Sunday, 15th June                   Woolwich - Leighton Buzzard

Robyn writes:  A nice peaceful day after the hustle and bustle of a week in London! We were up at 8am to finish packing up, check the TV news - England lost in the World Cup game - sad :(  and headed out for our final breakfast at The Great Harry. We were all packed up and headed off at 9.30 on our way to Carol and Dave and Glen's place at Leighton Buzzard.

We just managed to get seats on the DLR for the half hour trip into Bank - it was really busy this morning. From Bank we took a train to Euston Station where we got tickets (14 pounds each) for the overland train to Leighton Buzzard. We comfortably caught the 11.24 out of Euston and made it into Leighton Buzzard at quarter past 12. Glen and Carol were there to meet us on the platform (thankfully - there were two big sets of steps to negotiate) and we were soon home for a delicious lunch (hot chook sandwiches - yum!)

After lunch, I did some washing and we hung it out to try and get it dry (Carol's dryer is broken ) but the weather today was not so co-operative - after a warm to hot week it's turned cool and cloudy and semi-drizzly again. We finally ended up bringing it in and it's now shut in a room with a de-humidifier going to try and dry it off before we leave on our canal trip tomorrow morning. We've also tried to get organized with our food supplies and have watched the compulsory safety and boat rules video which has left Carol and I quite panic-stricken at the idea of operating the locks! There seems to be an awful lot to learn.

In an effort to research further, for tea we went to a lovely local pub called "The Three Locks" - coincidentally, it's located right on a canal next to three locks in a row! (Wouldn't have seen that coming...) We had a lovely meal there and were able to watch several canal boats come through, and chatted to some of the captains aboard - they all assured us it's fine to get the hang of really quickly. We felt slightly reassured but I still think it may be very interesting at first....at least the route we are on only has two locks but it does have 5 swing bridges. Will keep you posted on our nautical adventures!

Saturday, 14th June                              London

Robyn writes: A long-held dream today: I finally went to the Trooping of the Colours parade in London! We were up nice and early to head into the Mall with the aim of getting there by about 10, which we managed fine. It was easy to find the direction to go: just follow the huge crowds heading that way! When we got to St James's Park, we decided a toilet stop and a cuppa would both be a good idea, so a nice policeman directed us back to the same cafe we were at yesterday! Then we wandered over to select a good viewing position.

 Thoroughly over-excited Aussie!

We found a spot on the mall where we were second in the row, which gave us a really good view along the road both ways. Then it was a case of stand and wait...and wait...and wait! There were Grenadier Guards and police men and women all of the way along, and troops of guards, and bands, so there was actually quite a bit to see. Finally the royals headed down to where the actual trooping of the colours took place, and we all clicked away in a frenzy! The crowd was most excited when the queen went by, and we had a great time spotting all of the minor royals in the carriages, and Princess Anne on horseback (she doesn't like carriages). William was on a horse too but I didn't actually realise as he wasn't looking our way. Harry was in a carriage; he must not be so horsey!

 Camilla and Kate

 The Queen and Prince Phillip

 Princess Anne and Prince William not looking at me!

Experienced Poms told us that we had an hour until they came back, so we went off for a walk to get the blood flowing through our feet again, made another toilet stop, and selected another good position for their return, and the crowd went wild clicking away again. All very satisfactory! Then we wanted to make our way to the palace for the balcony bit, but where we were on the left side of the mall had barriers stretching half way down. Most unfair as the people on the other side of the road were streaming out onto the road! We finally decided to walk away from the palace to get to the gap in our barriers and made it onto the road in time for the RAF fly past directly overhead, which was amazing! Unfortunately by the time we turned around to get past the fountain and see the balcony, the royals were waving goodbye and heading in, so we only got a few very far away photos. Oh well, it was a great day, the rain held off (just) and much cooler than it has been so no-one was fainting in the heat. My royal-watching photos were at least a little more successful than my puffin or seal watching photos, anyway, with a few good ones!

 No doubt about it, the British do pageantry better than anyone else!

 

 

 

 

 

After the parade, we headed back towards the British Museum to finish looking through it, so we walked through Green Park to the tube station there and it was only one change to get to Holborn, the closest station to the museum. As soon as we got there we had lunch in the cafe, and then split up to go and 'do' the museum again. I headed straight for the enormously popular Egyptian Mummy rooms - they were so crowded you could hardly move in there! I spent a happy hour or two perusing mummies before meeting up with Lex for afternoon tea. He'd been looking at Islamic Art and Chinese Prints. Then we headed off again for one last look around before meeting up at 5 to head home. Not too bad, we were back in Woolwich by 10 past 6.

I hit the bed to rest my poor tired feet and start the blog while Lex went for a walk down towards the Thames around the edge of town and beside the ferry to the back of the Arsenal (now being redeveloped, in yet another example of the building boom that's taking place down by the water here.) For tea we went just up the road to the local Nando's and had a lovely meal with great service. The cloud all seems to have cleared and the weather has turned quite cool here this evening, so I was glad to get back into the warm! Still, we can't complain - really, we've had a week of great weather for London. Now it's time to pack...sigh. Am over packing!

On the plus side, we're heading out to Leighton Buzzard to stay with Glen, Carol and Dave overnight tomorrow before heading off on our northern Wales canal boat cruise on Monday!

Friday, June 13th (Black Friday!)             Woolwich -  London

Robyn writes: This morning we realised we had to devote some time to some "business" - ie the non-fun parts of travel like posting things off, chasing money etc. After our usual tasty breakfast at The Great Harry, we came back to the room to finish packing up two boxes of souvenir-type books and other items we've acqired travelling around - our ports are getting so full and heavy that something had to be done, so we decided to send some home to my mum and dad for safe-keeping. This always takes so much longer than you'd think, but I finally headed off to the Post Office up the road to discover that the two boxes weighed 2.4 and 2.03 kg. So, I whipped a fridge magnet out of the second, to bring it in under 2 kg (which goes to Australia for 25 pounds - ouch!) and asked the man at the counter what the heavier one would cost. He said 75 pounds! I nearly fainted, and hurriedly took out some books to bring it in under 2 kg as well. Lex arrived and helped me tape them up, then he got back into the (long) queue to post them, while I went in search of a Western Union.

We needed this as we're waiting on a booking fee refund from one of our accommodations. It all sounds so simple....of course, it isn't! I went to the closest WU agent, but their computer was down and they directed me to another one. By now Lex had finished at the post office so we went to the other WU office and lined up....for 40 minutes until it was our turn. It took the nice lady 2 minutes to tell us that the payment was for UK to other countries only, and they couldn't help us. We only swore a little bit. We tried two more places in Woolwich with no luck, and by now it was nearly midday, so we looked up an easy to find London WU agency, and headed in on the train to Victoria Station, where it was located. We found the agency easily, there was no queue, all was going great....then the bloke informed us that the payment could only be collected in Australia. By me. Um. We said, in September? He said, no, it expires in 30 days. Bugger. End of story for today, resolve to email landlord and get him to change it. Several hours of the day wasted! By now it was after one, and I was starving, so we spotted a Wetherspoon's there at the station and flung ourselves upon them for lunch.

 Victoria Station, where we had lunch

Houses of Parliament

Once we were fortified, we decided to make a third attempt to revisit Westminster Abbey (to recap: it was closed on Sunday, then there was a memorial service on) so after lunch we walked the kilometre or so up Victoria Street to the abbey. Alas, it wasn't a case of third time lucky...by the time we got there, it was getting on for three o'clock and the queue stretched almost to the footpath! As it closes at 4.30, we figured we were not going to spend 18 pounds for less than an hour and a half in there. Instead, we visited the nearby St Margaret's, where Sir Walter Raleigh was buried after he was beheaded (it doesn't do to annoy kings, really!). Having paid our respects to him and admired the many other ancient graves, we went walking to see the sights.

 Lex not being allowed into Parliament

 

Me not being allowed into Downing Street

In something of an epic hike, we walked as far around the Houses of Parliament as we could, then along with the aim of seeing Number 10 Downing Street, where the British PM lives. This proved extremely difficult, as the whole of the end of the street is very securely fenced off with lots of police officers who are accustomed to having hundreds of tourists take their photos every day! We walked along past Whitehall and up towards the palace, seeing lots of landmarks along the way. In St James Park I had a lovely afternoon tea - we sat up on a garden terrace on top of the cafe and looked out over the ponds. Today was quite hot - around 27 degrees at a guess and really summery weather. Storms were forecast but none happened while we were in town, luckily.

 Paying respects to Captain Cook

 We went right to the top of Wellington's Arch

 Australian War Memorial

As we are English Heritage members, we got in free to Wellington's Arch, and took the lift up to the top for some great views. We visited the Australian War Memorial next to it - it's quite a clever idea - the big words which are the names of the battles we've fought in are made up of little words - the Aussie towns that dead soldiers came from. I spent some time looking for Emerald but no luck. (I did find Augathella though, and Cometville, which is what they used to call Comet!) Then we walked right through Green Park to the edge of Hyde Park where, footsore and weary, we caught the tube (very, very crowded) to Victoria Station. Then we changed to a District Line train (crowded) to Monument, walked underground to Bank, and got onto the DLR (we got a seat) home to Woolwich! All of this, of course, takes quite a bit of time - over an hour in all. We were very glad to get home at nearly seven o'clock! I can see how people who have to commute every day for work get really over it very quickly.

For tea this evening we decided to try out the restaurant here in the Travelodge, so we both had their 'meal deal' - a meal and a drink for 10 pounds. We both had a lovely curry then I had profiteroles for dessert. Very nice. Tonight England is playing Italy in the World Cup so the place is at fever pitch - I hope we get some sleep! (With any luck they'll all be at the pubs way up the road....)

11 June 2014

Woolwich - London

Another beautiful day greeted us as we strolled to The Great Harry pub (the Wetherspoon) for breakfast. We are eating two meals a day here; its cheap and convenient. They do serve beer with breakfast if you want it, and this morning there were three old blokes having a morning pint (about 9 AM). I manfully resisted.

To get into London today, we took a bus instead of the train. This took an hour (nearly twice as long as the train), but it went through suburbs we hadn't seen before. Also, there was a bonus sermon ! A lady of African extraction got on the bus, and came up to the top deck- where we were. She started preaching; I suspect mainly for the benefit of people of her kind. There are many Africans on the bus, and many in London now. She kept it up for about 15 minutes, thanked us all, and went downstairs. It was quite entertaining. No one argued; we just sat there and listened. People in London, and England are all very polite.

From the bus, we could see The Shard; a building made to look like a piece of broken glass. This is it (from St Paul's).

　

 

I wonder why they called it the shard ?

The bus delivered us to Whitehall; that is, outside the houses of parliament building. The plan was to visit Westminster Abbey today. However, a memorial service for Sir John Taverner (classical music composer) was about to start when we arrived. We didn't feel like hanging around to wait; so plan B was concocted over a cup of tea in the Methodist Church cafeteria. The decision was in favour of St Paul's Cathedral.

A short train ride took us to Cannon Street Station, and a five minute walk brought us to the front steps; and hundreds of people who had no intention of paying to get in.



 

And you thought the pigeons were bad !

In through a side door we went. The front door was closed, but what a front door it is (it's actually 2 doors, and they weigh a ton each). The good folk at the desk then asked us for 16 1/2 pounds each (ouch), and agreed let us in. Well, it was worth it.

The place is magnificent. As usual with places like this, a huge history sits behind the bricks and mortar. I was most impressed with the excellent condition of everything, given that the building was completed 304 years ago. The mosaics are especially beautiful. There are no photos, as photography is not permitted inside the church.

After booking ourselves onto the 1:30 tour, we decided to go up to the dome. Robyn braved the 1 million (275 actually) steps to climb to the gallery. This is a walk around the inside of the dome, looking down at the interior of the church. From here the view was spectacular. Going up another flight of stairs, we came to a circular walk around the bottom (on the outside) of the outer dome. This is the dome we see from outside the place, and it is covered in lead. The views of London were brilliant. Robyn took one or two photos.

The Millennium Bridge look small. People looked like ants.

 

There is a lot of London, and someone keeps building more...



A further flight of stairs led to the upper (outside) circular walk. This gave even better views of the city, and allowed us to look down on the outer dome. In all, we climbed about 330 feet from the floor to this point. I could see the lantern windows above me, but not the cross at the top.



This part is above the dome.



The dark ring just above the dome is the railing for the top walkway. Above that, you can see the columns and window from the picture above.



Going down the steps was much easier. It took only a few minutes. Soon we were back at floor level, and it was time for lunch.

The cafeteria in St Paul's is in the crypt; literally. There is actually a memorial just at the end of the servery. It's not really creepy - I didn't see any bones or anything like that. 'Twas just a bit surprising. Their price for lunch - 16 pounds for a set menu was a bit steep for us. Across the road from the cathedral was a café called Paul's (hardly an original name). Lunch, and a cup of tea each cost us 17 pounds (for two).

Back at the cathedral, a guide took us around the highlights of the place. This lasted 90 minutes, and was free - that is, included in the admission price. Our guide Fred knew all about the building and a lot of history as well. We all pretended to be very respectful, and knowledgeable; glad he didn't ask us any questions !

The last stop of this tour was in the crypt, so we had a look around afterwards. The three most notable tombs were Christopher Wren (who built the cathedral), The Duke of Wellington (defeated Bonaparte at Waterloo), and Horatio Nelson (won the Battle of Trafalgar, but died there). There were plenty of other dead guys, but none of them had as much style as Wellington. His coffin cost more than my house, and weighs more too (its granite, thick thick granite).

From St Paul's our walk to the train station took on epic proportions; across the Millennium pedestrian bridge, along the Thames, past the Golden Hind (Sir Francis Drake's ship), over the Tower Bridge, past the Tower of London, and finally to the station. Robyn was starting to flag.

We had to walk over that thing just to get a picture. Here's Robyn trying to look happy about it.
To get home to Woolwich only required one change of train, so the journey was fairly comfortable if a little crowded in parts. We arrived at 6:30, and proceeded again to The Great Harry pub (good name that - it refers to King "Harry"/Henry the eighth). After another nice meal, and Robyn's creamy chocolate sundae (more calories than a pound of butter), it was time to head back to our room in the Travel Lodge.

I left her to rest and went for a walk to the Thames River barrage. This is meant to stop water coming up the river and flooding the city. About 99.9 % of the time it sits idle , so it has to look nice.

They're pretty in silhouette but up close they look like a squashed coke can.

Finally, as the sun set low, it was time to head home. So until tomorrow...

Bye for now

Lex and Robyn.

 

Thursday 12 June 2014

London

Today we saw…

.

 

Heaps of trains.

The underground trains, and the “DLR” (Docklands Light Railway) move millions of people every day. The system is huge, complicated etc. I must say though, that it works brilliantly well. It is also fairly easy to use. There are two parts to it from a traveler’s perspective. Knowing where you’re going, and actually riding. The first is by far the most important, and the most work. Actually riding the train is simply a matter of getting in, and diving for any available seat. Even when I had to stand in a crowded carriage, for a stop or two, it was really no hassle.

Emirates Cable Car

Check this out. It cost £ 4.40 to go across the Thames on the cable car. This link is part of the Transport for London system, so we used our Oyster cards to pay for it. Marvelous. The Northern end of the ride is just near the O2 stadium. This is an entertainment centre venue.  Monty Python is performing here next month.

 

The dirty brown bit below is the Thames River. Still, the views were good…

I

The O2 stadium resembles a crown at night when the lights on the Yellow towers come on.

 

The cable car took us on a bit of a detour. No real problem though, we just had a few changes before we got to Greenwich. When we got there it was lunchtime. The Nando’s restaurant was in the shadows of the Cutty Sark.

 

Someone has made a tourist attraction out of an old boat here. I could still walk right around it, and see the hull through the glass.

 

Greenwich

 

Nandos

 

We had lunch at Nandos, overlooking the Thames. Very nice.

 

 

Christopher Wren designed some of the buildings at the Naval College at Greenwich. It shows. The place reminded us of St Pauls. The architecture was very similar, and so was the decoration. As with any place like this (that is – whose purpose is to train the navy, and to defend England), it was big and impressive.