Patty's Weblog

I was amazed by the many tall, glassy buildings that have become the skyscape of London. Many of the downtown streets were cordoned off for construction. Cranes were everywhere.

Everytime "tall buildings" comes to my mind, the song "In Tall Buildings" by John Hartford, sung by Gillian Welch comes to my mind. It begins:

Someday my baby, when I am a man,
and others have taught me
the best that they can
they'll sell me a suit
they'll cut off my hair
and send me to work in tall buildings

So it's goodbye to the sunshine
goodbye to the dew
goodbye to the flowers
and goodbye to you
I'm off to the subway
I must not be late
I'm going to work in tall buildings
























First London blog entry.

May 10, Wednesday.

Our last full day in London. I wrote "A bit slow today!" in my trip notes. We take the Tube to Little Venice, and board a funky little canal boat that will take us to Campden and the markets there.

Inside the canal boat. (Only took my iPhone.)



View from boat.



Our canal boat "captain".



We went to Hyde Park and enjoyed the views.



Later we went back to our hotel and rested awhile. For dinner, we went back to our favorite local restaurant, the Tapas place.

Then to bed. Our last night in London.

On Thursday we packed up and made our way to the airport for our 2:40 pm flight. What a wonderful time we had in London!


Next London blog entry - a post script.

May 9, Tuesday.

Today we tubed to Westminster station and found a hop-on-off river trip to Greenwich, about an hour long cruise. Why not?! We enjoyed the cruise and then we enjoyed Greenwich. (I left my camera at home, so today's photos are from my iPhone.)

The first thing we come to after we depart our cruise boat is this sailing ship.



We went inside the Royal Naval Museum. This painting is by David James!



Here is a navy uniform.



Next we walked across a big lively park and up to the Royal Observatory.



Just outside the observatory is the Meridian that marks Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT. This is the standard for world time: When the sun is at its highest point exactly above the Prime Meridian, it is 12:00 noon at Greenwich.

People around the gate leading to the meridiam.



My feet, one on each side of the meridian.



John, one foot on each side of the meridian.



We had lunch in Greenwich, then strolled around the area and went to the bazaar. The bazaar had tons and tons of little shops under a big cover. Too much stuff! Crowded! But interesting. Tired, we went back to catch the boat back to the subway and finally to our hotel. We ate dinner at Nandos again because we liked it a lot.

I took some photos of our room.









It was small, but plenty of room for us. It was clean and functional. No complaints!


Next London blog entry.

May 8, Monday.

We were sort of thinking of taking a train out to Brighton, then decided it was just too much work. Instead, we first headed out to the Churchill War Museum. It was fascinating. This is the bunker where Churchill headquartered during World War II. Just standing in that area was amazing.

On the way, we passed the building below. Our son should visit this place!



This is the enigma machine.



Churchill had many interests and hobbies, including painting.





"He certainly is a handful"! Reminds us of a certain grandson.



Another sign about Churchill's childhood.



At age 16, Churchill won a school prize for his poem "The Influenza".



At one point in the war museum, the alarm went off. A voice came on, repeating: "move directly to the exit". We all filed out, with John and I about at the end of the line. No explanation was given. When we were almost out, the alarm went off and we all filed back in. Again, no explanation. But later, when we left the museum, we found the road outside cordoned off, and lots of police. Traffic in the area was backed up because of closed roads. We walked to a pub to find a beer and found that we got around a lot better on foot than the cars were doing.

I liked this sign we saw along the way:



Our next destination was tthe Victoria and Albert Museum. We walked and walked, but had trouble finding it. Finally we found it! Tired, we went to a pub for lunch and wine. Then we toured the museum. It had lots of artwork collected from many ages and cultures. I didn't take any photos.

We went back to our hotel. For dinner, we went to a Chinese restaurant down the street.

Next London blog entry.