Wild Places and Open Spaces

Day 6

(see pics here)

We left our cute abode at 6:30am….we wanted to make sure we beat rush hour traffic on the metro since we had all of our luggage. During rush hour, as you can imagine, there is no room to move on the subway, and luckily our plan worked – it was a relatively easy trip, although we still had to walk up and down a few staircases with our heavy luggage.

The Eurostar – the train that runs between Paris and London – runs at speeds up to 300km/hr (186mph). Across the water (the English Channel), the train runs in a 50.5km underground channel tunnel (the ‘chunnel’). Remarkably this trip only takes just over 2 hours to complete……now that is a fast train! It was very comfortable, and a good ride.

We managed to navigate our way to the Twickenham station via the Underground (their version of the metro) and train. Here we called our friends (which was a bit difficult due to the public phone not working – a nice guy working at the station let us use his phone – I guess we are living in the dark ages still relying on public phones) who arrived to pick us up. (We would later learn that it is much cheaper to use public transit in Paris than it is in London!)

We had not seen Sue and Rob since 2007, when we had met them in Fiji. We immediately recognized them, as they did us, and it was like no time had passed.  We visited for a bit, then they suggested we spend the afternoon in a nearby Palace. They drove us to Hampton Court Palace – this is where British Royalty used to live, and predates Buckingham Palace. We learned of the Tudor (1485 – 1603) and the Stuart (1603 – 1714 ) periods, and much about King Henry VIII – he is perhaps best known for his 6 marriages, and is often regarded as having been an egotistical, harsh king. See pics here.

Rob and Sue took us out to experience the real ‘English Pub Scene’, and we had a fun night, tasting many, many English beers. We stumbled to an Indian Restaurant for a late (very late) dinner, and enjoyed Rob and Sue’s company while indulging in amazing food. We closed the restaurant and Sue had hailed us a cab for the ride home. We later learned that Sue is on a first name basis with the cab company…..

Day 7

Took a bit to look ‘bright-eyed and bushy tailed’ this morning, after a very late night (albeit very fun) yesterday.

Rob and Sue took us to Stonehenge – it is quite a distance from the city, and without them, we may not have gotten to visit this incredible site. We were surprised of all the rolling green space outside of the city. Stonehenge itself needs no description, as it is so well known, but we can say that it is much bigger and more sublime than we had imagined. See pic here. It is perplexing that it is not known why, how, or exactly when Stonehenge was built but it is estimated through carbon dating that it was constructed between 4000 and 5000 years ago. Sue remembers a time when she was younger when Stonehenge was not roped off and protected – she actually has pictures of herself playing and sitting on the stones – now you cannot get close to the stones at all.

After a lunch out where we discovered ‘jacket potatoes’ ( a better version of our ‘stuffed potatoes’), Sue and Rob dropped us off at the train station and we took the underground to the Natural History Museum. We had really been looking forward to this museum, but were somewhat disappointed. Although some of the exhibits were quite good, many were old and in need of restoration. We were expecting a phenomenal museum, but perhaps we have been spoiled because we have visited the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History – a truly amazing place.

Back to Sue and Rob’s place, where Sue had prepared a lovely dinner for us – chicken, lots of veggies and scrumptious potatoes – YUM! Then, out to the pub again of course! Another fun (and late!) evening visiting with Sue and Rob and friends.

Day 8

Spent the entire day visiting tourist spots in London.

Started with The Tower of London – a grand palace which is actually a complex of buildings and towers – which once served as a royal residency. The initial castle, The White Tower, was built in 1078! One of the most interesting parts of our visit was viewing the royal jewels. Unfortunately, no pictures are allowed, but we can say that the jewels are stunning. The wealth that the British royalty holds is staggering. It is interesting that many of the objects on display are still used in ceremonies today, and we saw a video of how they package crowns, maces and swords when they need them. We even saw the crown that will one day be placed on the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton’s head.

Next, Tower Bridge (which we originally thought was London Bridge – see below for explanation). Absolutely stunning. We were both amazed by the size and beauty of this bridge. Nothing more can be said, other than this is definitely a highlight of our London trip. See pic here and here.

Travelled to St. Paul’s Cathedral, another lovely church, where there clouds cleared for a bit and we got some blue sky. We got lunch ‘to go’ from Mark’s and Spencer (oh how I miss our Mark’s and Spencer) and ate on the steps of the church as we ‘people watched’.

Just a thought….it is interesting that there probably wouldn’t be many amazing buildings had there been no religion or war. Hmmm.

It was around this time that we started to get a bit tired, so we hopped on an old double decker bus to view some of the city…wow, wouldn’t want to be a bus driver (or any driver for that matter) in this city! Cars going everywhere, no room, it is organized chaos….not really even organized.

Next on our list: Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey (where William and Kate wed), Palace of Westminster (parliament buildings) along with Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, and the London Eye. The sun stayed out and we were lucky to get some decent pics of some of these sites.

Back to London Tower and the London Eye for some night shots. This is kind of a funny story – this is when we learned that Tower Bridge is not the London Bridge. Earlier, we had assumed that the big beautiful bridge was London Bridge. However, when we got off on the London Bridge underground stop, the big beautiful bridge was still far away. We were totally stunned, and wondered why they would name the underground stop “London bridge” when London Bridge wasn’t even there. Then a ‘light bulb’ went on a little while later, and we realized that we had messed up the name, and that London Bridge is the bridge (tiny in comparison to TowerBridge)  that has the history of being bought by an American, then shipped and reconstructed in Arizona.

Back at Sue and Rob’s by 9:30pm, where they had left us a note that they were out – at the pub of course – and if we wanted to join them to give them a call. Of course! While waiting for them, we enjoyed the company of Romeo – an African Grey Parrot that is the much loved pet of Sue and Rob. Every morning Romeo takes a flight from his (or hers, we aren’t quite sure) cage upstairs to visit his beloved Rob to wake him up. Sue and Rob had spoken about how vocal Romeo can be, but we hadn’t really witnessed it until this evening. Jim started singing, and Romeo sang along, and generally was quite chatty. We were picked up by Sue and Rob, and had another enjoyable evening at the pub listening to a great female singer, and hanging out at with Sue and Rob and friends.

Tomorrow we’ll be leaving Sue and Rob to meet up with our friends Per and Jacquie.

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