London: May 13-16

Monday May 13:

Well, I feel a bit braindead right now.  I took an overnight flight direct from Calgary to London Heathrow.  Everything went flawlessly, but as per usual I didn't sleep much at all on the flight.  A pleasant bonus was meeting a friend/teammate from university days in the '70s.  She and her husband had just arrived in Calgary from London enroute to Edmonton.  Small world.  And - thanks to Facebook I actually recognized her!  

I must say - it was a breeze finding my way from the airport to my VRBO neighbourhood on public transit.  Actually locating my individual studio apartment, on the other hand, was a bit of a chore.  But - the host was available by phone and it was all quickly sorted out.  A quick walk to the Camden Market area for dinner and groceries, a bit of research for tomorrow, and that's pretty much my day.  Rain is in the forecast for most of the day tomorrow.  Oh well................. 

Tuesday May 14:

Went to bed early and was awake for a while during the night, but I think I'm largely adjusted to the new time.  As I type this, though, perhaps I have spoken too soon.  I must say, the little apartment where I'm staying is very quiet.  Today was a "tourist" day for me.  

I walked to Westminster Abbey to be in line a bit before opening at 9:30.  London is a certainly a busy city, but I find it's quite easy to find my way around and they appear to be well set up for all the visitors they have in addition to the roughly 9 million people who live here.  The forecasted "rain" turned out to be a bit of drizzle; no big deal.  A couple of quick observations - it seems to be a bit of a free-for-all at the intersections.  Pedestrians, largely, pretty much ignore the "don't walk" signs.  I don't feel comfortable enough yet that I'm actually looking the right way for traffic, so I'm happy to just people-watch and wait for the signals to change.  Also - vaping is a big thing here.  As is walking while looking at your phone and paying absolutely no attention to what's going on around you.  All-in-all, though, I'm pretty comfortable wandering around here.  Much more so than anywhere in the US.  

Soooo much history in Westminster Abbey!  And - soooo many dead bodies/remains in there.  About 3300 apparently.  The accompanying audio tour was good and I also had an app on my phone to listen to.  It was interesting to see the variety of folks who are in there.  Yes, lots of royalty for centuries on end, but also scientists, authors/poets, etc.  And the architecture is amazing!  Some people had hired private guides and I can only imagine the history lessons that they received.  Oh well - I will only retain a fraction of it anyway.  It's great to see the place in person after having seen it on TV several times over the years.  

Below are just a sampling of the pictures I took.  Good thing film is cheap!

 

Next up for me were the Churchill War Rooms aka the Imperial War Rooms.  Very interesting!  I'm glad I read Erik Larson's book "The Splendid and the Vile" a few years ago.  It gave me a bit of background on the Churchill war years.  There is a lot of material in the War Rooms, and well worth a visit. 

 

I was starting to fade a bit, so made my way over to Buckingham Palace via St. James Park.  The park was such a refreshing green space just steps away from the bustle of the big city; so nice......  The Buckingham Palace area seemed very familiar.  Again - I guess I've seen it on TV enough times......  The flag atop the palace would indicate that Chucky was at home, but he didn't come out to greet me.  

And a few miscellaneous sites on the way home, including St. James's Palace, the Quebec embassy??, an iconic red telephone booth, Hamleys Toy Store and Regent Park (another lovely and huge green space).

Time to put this tired body to bed and maybe look into taking a bus tour tomorrow........

Wednesday May 15:

Yes, indeed it was a bus day today - the London hop-on-hop-off Big Bus.  The entire loop is supposed to take about 3.5 hours, but with traffic I think we were somewhere between 5 and 6 hours.  I hadn't intended to do any hopping, and with that timing I'm glad I didn't.  I had a later start today, giving my body a bit of a break to adjust to the time difference.  It was a good overview of the city sites.  I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few.......

The London Eye, the River Thames, and the Parliament Buildings and Big Ben in the background. 

The London Eye is Europe's tallest cantilevered observation wheel.  There are 32 passenger capsules each holding up to 25 people.  One revolution takes about 30 minutes.  It has been operational since 2000 and sees about 3 million visitors per year.  I won't be one of them.............

Lots of smaller delivery vehicles on the roads in town, including quite a few that are bicycle-powered, although I'm not sure if they're e-bikes.  

Speaking of bikes - there are a lot of bikes on the roads in the city.  Both rental fleet bikes and personal bikes.  Away from the core of the city there are a lot of road bikes with people obviously out for a workout.  In the park near me (Regent's Park) there were lots of bikers and runners out getting their day's exercise in early this morning.  On the news tonight was an issue with riders cycling at excessive speeds in that park and the story of one elderly woman who was killed in a collision with a cyclist.  Yikes!  And - in the city they're no better at obeying traffic lights than the pedestrians I was commenting about yesterday.  It's a dangerous world out there.  Somehow, though, nobody seems to get their knickers in a knot and everything seems to work out ok (most of the time).  Another general comment on the folks I've seen out and about.  There doesn't appear to be an abundance of obesity, unlike most North American cities.  

Next up - The Shard.  It is a 72-storey skyscraper standing over 300m in height.  It is the tallest building in the UK and the 7th tallest building in Europe (5 of which are in Russia).  I was tempted to go up to the viewing platform on this one (opened in 2013), but I won't have time.  

Views of Tower Bridge, first from London Bridge and then on the bridge itself.  Right after that is a quick shot of the Tower of London.  I hope to visit that one in more detail tomorrow.  

We swung by the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben one more time.

Unfortunately I don't have extra room in my baggage allowance so I figured there was no point in making a shopping stop at Harrod's.  

After completing the loop I headed over to the British Museum for a quick look-see.  This amazing museum could keep one occupied for days so my half-hour tour definitely didn't do it justice.  Luckily, though, I had downloaded a "highlights" audio tour in advance so I ticked off some of the relics of ancient Egypt.

One more day tomorrow of playing tourist before heading off to join the bike tour................

Thursday May 16:

It was about a 12-hour day today, so once again I'm pooped..........  First up - Tower of London.  But - even before I got there I did manage to work an audio tour about "Historic London" into my route.  Every day I've taken a different route from "home" to my destination and back, so there's always lots of interesting things to see along the way.  

The picture below (I believe) is of Australia House.  Inside, the 160-foot Exhibition Hall, decorated with 1200 tons of intricately-patterned Australian marble, was the set for Gringotts Wizarding Bank in one of the Harry Potter movies.  

And, of course, I was walking through the city at the peak of the bike-commuting hour.  Lots and lots of bike lanes.  Gotta say - they all travel pretty darned quickly.  They would certainly all beat me to Scotland!  Oh, to be young and fit again.......

I was in line at the Tower before they opened at 9.  Went straight to the Crown Jewels to beat the crowds.  No photos allowed in there.  Yes they were pretty impressive, but it's hard to ignore all the plundering involved in obtaining them in the first place.  

Then back out to the moat area to join in on a Beefeater tour.  There are 35 of them employed on-site.  We got a good one; very entertaining.

There is a lot to see here, and I found the audio tour to be a worthwhile investment.  I'll just put up a few of the many pictures that I took.

And on that cheery note, my time at the Tower of London was complete.  I think I was there over 5 hours.  Fascinating stuff, though.  Incredible to realize that so many people from the history books actually lived (and died) right there.  After dodging raindrops all day so far, the skies opened just as I was about to move on.  The water was ankle-deep on the cobblestones leaving the Tower area.  Oh well.....  I'm sure I'll get wetter on the bike.  Off now to St. Paul's Cathedral.  

"Sir Christopher Wren's gleaming grey-domed masterpiece is the City of London's most magnificent building.  Built between 1675 and 1710 after the Great Fire of 1666 destroyed it's predecessor, St. Paul's was the first triple-domed cathedral in the world.  Its vast, climbable cupolas still soar triumphantly over Ludgate Hill, offering sublime London panoramas, and some of the country's most celebrated citizens are interred in its crypt."  It didn't disappoint.  What a beautiful building.  I had spent so much time at the Tower of London that I had to hustle to hit the highlights of this one, but I stayed on for the 5pm Evensong, which was lovely.

Finally - time to head on home.  I was a bit surprised that every pub that I passed (and there were lots) in downtown London was overflowing with the after-work crowd. 

Even though I've been here a few days now, I still appreciate these reminders just about every time I go to step off a curb.......

Cool buildings everywhere..............

Tomorrow is a travel day to Penzance.