Bridge
telling its story

Street performer--every blow produced a puff of fire

The new Globe Theatre, just like the original

Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hinde

The HMS Belfast docked in the middle of the river

Walking across Tower Bridge

The bridge from the north bank

The taxi driver at Highclere had said we should see the royal barge at St Catherine Dock. Since the dock is right next to the bridge, I did just that. There it was. I could almost have touched it. I couldn’t believe we could get so close to it. It was indeed spectacular. The 90 foot barge named Gloriana was used for the journey down the Thames for Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee celebration which I had seen on TV.

Gloriana, the royal barge

The royal crest on the barge

The royal seat

I walked along the Thames side of the Tower of London. I didn’t go in as it was near closing time and, of course, I have been there many times, not that that stopped me at other sites. To get to the tube stop, I had to walk almost all around it, so I got a good look at it as well as the ruins of the Roman wall in that area.

The Tower of London from across the Thames

The White Tower, the biggest structure inside

Traitors' Gate where many a famous
person entered the Tower and never came out

I took the tube to Charing Cross near which I had a good dinner of salmon salad with green beans, tomatoes, olives, potatoes, egg and greens accompanied by a proseco. 

You have to say hello to Nelson in Trafalgar
Square at least once on every trip

Marquee for Late Company

I was in that area to see the next production, a new play called Late Company. It was the story of a dinner hosted by a couple whose son had committed suicide. The guests were a couple and their teenage son who had been one of several who had cyber-bullied and taunted the boy. The theatre was tiny, so we were right there in the dining room. Very powerful. 16,593 steps.

I had been to the Museum of London years ago and wanted to go back. So that was the first item on my agenda for Wednesday. Before I went in, I walked along the remaining Roman wall near the museum. The parts of the wall that still exist extend from here to the Tower of London, so I saw the beginning and the end.

Part of the Roman wall near the Museum of London

More of the wall with vines hanging over

Educational display for kids

The Museum of London is a history museum which traces the development of London from prehistory 450,000 years ago to the present day. In olden times the terrain changed from ice to melt to grasslands over and over, at times an island and other times part of the continent, but the Thames River was always central.  There was an interesting graphic that showed temperatures over the millennia; about every 100,000 years it warmed and then cooled. We are in that 100,000 peak of warming now. There were also exhibits about animals who lived in the area at one time—even elephants.  


There was a large and very noisy group of schoolchildren who went in the same time I did. They were very enthusiastic and really very attentive and engaged in what they were seeing and in filling out their worksheets. I’m always looking for educational displays or handouts to take back to Glenna. She liked this one.

Clever way of teaching history

The pre-Roman name for London which the Romans adapted into Londinium means where the river fords. The next part was about the Romans who brought their culture but didn’t force it on the native peoples though it seeped in eventually. 

An example of wattle and daub,
a common method of house construction

Later exhibits featured the Middle Ages, the Elizabethan Renaissance, and modern times—which covered a lot of territory. The wall boards were uniformly informative but not too much that it’s intimidating.

There were tons of artifacts on display, many of which no doubt were found in all the digging in London. The really modern times I had to hurry through because I was a bit nervous about having enough time for lunch before going on to the next production on my list.

Model of a London church

A leather jerkin and codpiece

I took the tube to Charing Cross Rd where I ate my lunch sitting outside a rather attractive new high rise right across the street from the theatre where I saw An American in Paris. Lots of good singing and wonderful dancing and a romantic story.

SIgn outside the theatre for An American in Paris

Eros in Piccadilly CIrcus, another
mandatory visit on a trip to London

St James Hotel and Club

I needed more steps, so I walked through Soho which I hadn’t walked through for years. Back in the 70’s my favorite restaurant was a Greek one there. I then walked down part of Shaftesbury past movie houses and theatres to Piccadilly, then down Jermyn St (all men’s shops) to St James St and down to Pall Mall. It’s a posh area full of fancy men’s clubs and hotels and luxury private homes.

On to the Mall and Charles’ home St James Palace, the former Queen Mum’s home Clarence House, Lancaster House (now used often for films about royals) and Buckingham Palace where I turned up the path in Green Park.

St James Palace where Charles lives

The much prettier Clarence House next door

The Queen's Chapel

Buckingham Palace and Queen Victoria in front

Lancaster House, scenic spot for movies

The top of Spencer House, the ancestral London
home for Diana's family

By then I really needed to get on the tube and get back to Paddington. I had Chinese beef with mixed veg. I don’t mention what I do when I get back to my room. It’s read the news on my iPad, do puzzles, watch a little TV, and read until I fall asleep. 11,237 steps.

Thursday didn’t begin particularly well. I had planned to go to Canterbury on Saturday but changed it to Friday after looking at the weather. I tried to buy a train ticket online and through my misunderstanding of a message I received from the site and another from Capital One had my credit card invalidated—again. I think this might be the 7th number I have had with them. 

I went on with my day. Down to Piccadilly Circus where I saw a large group of people wearing red and singing as they came up out of the tube. They were with some sports team. Nice to see such enthusiasm. 

Football fans at Piccadilly Circus

I continued on down to the market at St James Church. I have enjoyed this market before and did this day too. I got several things for me and Glenna and a future person.

I popped into the church also, said to be Christopher Wren’s favorite of all he designed. 

Wren's favorite church, St James in Piccadilly

Royal Academy of Arts, my first time there

Then it was up to the Royal Academy of Arts where I had not been before. They had a Matisse exhibit which I decided not to see because of the cost but instead visited a small exhibit of the drawings and paintings of Charles Tunnicliffe whom I had never heard of. He drew rural scenes and lots of animals including many for books. The owl drawings especially were wonderful. They reminded me so much of Glenna’s brother Jared’s work. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any of those for sale.

 A wonderful Tunnicliffe owl

I loved his birds also

After a Pret a Manger lunch I took a walk around St James Square where there are plenty of houses which once were owned or lived in by famous people. I had to make my way to Haymarket and explored Waterloo Place on my way.

St James Square with homes of wealthy people all around

Duke of York column in Walterloo Place

Florence Nightingale as part of the
Crimean War monument

That afternoon I had tickets for Queen Anne which was well done. It’s the story of Queen Anne and her relationship with Sarah, the Duchess of Marlborough (told memorably in The First Churchills in the first season of Masterpiece Theatre way back in 1971). It was political drama, social drama and hilarious and satirical musical vignettes all in one.

Poster for Queen Anne

The beautiful old Haymarket Theatre

Afterward it was back over to Piccadilly St for my tea at Fortnum and Mason. 

One of the Fortnum and Mason windows,
unfortunately with a reflection from across the street

My delicious F&M tea

I had an hour before my reservation, so I poked around the wonderful bottom floor where all the foods are. I always have tea at least once when I am in England. This time I went whole hog—tea at F&M on the top floor. Only cost £44 plus tax and tip. It was truly delicious. I ate every morsel and drank every drop—5 little sandwiches, 5 cakes, 2 scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam, of course, and a pot of tea. I even took some away to have the next day on the train.

British and NFL flags on Regent St

Hamley's store with a Paddington Bear
window

I was way behind on my steps and could certainly use some to walk off all that food, so I walked up to Piccadilly Circus and continued on up Regent St to Oxford Circus, a longer walk that I had remembered. All along the way there were banners for the coming NFL game which they do once a year. Two years ago when I was here it was in Trafalgar Sq.

Most of the stores on Regent St now are clothing stores for young people. Hamley’s is still there. We used to love to take Glenna there when she was a kid. This day I wasn’t going to make 10,000, but I was pooped so I got on the tube. 9583 steps

Friday, as I mentioned, was Canterbury. I hadn’t been there for many years, I think since Glenna was quite young. I took a really fast train while eating my two scones. The station was very close to one of the stops on the walking tour I had downloaded from the city’s website and which I followed. That site was the Westgate Gardens, right near the Westgate, one of the old city gates. As with the other gardens I’d seen, they were still beautiful.

Canterbury's Westgate

Beautiful chrysanthemums in Westgate Gardens

Clusters of purple flowers also in Westgate Gardens

For awhile, the tour followed the Great Stour River which, like the Thames in London, was very important to early Canterbury. But in that section it was quite shallow and contained by walls. Part of the route was along the ancient Watling St.

The Great Stour River and Westgate

The pretty Great Stour in the other direction

A historical map of the Canterrbury area along my route

The current must be strong because all the plants were lying down

The next site was the Canterbury Bull, a metal sculpture made from the railroad tracks once used to carry the workers to their jobs in the tanneries, at one time a very important industry there.

The Canterbury Bull

After walking on a path through a pretty woods, I came out at the remaining walls of Canterbury Castle which is no longer open because of the danger of falling rock.

A remaining wall of Canterbury Castle

Then it was up on the old city walls for a walk along the south and east side of old Canterbury. Along the path was the Mound in Dane John grounds from which you get the best view of Canterbury.

Walking along the old city walls

Looking toward Canterbury Cathedral on the right and the Marlowe Theatre on the far left

I loved the beam of light in the shape of the loophole

Down from the walls I walked into the city center along the High Street, passing St George’s Tower, the only part of St George the Martyr Church left after the Nazi bombing. One of its claims to fame is that Christopher Marlowe was christened here.

What's left of St George
the Martyr Church

I love performance art--this one
was fascinating. I had to look
really hard to see how he could
do it.

Continuing down the High Street, I turned off at the Friars and up to the Marlowe Theater, a much touted but pretty ugly hunk of concrete.

The public library in an old building

Another wonderful old half-timbered building--
the Old Weaver's Inn from 1500

A monument to the
Canterbury pilgrim

I followed another branch of the Great Stour and across the sluices. This area was really beautiful and peaceful, with boats of tourists pulled along by the punter.

Punting and rowing on the Great Stour

More of the beautiful Great Stour

A short walk took me to the Crooked House which really is leaning. That was the end of the tour other than the cathedral. I decided to have a pub lunch first—chicken in puff pastry flavored with something vaguely Indian, potatoes, and warmed lettuce and carrots (the latter really good and the highlight of the meal), and a lager.

The Crooked House

Another nice half-timbered house

The cathedral is surrounded by a wall, and it is expensive to get in. I grew more and more annoyed at the high price as I progressed. It was hard to get a decent picture inside or out that didn’t have scaffolding in it. 

Elaborate gate into cathedral enclosure

Beautiful crests above the south door

Scaffolding everywhere---

...even inside

A huge church with a spectacular ceiling at the crossing, I don’t find it to be one of the more pleasing of the English cathedrals otherwise.

The colorful high pulpit

From the rood screen to the top

Arches, arches everywhere--from the altar to the east front

The wonderful ceiling of the crossing

Its claim to fame is twofold—the murder of Thomas a Becket in 1170 (the story memorably told in the wonderful old movie Becket with Richard Burton as Becket and Peter O’Toole as Henry II) and as the mother church of the Anglican fold. The spots where Becket went down and the place where his shrine was until Henry VIII had it taken down are marked.

The infamous steps as depicted in Becket

A candle where Thomas' shrine was

The chapter house was nice but the cloisters not especially. It wasn’t possible to enjoy the large yard because of all the equipment littering it. 

The nice chapter house

Ceiling of the chapter house

The cloisters

Bosses on the ceiling of the cloisters

Kids playing chess with their dad

(As I read back on what I have written about the cathedral and the pictures I have included, I think I am probably too hard on it—and influenced too much by the annoying scaffolding.)

By now, I was done anyway. I remembered having fun going in the shops long ago, but this day wasn’t going to be one of those. So I walked slowly back to the station and got a train almost immediately. On the way back I ate the delicious slice of chocolate cake I had gotten at tea the day before. 

Back in London, it was too late to do much more looking and I didn’t have the leg strength anyway, so I read and wrote until I got hungry. I finished my Jeffrey Archer book and was now reading Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks, one of my favorite authors.

Every day on my way to and from the tube I passed Paddington Bear in the gardens that my hotel faced. This evening two kids were playing chess with their dad.

Then it was back to San Marco for more salad, spaghetti and wine. A couple sat down next to me (the tables are very close together), and the gentleman started talking to me. We had a very enjoyable conversation. He was a 78-year old German who was raised in Brazil, and she was Swiss. They were in London for two days to spend time with her daughter and two grandkids before they went back to Australia. She kept trying to tell him that he should let me eat, but I was really liking the human contact. I could have stayed longer but I didn’t want to take up a table for too long since it is always busy there. I realized afterward that that was only the second extended conversation I had had with anyone since I arrived. It was really quite a solitary two weeks. 14,748 steps.

Saturday the police presence on the tube platforms was noticeable. Friday was the incident on the tube at Parson’s Green which made world news. I hadn’t known anything about it since I was on the move. I had just read about it in my Washington Post feed that evening when I got an email from my friend Martha wanting to know if I was all right. Apparently my friends found it quite amusing that I didn’t know about it all day and only found out about it in American media.

The Palladian Banqueting House

The first stop this day was the Banqueting House on Whitehall. How nice that it was free. This hall is the only remaining part of the Palace of Whitehall. It was one of the first examples of Palladian architecture, a style that Inigo Jones had brought back from Italy.

It is renowned particularly for its Peter Paul Rubens ceiling which has scenes from the lives of the Stuarts. It was abandoned as a place for entertaining when they realized that all the smoke was damaging the paintings. 

The wonderful main hall

They provided giant cushions the better to see the ceiling

There was a mini-exhibit of “Queen” James I, evidently very gay though married, not uncommon in those days, especially for royalty and nobility who had to have heirs.

The cheeky exhibit on Queen James

After exiting, I walked over to the Embankment (the area along the Thames) and along it to the Temple. I passed the architecturally interesting Golden Jubilee Footbridge , Cleopatra’s Needle and the monument to Victoria at the entrance to The City.

I've always taken pictures of Big Ben whenever I saw it; now I have
added the London Eye to my list

So many cranes!

The attractive Golden Jubilee Footbridge

Cleopatra's Needle, one of three originally from Egypt

The imposing Royal Courts of Justice

My intention was to walk among the buildings in the Inns of Court and go into the glorious Middle Temple Hall which I had done many years before. It is an intact Tudor great hall, having escaped damage in the Great Fire and the world wars. I was annoyed and upset to find that there was some event there that day and I couldn’t go in. 

Instead I wandered around the streets outside the gated area until I came up to The Strand and the Royal Courts of Justice, an imposing building. I went in briefly just to see the Great Hall.

There was construction everywhere

Turning up Bell Yard on my way to Lincoln’s Inn, I passed The Old Bank of England, a pub that our guide Shaughan had said was the best place to eat in The City. I didn’t know where it was on Monday and didn’t have Internet access to find it. It wasn’t time to eat yet this day. Bummer.

Lincoln’s Inn is a not very pretty big red brick and concrete law building, but across the street is Lincoln’s Inn Fields, a nice park. There were several ladies doing chalk drawings which I found charming. 

Lincoln's Inn

Ladies sketching in Lincoln's Inn Fields

I continued through the park and on to Holborn Station where I took the tube to Leicester Square. I got a tasty toasted ham and cheese and took it in to the Vue Cinema to see Wind River with Jeremy Renner which I liked very much. The two cinemas I went to were very modern with really comfortable seats. My screen for this one was on the 8th floor. I wonder why we don’t go up instead of out.

After the movie I went back to Holborn and walked up Southampton Row, around the British Museum and up Bloomsbury, stopping at several bookshops along the way looking for some leathers. I found a couple at Waterstone’s which has a smallish antiquarian section. I could barely make my legs go up to Euston Square where I got the tube back to Paddington. That evening I had Indian—naan and butter chicken.  13,708 steps.

Sunday was my excursion to Syon Park, the home of the Duke of Northumberland in the London suburbs. I got the tube for Piccadilly and then the Piccadilly line to Hammersmith where I switched to the District line for Gunnersbury where I caught the 367 bus which took me through Brentford. I knew I was supposed to get off at Brentlea Gate stop but didn’t know where that was. When I tried to ask the driver, he severely chastised me for talking to him when the bus was moving and wouldn’t tell me anything. I missed the stop and got off where I saw a sign pointing to Syon Park. This was definitely not the right place to get off, but I found out later I was way past where I should have been anyway. It was a very long walk to the entrance to Syon Park, and then that was the entrance for the hotel and exhibition space. It is a huge place, so at that point I was nowhere near the house and had to keep going to get there. 

It was built on the site of an abbey destroyed by Henry VIII’s troops and used some of the old foundation walls. It was pleasant enough from the outside but quite spectacular inside. The architect was Robert Adam whose work I have always liked, and the grounds were done by Capability Brown which means lots of green space and fountains and trees. 

Syon House

The house design was that of a courtyard with rooms all around. The information in each room was very good. The classical entrance hall was designed to impress at first site, very long and with art works about, including a copy of the Dying Gaul which I have always liked. 

The entrance hall at Syon House

A copy of the Dying Gaul; I saw the original in Rome way back in 1970.

Progressing counterclockwise, we passed the anteroom with its gorgeous floor, the dining room with a beautiful ceiling and pillars, and the drawing room with another wonderful carpet.

The anteroom

The lovely floor of the anteroom

A view of the far end of the dining room

The gorgeous carpet in the drawing room

The gallery was the piece de resistance, taking up the entire east side of the house. 

The magnificent gallery

I liked the carpet here too

Lots of books in the gallery

The lovely corner room off the gallery

The north side contained more family-oriented rooms as well as a long picture gallery with many portraits of royalty and family.

The comfortable family room

The picture gallery

Upstairs we were able to view several bedrooms, including one with some history that I hadn’t known about.

The courtyard from upstairs

The lion on the rooftop

Victoria was only a girl when she knew she would be queen one day, unlikely as that seemed when she was born to the fourth son of George III. What I learned was that the third Duchess was Victoria’s governess, instructing her in the summer months in what she would need to know as queen. Victoria’s mother, the Duchess of Kent, famously required Victoria to sleep in the same room with her at Kensington Palace. But at Syon House, the duchess insisted that Victoria have her own room, above the gallery with a wonderful view of the grounds. The guide said the Duchess of Kent didn’t spend much time there!

Victoria's bedroom at Syon House

Picture of Victoria's coronation in Victoria's suite at Syon House

A peek at Syon Park

After the tour of the house I had a very good lunch of fish, chips and peas (not mushy peas which are awful) in the garden restaurant. The gardens are also available to stroll through, but I simply didn’t have the energy. I got glimpses of them on my way out, along the quite short public footpath I was supposed to have taken on the way in. Out on the street, I saw the sign for the Brentlea (not Gate) bus stop.

So it was back on the bus to Gunnersbury and tube to Piccadilly where I sat in a very busy Pizza Hut without getting waited on for a half hour at least (got a chocolate shake), waiting for my next movie to start. How interesting that it was Victoria and Abdul. The whole trip was filled with connections between sites I visited and plays and movies I saw. The movie was very good, a story of Victoria’s friendship with an Indian man that I hadn’t known and which was embellished for the movie, of course. Judi Dench was superb as always.

This evening I went to Garfunkel’s for omelette, chips and a malbec. Good. My legs were barely going (what I wrote in my diary). To my great frustration, with that long unnecessary walk to get to Syon House, my steps were only 8595. I wasn’t sure that I believed it.

Monday was my last full day. I had planned to do another walking tour with London Walks. I woke up not sure that I was going to

be able to do it. I set off for Covent Garden where I wanted to visit the Monday Jubilee Market that I have been to before. As usual there was tons of jewelry, but I saw a fair number of royal items of which I got one—a Victoria beaker. 

The Mudlark Pub in Southwark

At that point, I decided that I would do the walk. This one also started at Monument tube and was called Darkest Victorian London. I’m not sure why we started at Monument because we immediately crossed London Bridge to the South Bank where the Victorian places remain. We passed the Mudlark Pub which gave our terrific guide the opportunity to tell us about mudlarking—the practice of searching the bank of the Thames at low tide for saleable items. In Victorian times that meant anything with any part made of wood or metal or other reusable materials. The people were so desperately poor that they were reduced to sending their kids out to search so they could eke out a living. She repeatedly talked about the dire straits of most of the people and referenced Dickens whose works highlighted so many of these conditions. Along out path, we saw a building which was being gutted but the facade preserved so that history was not totally destroyed. Diane and I had seen this phenomenon in Quebec also.

Facade preserved but the rest taken down

Courage Ale was a big employer in that area. It was a good job which came with housing but also conditions; the worker and his family had to spend virtually the whole of Sunday, their only day off, in church. But it was better than sending your little boys out to be chimney sweeps, an incredibly dirty and dangerous job, or your little girls to be flower sellers. In the latter case, the more bereft the children looked, the more likely the theater goers were to buy the flowers from them on their way home. The average lifespan of the lower classes at that time was very low; you were considered an old-age pensioner at 32. Childhood death was very common, so much so that children were not typically named until they were three.

Victorian Courage Ale building

We passed by the earliest council housing (what we call public housing) in London. It was a revelation at the time in that each one had a balcony, the theory being that everyone needed a little outdoor space, never mind the fact that the air was no doubt filthy.

First council housing in London

She showed us an example of the care the Victorians took architecturally even with industrial buildings. Almost all of these buildings were built by the Irish immigrants, so they built a Catholic church for them.

An architecturally pleasing Victorian industrial building

Most Precious Blood Catholic church in Southwark

At one point it was decided that the children of the poor needed a school, so it was funded by the Duke of Winchester whose coat of arms has a red cross which is still used by Southwark, the area of London where all these structures were. Many of the place names in the area have red cross in them also.

Winchester coat of arms used for Southwark

We passed Crossbones Graveyard, a cemetery for those who couldn’t be buried in sacred ground (read prostitutes) or those who couldn’t afford a churchyard. Today people are identifying ancestors who are interred there, and there were loads of tributes attached to the fence.

Crossbones Graveyard sign

Some of the many memorials left for ancestors buried here

We visited the Red Cross Gardens, a lovely little patch of greenery kept up by community members when the local council told them they had no money to maintain it and it would have to go. It was started by a social worker in Victorian times. Farther on we saw a large housing unit for the poor funded by the American George Peabody.

Part of the Red Cross Gardens

Depiction of what the area once looked like (dirty and polluted) and the current peaceful and pretty garden 

Next was Little Dorrit’s church on whose steps she sat waiting to visit her father in the nearby Marshalsea debtors’ prison, of which only a wall is left. Dickens’ father had been in this very prison, so perhaps he waited on those steps too. At the Marshalsea walkway, the tour ended. That was a really informative tour.

Our wonderful and expressive guide on
the steps of Little Dorrit's church

"But, whosoever goes into Marshalsea Place...will find his feet on the very paving stones of the extinct
Marshalsea jail...and will stand among the crowding ghosts of many miserable years."

A glimpse of the trendy Borough Market

I walked up to Borough Market to get some lunch—Middle Eastern lamb, rice, salad and sauce in a box—which I ate sitting on a stone seat. I had thought of going back to the Temple area but at that point decided against it. Instead I went back to the room to pack. My last meal was at the Korean-Chinese restaurant again where I had beef with mixed vegetables and tea.

Tuesday was going home day. My flight wasn’t until early afternoon, so I didn’t have to rush. Both my bags failed the bag check at Heathrow, so it was a good thing I had plenty of time. One failed for the iPad which we don’t have to take out. The other was for my cosmetics case. It was put through another machine. I wondered what it told them about the small liquids that the other machine didn’t tell them. Both times at Heathrow I was asked several questions by the customs inspectors; their security seemed stricter than ours.

The plane wasn't full, so I got to stretch out across three seats. Not exactly like a bed but better than sitting up. The food was, as usual, unmemorable, but the time went quickly. Back in Atlanta I easily got through customs and got back to the hotel where my car was parked. I decided that I wanted to get out of South Atlanta to avoid rush hour traffic in the morning, so I didn’t stay there but instead started driving. The longer I drove, the more I thought I might just go all the way. I really do not like driving at night, but I did it. Home at 11:17, the very minute that Google maps said I would get home. It was good to be back. I needed to recover. But I look back on it now thinking of all the neat things I did and am glad that I went. I loved making all the connections—Queen Victoria, Queen Anne, Sarah Churchill, Diana and even Paddington Bear. The next trip needs to be out in the countryside though.

My only selfie of the trip--taken at the Last
Night of the Proms in Hyde Park