Europe Day 2: London

This morning we walked downriver and mud larked again with the low tide. Though there was much less to find at this point of the river, we still managed to pick up a couple of broken smoking pipes and pieces of old crockery.

On our meanderings we passed the ruins of King Edward III’s Manor House, and came across the Mayflower Pub which was built on the site near where the pilgrims departed for the New World aboard the Mayflower.
It was now coffee time, and we made our way to the Watch House and sat out the back near the park.  We enjoyed a quite nice cuppa amongst the headstones before a light drizzle started, pushing us on again.

We tubed it from Bermondsey to Waterloo (and now I have Abba songs stuck in my head); the rain was now making a decent effort to give us a good English ambience.  Sheltered in doors with the hordes we took advantage of the London Eye 4D experience.  The 4th D turned out to be a multitude of senses: from the feel of bubbles bursting and dragon snot on our faces, the chill of snow and the warmth of fire breathing, the scent of bubble-gum and the taste of smoke from fireworks.  Very clever.

Now the rain actually eased off as we lined up to enter our eye pod; the views from the eye and the experience in all was very well worth it.  We even had champagne (somehow I got two) as we looked over London’s landmarks.
The rain now started up again as we crossed Westminster Bridge and made our way past Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.  Being Sunday, in fact being Easter Sunday, we weren’t able to go into Westminster Abbey so will have to see if we can do that another day.
From Westminster, Shazzy hailed a cab and we were soon at The Orange for our lunch. We exited the black cab to the bells of St. Barnabus and ascended the stairs to our table by the window.

Now this was some really nice food; potted duck for entrèe, followed by a really rich and delicious braised rabbit.  Everybody else had an assortment of the best roasts I’ve ever tasted, complete with Yorkshire Pud.
The rain continued after lunch as we cabbed it to Piccadilly Circus and walked down Leicester Square and the market at Covent Garden.  We passed a guy just arriving back at his car as a parking inspector placed a ticket on his windscreen.  He was sooooo polite as he argued, in vain, to not get a ticket.
We walked The Strand to Trafalgar Square and the girls headed on home while Ken and I visited The National Gallery and The Portrait Gallery.

It was a bit of a rushed and restricted tour of the National Gallery, but I managed to see a few Van Gogh’s, including Vincent’s Chair; as well as Monet’s, Claude’s, Gaugan’s and Botticelli’s.  I even managed to get a few photos inside before most politely being told ”No photos sir”.
We had even less time for The National Portrait Gallery, so we just dropped in on the Elizabethan Tudors.  I will definitely try to visit again before we leave London so I can spend some more time here.

A tube ride from Charing Cross to London Bridge via Waterloo (and Abba in my head for another few hours) had us soon walking through Hay’s Galleria and along the Thames back home after another memorable day in London.

Highlights from Day 2 in London