Canterbury Tale's

May 29, 2011

The Pilgrim's Tale

Our Pilgrim's journey took us first to Chiddingstone, a tiny village outside of Tonbridge, southeast of London. Chiddingstone is the location of The Castle Inn, the first of the historic pubs outside of London on Tim's list that we have visited. It is a lovely pub, as you can see from the pictures, and we had a wonderful pub lunch and Tim had an excellent local Bitter Ale. We have no idea how we finally found this pub but we are glad we did. From Chiddingstone our Pilgrimage continued on to Canterbury where we visited the Canterbury Cathedral. Actually Tim went in while Lynda shopped and had a glass of wine and read. The beauty of the Cathedral was enhanced by the choir that was rehearsing in the quire. We had visited this cathedral many years ago but did not remember some of the details. For example, there is a candle perpetually burning behind the present day alter to mark the spot where The Saint Paul of Canterbury Chapel stood until it was destroyed by King Henry VIII during the reformation. There is also a Chapel of the Martyrs marking the spot where Thomas Beckett was martyred in 1100 something. Now there is a very modern cross over a small, simple alter where Pope John Paul II and the Archbishop of Canterbury prayed together for Thomas Beckett. This was a major event in ecumenical unity. Our Pilgrim's journey ended in Sandwich, a lovely town on the coast just south of the Thames estuary. Famously and truthfully, the Earl of Sandwich placed a piece of meat between two slices of bread to create, are you ready, the sandwich. There is no truth to the story that this first sandwich was served to Sir Loin of Kent.

The Golfer's Tale

Sandwich is the home of the Royal St. George's Golf Club. Sunday morning, in bright sunshine and a cool breeze, Tim walked out to the course, about a mile's walk. There is a public footpath that passes through the course so Tim was able to walk out by the 18th green, even though a member greeted Tim at the entrance to the club and explained that it was members' only on the weekend and they could not have a lot of people wandering around. Well!! Royal St. George's is hosting the British Open in July and grandstands already surround the 18th green. Tim could see other grandstands in place around the course and many television towers already erected. It was exciting to be that close to the 18th hole where the world's greatest golfers will be playing in a month's time.

The Traveller's Tale

We left Sandwich this morning, after a successful geocache, and drove along the coast through wonderful little towns with great views of the English Channel. We drove through the town center of Dover because our previous times in Dover had been on trains passing through on the way to the continent. It turns out we saw everything Dover has to offer from the train. Just south of Dover we came by the Memorial to the Battle of Britain, so we stopped. The Battle of Britain lasted for about 8 months during 1940 when the Germans started their bomb raids on London. The British Air Force was able to hold the Germans at bay, preventing a wholesale invasion by the Germans. As we got out of the car a WW II era "Spitfire" airplane was flying over head but disappeared before we were able to get a picture. Our journey continued along the coast through Folkstone, into Rye where we stopped in nearby Peasmarsh for our Sunday Roast. We'll continue on to East Dean near Eastbourne where we will spend the next three nights with our friends, Clive & Angie Morris.

Chelsea Flower Show

May 28, 2011
It's Saturday morning and we are in Richmond, a suburb of London with an interesting town centre on several streets that go off in all sorts of several different directions.
Thursday morning, after doing laundry in Glastonbury, we drove across southern England towards London. On the way we passed by Stonehenge. Stonehenge is this ancient rock formation that was used as either or both a center of worship and a way to keep time. Historians have not been able to adequately explain how these huge stones, several tons or more, were moved to where they are or how they were lifted up to sit on top of each other. We have been by this site many times and never cease to be amazed by it, even in a "drive by" like Thursday. We also took time on Thursday to drive into Guildford. We lived in Guildford in 1986-1987 while Tim was doing his sabbatical at the University of Surrey. We went by the house we lived in, the shops in Onslow Village we shopped in and the schools that Jil and Jeff attended. Much was the same but, of course, much had also changed. That is life. The afternoon was spent at the Royal Horticultural Society Gardens at Wisley. These gardens are the "holy grail" of gardens in England. Lynda was a member of RHS and spent much time here during our sabbatical year. The flowers were a week or so farther along than the other gardens we have visited so there wasn't much in bloom. Still, it is good to visit favorite old haunts.
Friday morning Lynda did what the British call a "lie in". We call it "sleeping in". She was saving her energy for the big event of the day: The Chelsea Flower Show. You may recall that earlier in our trip we tried on two occasions to visit the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea without success. Well, before going to the flower show we tried once more to get into this Gallery. This time we were successful. It was an interesting experience. There were 15 rooms of art, 14 of which were quite bizarre. The enclosed picture is of one of the least bizarre sculptures that we saw. The 15th room was a piece of art we won't even begin to try to describe other than to say it was fascinating. We visited this room twice before leaving the Gallery.
Now on to the Chelsea Flower Show. This show is not the biggest flower show in England but it is the most famous and most important show. It sells out every year and the Queen always visits it the day before it opens to the public. We were only able to get tickets for a 2 and half hour block of time at the end of the day. We got there early and were fortunate enough to get in an hour earlier than our tickets called for. The Chelsea Flower Show takes place on the grounds of the Royal Chelsea Hospital which is, in fact, a pensioners home for old soldiers. There were 17 gardens, 66 feet by 30 feet, and another 19 smaller gardens on display. The 17 large gardens were sponsored by businesses or in some cases towns who hired world famous garden designers to create a garden that would hopefully win a gold medal. Prince Albert of Monaco spent three years working with a designer for the garden he had in the show. Think Rose Bowl parade and how designers are hired to create the floats. It is the same principal. The 19 smaller gardens were similar to smaller floats in the Rose Parade; not as spectacular as the large "showpiece" gardens but still absolutely beautiful. In addition to the display gardens, there were almost 600 exhibitors on hand with booths offering just about anything the gardener would want. Inside a large pavilion were displays by probably 50 or more nurseries from around England, each display featuring different flowers. These were the creme della creme of the flowers of each species. And they were unbelievable. One booth featured the 2011 Chelsea Flower Show flower of the year. This years winner was an anenome, a small container plant that was stunning in its simplicity. As we went through these displays of flowers we made check lists of specific plants that we would like to add to our garden at home. Tim may never play golf again! We were on our feet the entire 3 and half hours we were there but were thrilled to have been able to go.
Today we are headed east towards Canterbury and a visit to the Canterbury Cathedral. Join us tomorrow for "Canterbury Tales"!

Books, Cheddar Cheese and Laundry

May 25, 2011
While having breakfast this morning our hosts told us about this village nearby that was the book capital of the UK. Every other store, it seemed, was a used bookstore. If we were interested in books, they said, we should go visit this village. So we scraped plans to drive to Cardiff and drove to Hay -on-Wye instead. They were correct. Everyother store was a used book store. And they were preparing for the annual Hay Festival, the largest literary festival of the year in the UK. We asked one of the shop keepers how this all happened. She told us about an excentric British gentlemen named Booth who thought having all these book stores would attract tourists. Turns out he was right.
After a couple of hours of wandering about Hay-on-Wye we hit the road driving toward Cheddar and the Cheddar Gorge. The Gorge itself is quite spectacular. There are records showing that man has lived in the Gorge for 44,000 years, but the English claimed it was only rediscovered during Victorian times, the mid to late 1800's. We are not sure we believe them. The unfortunate thing about the Gorge is the area of shops on the road just before you enter this wonder of nature. It felt like an America tourist trap. Tim said he expected to see a sign advertising last chance for Mackinaw Island Fudge. It seemed that every shop claimed to have the only Cheddar Cheese actually made in Cheddar. As much as we enjoyed the Gorge, we had no trouble driving past all the shops on the way out.
We spent the night at a B & B in Glastonbury. Glastonbury has two claims to fame. First, it is supposedly the site of King Arthur's and Guinevere's graves. Second, it is claimed that Jesus visited Glastonbury when he was a boy. It seems Mary had a brother in the steel business and Glastonbury was big in the steel business back then so it is thought he probably brought Jesus with him on one of his business trips. With the Bible being pretty much blank when it comes to Jesus' childhood, it is hard to argue the point. But.....
Today, Thursday, is laundry day. We have found a place here in Glastonbury to do our laundry. No word if Jesus did his here. Then we head on to London to find accomodations for a couple nights. Friday is a big day. We have tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show. We hope to include a visit to Wisley Gardens in morning. Check back for a complete report on the Chelsea Flower Show.

Another Day, Another Garden

May 24, 2011
We left Chester today and drove into northern Wales to the Bodnant Botanical Garden. It is the largest and easily the most impressive of the gardens we have visited. We won't bore you with a list of the same flowers we have seen in the other gardens. The one feature that did separate Bodnant from the other gardens was the Laburnum Arch. Laburnam is a large shade tree that in the spring has beautiful yellow flowers that hang down resulting in the tree being called "golden rain tree" or "golden chain tree". We've heard it both ways. At the Bodnant Gardens, the Laburnum has been esplanade into an arch with the "golden chains" of flowers hanging down through the arch. Tim could barely walk under the arch of flowers. For about two weeks each spring it is absolutely breathtaking and fortunately we were there during the right time. It was fun to listen to all of the first time visitors reacting to this stunning feature.
A few words about flowers in general. We both love rhododendron and one of our biggest disappointments in our own gardening is our inability to grow spectacular rhodos. In England they have become so pervasive that they are almost consider weeds. There are places in the southeast of England where the government has actually destroyed rhododendrons in the country side because they were taking over all of the other plants. We understand this intellectually, but emotionally we think these bureaucrats` should all be beheaded. Where is the Queen when you really need her?
We have not mentioned the creative ways that hosta's are used among the flowering plants to enhance the "palette" of the border. Tim's mother, who has some beautiful and unusual hosta's in her garden would be particularly interested in this.
We left Bodnant Garden and drove south through the middle of Wales on small roads. The first road was about the size of the road we live on. Then Lynda had us driving down a road about the width of our drive way. Actually, the scenery was incredible. We drove through forest land and up into pretty stark mountains. Tonight we are staying in a B & B in little town that we can't pronounce because there are too many consonants and not enough vowels. The two signs in our pictures above say the same thing, one in English and the other in Welsh. We rest our case!
Tomorrow we plan to drive through Cardiff, Wales and then back into England. The next stop on our itinerary is the Cheddar Gorge, outside of Bath. And yes, they do make some of the finest cheddar cheese in all of England in the Cheddar Gorge.

Out and About Outside of Chester

May 23, 2011
Yesterday, Sunday, we drove into the city centre of Chester. Chester is a wonderful old city with pedestrian only walkways in its center and is unique because there are stores on two levels as you can see from the picture. We spent a bit of time shopping, had dinner and then found a B & B for two nights. We collapsed the rest of Sunday and did nothing.
Today was a cool, blustery day as we drove north out of Chester towards the Mersey River. Those of you old enough to remember Gerry and the Pacemakers can sing the song. And a lovely song it is. At any rate, Lynda wanted to see some water. Of course, the tide was out so basically all we saw were mud flats. There was also a garden of interest that we were headed for. Along the way we happened on a Nursery so we stopped. On leaving the Nursery, Lynda casually mentioned to Tim that the Royal Liverpool Golf Club was just up the road. She was a bit taken back when Tim got very excited, explaining that Royal Liverpool Hoylake, its official name, was the host of the British Open several years ago and that it was the scene of one of Tiger Woods' more memorable major wins. Being the loving, considerate wife that she is, Lynda willing postponed the garden visit so that Tim could make a pilgrimage to Royal Liverpool. Unlike most United States Open venues, British Open venues are generally open to the public. Tim could have played today other than the fact that when he stepped out onto the first tee to take a picture, the wind was blowing at least 50 mph and it was raining sideways. All the same, it was a religious experience, of a non-religious sort, for Tim. He will model his new golf shirt for anyone interested. By the time we arrived at the garden we were originally headed for the sun was miraculously shining. The garden in question is named Ness Botanical Garden and it was lovely. This garden featured an abundance of Aliums in bloom, a few early Lupines, the last vestiges of Rhododendren, lots of Foxglove and a few spectacularly vivid red poppies. This evening we drove into the city centre again and after dinner found a cleverly hidden geocache in front of the Chester Public Library.
We leave Chester tomorrow and haven't a clue where we are headed. We are driving in the general direction of Wales. Tim wants to head toward Ainsley to see if he can spot Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge wandering around whilst William, Duke of Cambridge is off rescuing people. That is his official job in the Royal Air Force. Lynda says probably not to the Kate watch. She can be such a party pooper! We will check back in with you in a day or so.

YSP

May 22, 2011
We were so caught up in talking about cathedrals and the country side in the last posting that we totally forgot about a wonderful find outside of York. One of us saw a little ad about the Yorkshire Sculpture Park that contained Henry Moore sculptures. When we left York we drove there. This 500 acre park located about 20 miles south of York was struggling when Henry Moore, a famous British sculptor, happened to visit it. He was so taken by the beauty of the park he immediately offered his financial support. Not only does it contain sculptures by Moore but he has also attracted other acclaimed sculptors to display their work here. As you can see from the pictures, the works are stunning in both their beauty and size. Given the size of the park we were unable to see everything we wanted to see, but what we saw was incredible. The works pictured are all by the Spanish sculptor, Jaume Piensa. If you ever get a chance to see any of his work, do.

Cathedrals, Fens and Moors

May 21, 2011
Yesterday was a day of cathedrals. The morning was spent in Cambridge at King's College Chapel. By all accounts King Henry VII was an incompetent king. His only accomplishments of note were in the area of religion and education. It was Henry VII who founded the University of Cambridge and Eton College. And it was his vision that led to the construction of King's College Chapel. From floor to ceiling King's College Chapel is the tallest cathedral in England. This heigth creates an optical allusion that it is a very narrow church. This is not the case. As you can see from the picture in the previous post, the ceiling is spectacular in its ornateness.
It was a relatively short drive to Ely to visit the Cathedral there. This is a Norman Cathedral with a very unusual octagonal tower in the middle over the transept. Norman construction features arches that are curved rather then pointy. The ceiling is made of wood with beautiful paintings the entire length of the ceiling. Ely Cathedral was featured in the movie, "The King's Speech". You may remember the scene where the King's speech teacher sits on the King's throne much to the horror of the King. This was filmed at Ely Cathedral. As a matter of fact the thorne was in the cathedral and one could sit in it for a photo op. Unfortunately, Colin Firth was not there for the photo op.
Leaving Ely, we drove to York. On the way we drove through Lincoln. We did not stop but Lincoln also has a beautiful cathedral that sits in a very commanding position on a hill over looking the city. The guide book indicates that this is also a beautiful Norman cathedral.
This morning we visited York Minster, another word for cathedral. The Church of England actually has two Archbishops, the well known Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York. The Archbishop of York is the head of the Church in Northern England. We feel we are being redundant in talking of the beauty of each of these Cathedrals but, as Tim told a custodian at Ely Cathedral, they are each beautiful in their own way. A couple of interesting facts about York that distinguish it from the other Cathedrals. York was built by the Catholics so that there were statues of catholic saints throughout the church. After Henry VIII left the Catholic Church and created the Church of England all of the statues of saints in the York Minister were beheaded so that any remaining catholics would not know which saints to worship. A very contemporary series of statues of the Virgin Mary were commissioned about five years ago and, keeping with tradition, these statues are also without heads. The second fact concerns the ceiling. It is made of wood and has been destroyed by fire on many occasions, last occurring in the last 20 or 30 years. When the roof is repaired, it is always returned to its original design. There are large decorations, for lack of a better word, in the roof that are usually religious or Tudor roses or some such thing. The last time the ceiling was repaired a contest was held for children under the age of 14 to submit designs for these decorations and six of them were used for the ceiling. One of them shows an astronaut on the moon. Quite an inspired decision on someones part. Also of interest, when a new king is crowned, he is crowned in Westminster Abbey. If and when William is crowned King it will be in London, but Kate will be crowned queen in York.
Enough about Cathedrals. We've spent enough time in them in last two days that we probably have a free pass from Church this morning. (This posting has been written over several days.)
We have always found it fascinating that in such a small country there can be such big differences in landscape. As we drove east of London into East Anglia we were in an area called the Fens. Several hundred years ago this was all marsh land. In a great engineering feat the marshland has been drained and now the Fens have some of the richest farmlands in all of Europe. Yesterday, as we drove from York towards Chester, where we are now, we drove over the Sallowood Moor. A moor is somewhere between a hill and a mountain. The landscape was very austere, stark and a bit foreboding but, none the less gorgeous to drive through.
Today we start what is planned to be two days in Chester. Cheers!

Pictures

Here are pictures of the Cock Inn in Boreham, Beth Chatto's Garden and King's College, University of Cambridge that didn't get posted on the last post. Sorry! We are dealing with a lot of pub wifi's now that don't always work efficiently. No comments, please, about our drinking and posting at the same time.

A Toast to Tim's Father

May 19, 2011
Greetings from Cambridge. Would you believe we are staying in a room above a pub? The Earl of Derby, to be exact.
Yesterday was our last day in London and the only thing we did was go to the Tate Modern, a contemporary art gallery associated with the world famous Tate Gallery. The reason we went there was to see the Joan Miro exhibition. There were 13 rooms of his paintings and a few sculptures. Miro is one of our favorite artists and it was a joy to see so much of his work in one place. There was also a lot of historic information about Miro that we didn't know, starting with the fact that Joan is the Catalan spelling of Juan. He was fiercely loyal to Catalonia, the region of Spain north of Barcelona. After the Spanish Civil War, General Franco, the Spanish Dictator, suppressed all things Catalan causing Miro and his family to move to Paris in exile. Much of his art reflects these feelings. That is enough of a history lesson. Miro's art is fabulous and we thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition.
Today we rented a car and left London heading east towards Colchester to visit a garden. On the way we stopped in Boreham for lunch at the Cock Inn. This is noteworthy because Tim's father was stationed in Boreham a short time during WW II before his unit left for Normandy. While stationed at Boreham he raised many a pint of beer at the Cock Inn. We raised a toast today to Tim's father. Here's to you, Dad!
The Beth Chatto Garden east of Colchester was breath taking in its beauty. It is not as formal as many other English gardens that we have visited. It was a riot of color, or as Tim likes to say, "a visual cacaphony", with iris, rhododendren, poppies, primulas, and many others too numerous to mention in full bloom. In particular, we were impressed with the many varied and unusual, for us, specimens of columbine. We both, but Lynda in particular, enjoyed being back in a true English garden.
This evening we went into Cambridge and walked about the city center. Cambridge is the seat of oneof the world's great univerities. Cambridge University consists of nearly 30 seperate colleges with King's College being the most famous. Tourists are allowed on the grounds of the seperate colleges at very limited times. When we asked about visiting Kings's College we were told that we could visit the Chapel, which is a famous architecual site, tomorrow but the rest of the grounds were closed as the students were sitting for their exams now. What with no tourists around and students studying madly for exams, it was very quiet in the city center next to the University, a perfect night for a quiet stroll.
Tomorrow the plan is to visit King's College Chapel and then drive to Ely to visit the cathedral there, before driving on toward York. But at this point in our trip who knows what tomorrow will bring. Guess you will just have to check in with the blog again. How's that for a tease!
Cheers!

Of Bridges, RAF, and Lords

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

What an amazing day. It started rather inauspicsiously. While Lynda was sleeping in Tim got lost on public transportation trying to get to the Tower Bridge. When he did finally find it he was unable to spend as much time as he would have liked walking through the bridge. The Tower Bridge spans the Thames River next to the Tower of London. The Tower of London use to be a prison but now is a tourist site and the home of the Royal Jewels and the Beefeaters, Yeomen of the Guards. We are not sure what or who they guard. Maybe the Beefeaters Gin! At any rate, the Tower Bridge (see pictures) was the first draw bridge built across the Thames. You can climb, actually take an elevator, inside the large towers at each end and walk across the enclosed girder at the top of the bridge. Tim was able to get some great pictures from on high, including the enclosed picture of the Tower of London. An aside - Lynda didn't go because she and Jilayne toured the bridge on an earlier trip - Jeff, did you ever go up there?

The reason Tim did not have as much time as he wanted was because we were meeting our friends from Eastbourne, Clive and Angie Morris. Clive flew 747's for British Airways and Virgin Airline. This was after his stint in the Royal Air Force. We met Clive and Angie at the Royal Air Force Club on Picadilly Rd. It is one of those clubs that are all over London where you need a coat and tie to go in the main dining room. Tim & Clive forswore the coats so we ended up in the bar in the basement(dating from 1590) where we had drinks and a nice lunch. After lunch Clive did give us a tour around the club so we could peek in the posh rooms. He showed us one room where only men were allowed. He told us there is a person who goes through this room occasionally to make sure the the old fly boys are sleeping and not at the great air base in the sky!

After lunch we all wondered through art galleries around St.James St. Clive is an artist so he particularly enjoys all types of galleries. He's planning to exhibit again this fall in a London show. We will be staying with the Morris' for a couple of days later in our trip. After they headed for Victoria Station we headed to Westminster for a second attempt to get into the House of Lords.

Again there was a queue so we spent an hour reading and watching the boats passing in the Thames, in Queen Victoria's Garden at the south end of the houses of Parliament. We were then able to walk right in to the visitors' gallery at the House of Lords in the Parliament building. The room is quite opulent. This is the room where the Queen oversees the opening of Parliament each October. The front of the House of Lords is all in gold, including the throne where the Queen sits. Interestingly, we noticed that each Lord that entered the House turned and bowed toward the throne. When we first arrived a Deputy Minister of Energy was answering questions from the Lords about a new energy bill proposed by the House of Commons. There were only about 40 or 50 Lords in attendance at any given time. We found out later there are a total of 800 Lords, only 92 of whom are hereditary members (the majority are named to the Lords because of their expertise in a particular field). The next order of business was the most interesting for reasons that will soon become obvious. The House of Lords is not a policy body. That is the job of the House of Commons. The Lords are an advisory body but we were told by one of the King's Keepers of the Door, the doorman(!), that 45% of the amendments they offer to bills from the House of Commons are passed and included in the final bill passed by the Commons. The amendment we heard debated concerned the privatization of the Royal Mail and the private company's relationship with the post office network throughout the country. The amendment under consideration required all contracts between the two be for a minimum of 10 years. After about 20 minutes of debate, the Deputy Lord Speaker of the House, with no fanfare, announced a vote on the amendment. Bells started ringing and all hell broke loose. Four Lords were given sticks and everyone left the room. Almost immediately hundreds of people were filing through the room. As the aforementioned doorman explained, because there is not enough room for all the Lords to fit into the House, the voting is done as it has been done for hundreds of years. The hall on one side of the House is designated for the "yea" votes and the other hall for the "nay" votes. The Lords file by the people with the sticks who tap each and count off the number of Lords filing past them. The Lords have 8 minutes to come from where ever they are to cast their vote. There have been instances of Lords dying from heart attacks while running to try to get there in time to vote. After all, these are old people. The amendment was defeated 235 to 165. If our math is correct, 400 Lords voted even though we saw only about 40 of them in the House at any one time. It was all very fascinating to watch. After all this excitement we spent about 20 minutes in the House of Commons watching a debate but it was not nearly as interesting as what we saw in the House of Lords.

Our children and Tim's parents will chuckle when they read that we had dinner at the Chicago Rib Shack. On our first visit to London in 1984 we ate at the Chicago Rib Shack and Jil and especially Jeff immediately named the restaurant as the greatest restaurant in the world. The onion loaf is still as good as always.

Tomorrow we will start packing as Thursday we leave London for the last two weeks of our trip. We're not sure how much we will do so until there is something to report you may not see a blog for several days.

Meanderings

Monday, May 16, 2011

Yesterday was another very quiet day. That's why we didn't post. There was really nothing to report. We both visited the outdoor art show by Hyde Park that Tim visited last week. After a nice roast beef dinner at a 250 year old pub we did some shopping on Oxford Street and then went to Evensong at Westminster Abbey. Evensong is done a bit differently at Westminster then at St. Paul's. At St.Paul's we sat in seats the same as if we were at a regular worship service. We could see the choir stalls from our seats. At Westminster Abbey we were seated beyond the choir stalls (about where the Queen sat at William & Kate's wedding). On a previous visit we had actually sat in the stalls. This time we did not get there soon enough to sit in the stalls so we could not see the choir. We were able to see the other celebrants. The acoustics were much better at Westminster so the choir, again boys and men, sounded incredible. After church we took the bus towards our apartment. We had to change buses at Victoria Station. As we were coming up to Victoria Station we saw a church we had seen before but did not know what it was. So, before changing buses, we checked it out. It was Westminster Cathedral, the main Catholic cathedral in London. There was an organ concert going on as we walked about the Cathedral. We never did figure out how old the Cathedral is and were a bit taken back by how modern some parts of it seemed. There were two grave sites inside the Cathedral for two Cardinals who had served Westminster. Interestingly, each had a red hat, symbolic of Cardinals, suspended from the ceiling over the graves. The rest of the evening was spent reading in our apartment.

Today was a frustrating day. We went back to the Saatchi Art Gallery in Chelsea that we had tried to visit last week. It was closed again today for a private event. We were told that the gallery is closed to the public for most of the month of May. After another nice pub lunch we went to the Chelsea Physics Garden. It was also closed. We were two unhappy campers to say the least. We decided that there was no way Harrods could be closed so we headed there. Along the way we passed by two small restaurants that we had not noticed on our way to the garden. Both were Gordon Ramsey restaurants. One was very much more upscale than the other. While more expensive than most pubs they were not outrageously expensive. The menus were a bit more upscale as well.

For those of you unfamiliar with Harrods, it is one of the great department stores in the world. Their motto use to be "if we don't have it, you don't need it."
Up until last year it was owned by the Al-Fayad's. Dodi Fayad was who Princess Diana was with when she was killed. We usually head for the Food Halls first. Today was no exception. They have the finest fresh products from all over the world. It is a treat to walk around looking at all of different items. You are not going to believe this, but new to the Food Halls since we were last there is a Krispy Kreme donut shop. We are not convince that this is a good thing. Feeling much better about life in general, we left Harrods and had a nice walk through Hyde Park. While walking through Hyde Park we saw the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain and the statue of Peter Pan. The fountain was in a lovely and peaceful setting. Peter Pan was surrounded by shrubs and gorgeous flowers in bloom. There were several rather pointed comments from Lynda about Tim liking Peter Pan because, like Peter Pan, Tim refuses to grow up. Tim was so offended he stomped his feet, stuck out his bottom lip and pouted for the next 15 minutes.

Have we told you that we have discovered a gelato store on Portobello Rd. that sells the best gelato this side of Italy. We mention this because after dinner tonight we went there for gelato. What a wonderful way to end the day.

The pictures are of the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain and Peter Pan.

At the Theatre

Saturday, May 14, 2011
This was a pretty quiet day for us and we both agreed that was just fine. We did a little walking about Soho and Chinatown and had a very nice lunch in a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown.
The big event of the day was going to the theatre. When we were talking with our friends in Eastbourne last week, we suggested they come to London and go to a Shakespeare play at the Globe Theatre with us. They said that there was a wonderful play at the New London Theatre that they had seen and that we should see. The play is a drama called "War Horse" We saw it this afternoon. An aside to Jilayne, Jeffry, and Tim's brother, Steve. This is the theatre where we saw "Cats". The play is a regular sell-out but we were fortunate to get "return tickets" about an hour and a half before curtain time. The play was amazing. It is the story about a young English boy who has a horse. His father, unbeknownst to the boy, sells the horse to the army as a "War Horse" during WW I. The horse ends up being captured by the Germans and the boy ends up running away from home and lying about his age to join the army in hopes of finding his horse. It has a bit of an equine "Ol' Yellar" feel to it. The horses in the play were incredible. They were life size puppets worked by three people for each horse. The person working the horses head also did the noises for the horse. The puppet work was so lifelike that we commented at the interval that after a short time you thought of them as real animals. It was a very emotional play, particularly the second act that had many battle scenes from the war. The boy and the horse finally reunite in the last scene of the play. "War Horse" is another excellent example of what a magical place the theatre can be.
Hope you are all enjoying your weekend. Ta.

2 for 1

May 13, 2011
First order of business is an apology for the tardiness of this post. The blog dashboard we use was down for about 24 hours for maintenance work. So today you get two days worth of site-seeing for the price of one.
Yesterday we started the day at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V & A, as it is called in England, is the repository of a plethora of significant artifacts from throughout history. We started in the Medieval section to look at large sculptures. We appreciate but do not particularly like medieval art except for large sculptures. We were not disappointed in this display. From Medieval art we went to the display of glass. There was a great deal of glass spanning a large time frame but we concentrated on the more modern pieces. Again, we saw many beautiful things. Our next stop was to view dresses and textiles but to Lynda's disappointment, it was closed for remodeling. The highlight of the day at the V & A, at least for Tim, was the Performing Art and Theatre display. There were numerous displays of stuff from London productions, things like models of scenery, displays of costumes, playbills, etc. There was also a section devoted to live rock concerts. Again posters, costumes, etc. Of particular interest was a costume worn by Elton John during one of his American tours. Talk about flamboyant.
From the V & A we headed to Chelsea to visit the Saatchi Gallery. This is the leading contemporary art gallery in London. As a matter of fact it was recently donated to the public and will be renamed the Museum of Contemporary Art London next year. Much to our disappointment it was closed for a private party. Surprisingly, Lynda did not try to talk our way in. After considerable discussion of what to do next it was decided to go to the British Library. The British Library use to be housed in the same building as the British Museum. Sometime in the last several years it was moved into its own building. From the outside the British Library looks rather unremarkable, but once you get through the entrance it is really quite nice. Two of the pictures with the blog are of the Library. This is a working library and it turns out there is only one room of displays for public viewing. For all of the other rooms you need a special pass for access. But what a treasure trove of documents on display in the one room we could visit. For instance, there was an original copy of the Gutenberg Bible, the first movable type bible published. There were also original copies of several of William Shakespeare's plays. The printed music area was especially impressive. The original score that Handel wrote for his "Messiah" just happened to be open to the recitative, "A Trumpet Shall Sound." There were also original scores for Mendelssohn's Wedding March" and Ravel's "Bolero". We both chuckled over the final original score. It was Percy Granger's "English Country Garden". This is a very famous and still popular English folk song, particularly among pre pubescent boys. Ask Jeff to sing you the words the next time you see him! There was also a small display of Beatles artifacts including several pieces of paper that Paul and John had used to write out lyrics to some of their most famous songs. One of John's songs was written on the back of a birthday card he had just given his very young son, Julian.
All in all a pretty amazing day of history.
Today we visited Art Galleries. We started at the National Museum of Art. As usual, we headed to the Impressionists and Post Impressionists. As was to be expected, it was an impressive exhibit. Lynda was particularly taken by the Monet's. Tim was particularly struck by one of the Pissaro's, Nighttime on the Boulevard Montmartre. There were two very small and impressive Seurat paintings, either of which would have fit in Tim's shoulder bag, but Lynda would not create a diversion so that Tim could quickly secret one of the Seurat's into his bag. Next door to the National Gallery of Art is the National Portrait Gallery. I hope there is no need to explain this gallery. Again, we concentrated mostly on the 20th century portraits. These would be people we knew or at least had heard of. It was fascinating that there were many different styles to the portraits, ranging from Impressionistic portraits to more traditional portraits. All very interesting.
After lunch we visited the John Wesley Chapel. John Wesley was the founder of Methodism and this chapel, actually a church, was his first home church. Of particular interest to us was the fact that Margaret Thatcher was married in this church and her children were all baptised in it. The original organ that John Wesley and his brother, Charles, played had a place of honor in a little chapel off of the main sanctuary. John Wesley's house and grave were also located at this sight. Coincidentally, across the street from the Wesley Chapel was the Bunhill Burial Grounds. This is small cemetery in the middle of London that has been in existence for a thousand years!
That pretty much brings you up to date. Hopefully we will have no more problems with our blog host.
Cheers!

Tim's Excellent Adventure

Wednesday, May 11,2011

Did we tell you that the London Town Council, in a generous act of international goodwill to make us feel at home, has placed orange construction barrels through out London causing traffic delays and bus diversions.

For those of you a bit put off by our constantly referring to the wonderful weather we are having, here is good news. Today was what the British call a "dull day". It was grey and overcast with occasional spots of rain.

Lynda decided that, due to spotty weather and her general level of fatigue(high), she would stay in today. Tim, undeterred, decided to go out on his own, with Lynda's blessings, to visit sites that Lynda has already seen or that he couldn't remember seeing. Thus, Tim's Excellent Adventure.

I started at Marble Arch and walked to Grosvenor Place, the location of the U.S. Embassy. With all of the beautiful buildings in London, why did we have to put up an ugly building for our Embassy? It looks so...so...American! In the same square I visited a statue of Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, both impressive. From Grosvenor Place I walked toward Berekeley Square. It is pronounced "Barkley" as in Charles Barkley. Don't ask me why. Berekeley Square is in the Mayfair section of London, the posh, extremely upscale part of town. As an example, I went into an art gallery and the art for sale ranged from 8,000 to 15,000 pounds. Not surprisingly, when I left the gallery, without any art purchases, I passed by a Porsche dealership. I had always picture Berkeley Square as this idyllic square with beautiful row houses surrounding it. What a disappointment. The square was lovely, if you could see it through the traffic, and it was completely surrounded by shops and offices. No wonder I could not hear a Nightingale sing! I continued my trek across Picadilly Rd. past the Ritz Hotel towards St.James Park. Along the way I passed by the William Evans shop, makers of fine guns and rifles, that also had all of the finest clothing that men and women would want to wear in the country. I also passed by Truefitt and Hill, a gentleman's hairdresser and perfumery. I thought of stopping to see if they could do anything about my problem with women giving up their seat for me on the tube, but decided it was a futile effort. Next I passed by St. James Palace and Clarence House. Clarence House is where Prince Charles and Camilla live. I thought of stopping to say "hi", I'm a very long shirt tail relation, but thought better of it. Next I crossed through St.James Park toward Birdcage Walk. I assume you are all following on your maps at home. Birdcage Walk is the location of many important sounding British government buildings, besides, who would not want to walk down a street call Birdcage Walk. Birdcage Walk ends at Parliament Square the location of the Houses of Parliament(duh). I decided after such a long walk I deserved a rest so I popped into the Red Lion Pub for a beer. Jil, Jeff and my parents will remember the Red Lion as the place we had lunch just down from the Parliament Buildings. While we were all having our lunch a loud bell sounded and a bunch of people got up and left. Concerned that there was an emergency of some sort we asked someone what was going on. Turns out the bell indicated that there was a vote going on in the House of Commons and the members of Parliament needed to get back to the House to vote. So all the people leaving were Members of Parliament leaving behind their lunch and gin and tonic to cast a very important vote. After my beer I decided I had had enough adventure for one day so I got on a bus and came back to our apartment for my de rigour gin and tonic. Thus ends Tim's Excellent Adventure.

When I returned to our apartment I found a beautiful bouquet of flowers had arrived, sent by our lovely children and their equally lovely spouses for Lynda for Mothers Day. She was feeling much better, so we planned to go out to dinner.

The pictures are of the U.S. Embassy and Lynda's flowers.

We have no idea what tomorrow's schedule is, but we will tell you all about it.

Justice was served.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

We had a fascinating morning on another absolutely beautiful day in London. We went to the Old Bailey, the criminal courts for the city of London. Once we went through very tight security we had a 20 minute wait to get into a court room. Interestingly enough, we met a couple from Birmingham, Michigan also waiting. Turns out the wife is a judge on the Federal Bench in Detroit and is trying the case the Federal government has brought against the State of Michigan over its child protective services, a case Lynda follows closely. The judge also knows Maura Corrigan, former Michigan Supreme Court Justice and now head of the Department of Human Services, who Lynda has worked with over children support issues. They are also friends of the Markhams's in Mason. Steve Markham is also a Michigan Supreme Court Justice whose son was in Tim's band once upon a time. Small world. The visitors gallery is actually a small balcony with seats for maybe 15 - 20 people that looks down on the court. We observed parts of two different trials. One of the things we love about the British is how they cling to tradition. All of the lawyers and judges had on wigs, even the women. The judges' wigs were different from the lawyers'. The defendent sat in a closed-in area at the back of the court. The witnesses actually stand in a pulpit like platform off to the side of the court room. The first case was a fraud case. A couple were trying to get a loan against the value of their house. One of the central problems for the couple, in the hour of testimony we heard, was that the couple were providing fake passports. During our time in the court room the deal was never consumated but we assume at some point it was, hence the law suit. The second trial we observed struck close to Lynda's heart. It was a child molestation charge against a doctor. We won't go into the sorbid details. Interestingly, a curtain was drawn around the witness box so the witness and the defendent could not see each other. Once you got by the wigs, it was very similar to an American court room, but fascinating just the same.

After we left the Old Bailey we had lunch at one of the great historic pubs of London, the Olde Cheshire Cheese Pub located on Fleet St. It was refurbished in 1666. Yes, that is the correct date. The ceiling light fixture in the room we were in looked like it had not been dusted since the remodeling! After lunch we went to the Church of St. Brides. It is just a few steps off of Fleet St. and is the patron church for the newspaper guild. The steeple is the tallest of all the churches that Sir Christopher Wren designed. This steeple was the inspiration for the first tiered wedding cakes every made. The church, unfortunately, was destroyed during the first bombing of London by the Germans in 1940. The only good fortune to come from this was the discovery of roman ruins in the crypt, including a portion of original Roman road.

Next we took a bus to Westminster hoping to get into the visitors gallery for either the House of Parliment or the House of Lords. Due to a several hour wait to get into either we moved to plan B, go home. Lynda did catch her second wind when we went by Westminster Abbey Cathedral and she saw the entrance to the Gardens of Westminster Abbey. The gardens are available for rental for events. The St.Margaret's Church Westminster Abbey, right next to the cathedral, was also advertising an availability for weddings. So if any of our granddaughters are interested in an out-of-the ordinary wedding venue, we have a suggestion.

If reading this blog of our days events tires you out as much as it does us actually experienceing it, we suggest the same remedy we use when we get home: a gin and tonic!

Cheers!

P.S. No pictures today as cameras are not allow in Old Bailey so we did not take them with us.

East London

May 9, 2011
We are the Eastenders

It was a beautiful day in London. As the British say, there was abundant sun and tempatures in the '70's. Today we explored the east end of London, a part of London we have never visited. We started in Spitalfields. Despite its name, it was a lovely area to visit. There were two hightlights, the Old Spitalfield Market and the Christ Church Spitalfield. The market is actually in a refurbished building that has shops open all week, but on the weekend it becomes a market that we are sure is similar to the Portobello Rd. market we visited Saturday. The Chrish Church Spitalfields has also been refurbished. Originally built in 1729, it was beautiful in its simplicity. Next to the chuch was the Ten Bells Pub. This is famous for being the pub that one of Jack the Rippers prostitues drank her last gin before Jack "done her in". Unfortunately, it was too early in the day to stop in for a drink. From Christ Church, which was across the street from the Old Spitalfields Market, we walked down a wonderful side street to Brick Lane. We are not exactly sure why Brick Lane is important but it was fun to walk down. It is know as "Banglatown" because of the high concentration of Bangledesh restuarants. We looked at some menus and saw little difference between Indian cuisine and Bangladesh cuisine. We're sure a Bangladeshite (?) would beg to differ.
Next we headed for the Docklands. Until the early 1980"s this area was the main shipping area for London, hence the name. In the 1980's the draughts of the boats became too deep for the Thames at that point in the river and the major docks were moved 10 or 20 miles downstream leaving the Docklands a deserted area. A major reclaimation project was instituted and now the area is a major finacial center as well as the hip housing area for young business people. The 2012 Olympics are also being held in the Docklands area. More on that later. We started in the Canary Wharf area of the Docklands. We had a nice lunch at an outdoor restuarant and then toured the Museun of the Docklands. It was a fantastic historical tour of the area from Londons founding to the present. Two highlights, or lowlights depending on your point of view, were the fact that Britain was very involved in slave trade during the late 1700's and early 1800's. The other highlight was the history of the Docklands during World War II. We never knew that a pipeline was laid from England to France to provide fuel for the troops after D-Day. Amazing!
From Canary Wharf we took a train to the site of the 2012 Olympics. Someone in their infinite wisdon built a viewing area for people to come and observe the Olympic site while it is being built. We were very close to the Olympic Stadium. It is a beautiful and graceful edifice. Too bad Americans can't build attractive large athletic stadiums. We could also see the venue for basketball. The interesting thing about the basketball facility is that it is temporary. The stadium will seat 12,000 people but is basically a skin wrapped around a superstructure. We were also very close to the Aquatic Center which is a graceful building given its size.
Today was very tiring day but it was well worth it.

Portabello Market & Paella Stand

Sunday in London

May 8, 2011 Happy Mother's Day in the US
Mothering Sunday is in March in the UK - today is just a regular Sunday here - albiet a very nice one weather-wise. After a lazy morning reading the paper (more on that later) we walked down to the corner of our street (Westbourne Park Rd. ) and Portobello Rd. The Castle Pub on the corner advertized Sunday roasts - beef and pork and also chicken specials. Down the block another pub had lamb but at a much dearer price. Of course, the bloody Americans wanted dinner at noon and the roast wouldn't be ready for another 30 minutes at best so we were forced to wander through a few shops. Back we went to the Notting Hill book shop (yes - the REAL one) - it is an all travel book seller so we enjoyed browsing but resisted buying. We've already bought new books on London, England, 1001 Days Out in England and a book of road maps for the second half of our month - the only England travel book we brought with us is a Rick Steves from 2002 and it won't go home with us!
After our dinner (melted camembert cheese, onion chutney and baguette for a starter, beef roast, yorkshire pudding, broccoli, carrots and roasted potatoes with gravy) we made a quick stop at the apartment and discovered that Evensong at St. Paul's Cathedral starts at 3:15 - not 4:00 as we thought. We caught the #7 bus from near the flat and took it to nearer Oxford Circus - we waited for the #25 bus but gave up and took the tube from Oxford Circus to St. Paul's.
We were about 5 minutes early for the service but the Stewards led us to seats in the third row, under the cathedral dome. This service was "Evensong and Sermon" and was the 4th service of the day in the cathedral - with another to follow at 6p.m. The all male choir (perhaps 14 young boys with very high voices and 40 men plus an officiate or chanter) sang most of the service with the Sermon given by the Reverend Canon from Durham Cathedral. Many years ago our family heard the Messiah from about the same location in St. Paul's - but the choir that time was situated at the front of the dome and the acoustics were excellent. Today the choir was in the quire (yup, that's right) and the reverberations were amazing/terrible/annoying. It was very difficult to follow the words of the anthem and other hymns even though the words were printed in the bulletin. Nevertheless - just being able to sit for 75 minutes and take in the mozaics and grandeur of the cathedral was a luxury.
We stopped by another Vodaphone shop on Oxford Street on our way back to the flat - we've had AT&T on other trips abroad but switched this winter to Verizon so we would have use of our cell phones at home. Even though assured that Verizon worked just fine abroad that isn't our experience. Oh well, only 4 weeks without a phone - we'll live!
Back to the paper - a few quotes that made us laugh out loud this morning:
1. Story about Margaret Thatcher's security being increased because of the 20th anniversary of an IRA hunger strike: "They've also increased the number of people around her. Given the increase in republican terrorism and current threat to the mainland, it was thought they might well try and have a final pop at her."
2. Headline - Yanks turn off Charles the drip - "Just when the Americans had learnt to love our royal family again, Prince Charles was dispatched to Washington DC........The superannuated loon has been lecturing the Yanks about their dietary habits, and in particular their affection for steaks. According to Charles Windsor, the Americans are depleting the world's water reserves by eating too many cows. If they ate fewer cows, there would be more water for everybody else. However, as America neither imports nor exports water, and nobody in the USA is dying of thirst, it seems an odd argument."
3. "In between serving as Conservative MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire, the author Louise Bagshawe, has just published her 15th bonkbuster novel, Destiny: "This was her Destiny. This was meant to be. And now, with her eyes flashing, she gazed across at the man of her dreams - and oh, what dreams - to speak those words she'd been longing to say: 'Has the prime minister any plans to visit Northamptonshire:'" That's not quite how it reads, but wouldn't it be a good plot for her next novel?"
All of the above are from the front section of The Sunday Times - one of the more conservative papers here. Let's just say that it is great fun reading the paper everyday. Today they also ran a special 104 page magazine-style insert called Rich List 2011 - they list the 1000 wealthiest folks living in Britain as well as a bit about each. By the way - the Queen is 257th on the list with a 300 million pounds while Willliam and Harry are listed as tied for #11 among the 59 richest young people with 28 million pounds between them from a 12 million trust from their mother and a "small sum by the Queen Mother".
Lynda did not mention that Tim, being the sensative and loving husband that he is, let Lynda sleep in this morning while he visited a Sunday morning outdoor art show on Bayswater Rd. on the north edge of Hyde Park. This exhibition is held every Sunday. Most of the art was quite good. Did not see many price tags to know how expensive the pieces were. Hopefully Lynda will join Tim on a future Sunday.
That's all the news worth sharing (and perhaps a bit more than necessary). Have a good week all!

As promised - we've added pictures from the Portobello Market, including the paella stand - from yesterday.

May 7, 2011
An English Potpourri-

The first paragraph is for the immediate family. If you are not immediate family you can go ahead and read the paragraph but you probably won't get it.

We were catching a bus in Knightsbridge this morning very near our first hotel. The Knightsbridge Green Hotel is still there but the rest of the area is very different. The Chicago Rib Shack is now on Kensington Rd. about 5 doors down from the hotel towards Brompton Rd. The wonderful sweater shop at the corner of Kensington and Brompton is still there but the outside is very different. All the buildings across the street from the hotel have been torn down and replaced by a posh residence hotel owned by the Mandarin Group. Good news: the Persian rug store is still having a going out of business sale! Really.

We were in Kensington this morning shopping for a curling iron, for Lynda, and dealing with a couple of cell phone issues. Most of our travel about London is done on buses. While the tube(the London subway system) is faster we see more from the bus. We have been through many new neighborhoods to us while also revisiting familiar old haunts. After shopping we returned to Notting Hill and had lunch at an Indian restaurant. Lynda had several vegetarian starters and Tim had a lovely chicken curry.

The highlight of the day was the Portobello Rd. street market which is held each Saturday. Portobello Rd., about 5 blocks from our apartment, is closed to vehicular traffic and block after block of stalls are set up selling all sorts of different wares. Starting at the south end of Portobello, the stalls all sell antiques. Many of these antiques would impress the Antique Roadshow crowd, most of the others not so much. After the antiques come the food stalls. Lots of fresh vegetables and several fresh fish stalls. There were also many stalls selling freshly made sandwiches. We stopped at one stall and bought a quice and a barok, a turkish sandwich made with phyllo dough stuffed with meat, for out dinner tonight in our apartment. We also bought a slice of apple cake that one of the other customers told was the best she eaten this side of Denmark. One stall was selling freshly made paella made on the spot in huge paella pans. It looked and smelled delicious. After the food stalls come the general merchandise stalls selling everything from t-shirts to CD's, most of it pretty cheap. One stall was doing a great business selling Royal Wedding souveniers. Think Christmas, family! It was very crowded with young and old alike and everyone, including us, was having a great time.

Another minor highlight was visiting the travel bookstore that Hugh Grant owned in the movie Notting Hill. It is actually a real book store in Notting Hill. Unfortunately, neither Hugh nor Julia Roberts were there today. Maybe they will be there next week.

We feel like the editors of National Enquirer as all of your enquirering minds have wanted pictures of our apartment. You have probably seen those already posted. Besides our apartment there is a picture of Little Venice. We will try to get pictures of the Portobello Rd. street market in our next posting.

After carefully rereading the instructions that came with the apartment, we have discovered that we can access the internet so, hopefully, postings will be made more often.

Tomorrow is a quiet day. After having our Sunday joint (roast dinner), we plan to go to St. Paul's Cathedral for the 4:00 Evensong service. We are doing this for two reasons: 1. To go to church, and 2. to avoid the 15 pound per person charge that is usually made to visist St. Paul's. We will make a healthy donation in the collection plate!

Ta for now.

English Potpourri

A Month in England

Thursday, May 5, 2011
Cheerio from London-
So far everything has gone perfectly, knock on wood. Our flight from Detroit to London was uneventful and actually arrived at Heathrow 30 minutes early. We did have a particularly long line at border control but when we came out of the arrival hall there was an announcement for “Passenger Crandall arriving from Detroit, please meet your driver at the Information Desk.” So we very quickly were whisked away to our apartment, arriving in Notting Hill about 9:00. It does not take long to inspect a three room apartment so by 10:00 Lynda was happily napping and Tim was exploring the area. We are located in a residential neighborhood so it is a bit of a walk to shops, restaurants, pubs, etc. The shops are interesting because they are locally owned, no chain stores to speak of. Portobello Road has an interesting blend of true antique stores as well as tourist dive souvenir stores. Any of you wanting commemorative gifts from Will and Kate’s wedding, get your orders in quickly! There is also an interesting blend of restaurants. Within several blocks are Italian, Indian Tandoori, Asian, Thai, and Mexican restaurants as well as a very nice selection of pubs. There were not many people on the street this morning when Tim did his walk about, but we just got back from lunch and grocery shopping and there were many more people out and about. We are anxious to see what it is like in the evening. The only negative so far is that the apartment does not have internet access. The pub we had lunch in was also supposed to be an internet café but we had no luck there either. In a little while we are going to get our London Transport cards and then take a bus ride. We will keep an eye out for internet café’s on our bus ride. We are both thrilled to be back in London and will fill you in on more of our adventures in a day or two.
Cheers!

Friday, May 6
We are sitting in the Café in St. Martins in the Fields, a famous church located in Trafalgar Square. The Café is actually in the crypt of the church. Madi would love it! We both had fish and chips. Lynda once again did not eat her mushy peas. Tim wonders why he is abused about not eating vegetables. It is a stunning day, temperature in the 70’s with abundant sun. Eat your hearts out. We spent the morning in Little Venice which is located in the Maida Vale section of London. It gets its name from the canals that run through the area. Lots of boats are permanently anchored in the canals as residences. We have some shopping to do this afternoon and hope to spend some time in the National Portrait Gallery. Tomorrow will be our first visit to the Portobello St. Market. We are looking forward to that. Just hope the heavy showers predicted for the weekend hold off.
More later.