Around The World Without Flying: London

After I reluctantly said goodbye to my friends, I met my new tour group with whom I am travelling around the England, Scotland and Wales, in just over a week. This is a relatively small group (about 25). Apart from myself, all are from the United States, including the tour director. My luck had continued though, as they are very friendly, nice people.

On our first evening together, we walked for about 20 minutes or so to a local pub with the rather scary name of ‘The Hung, Drawn and Quartered’ - a punishment given to traitors and an excruciatingly painful way to die. There were three samples of beer laid out for us to taste - which of course I did not - and we were given three small pies to taste, with a bit of mashed potato. I am afraid that those I spoke to did not enjoy the meal any more than I did. The pastry was not fresh and crispy, the fillings were fairly ordinary, and the mashed potato was rather glue-like. You could cut off slices of the mash with a knife. Not a good start to the tour food-wise, but most quite enjoyed their dessert and at least we started to get to know each other.

The next morning we went on a comprehensive whirlwind tour of London on our coach, seeing significant sites including Nelson’s Column, St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, Piccadilly Circus, the West End, MI5, the New Scotland Yard, Hyde Park, the Australian, Canadian and US Embassies, the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office, the London Eye and London Bridge. We were privileged to hear Big Ben ring at 10 am, one of the very last times that giant bell would ring for about fours years! (It is being repaired and restored.) And while we did not see the changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace, we did get see the new set of guards marching from their barracks to the palace ready for that ceremony.

All the while we heard a fascinating commentary from our local guide. For example, we learned that London is really two cities. The City of London is only one square mile. The city of Westminster is about eight square miles. Around them are the various boroughs. Who would have thought?

We passed by so many significant buildings, squares, roads and beautiful gardens at speed, I must admit I lost track of many of the sites. But I hope that the following photos will at least give you a glimpse of what we saw of this very busy, very vibrant city.

By the way, I noticed that unlike what has happened in Melbourne at least, the very beautiful tall trees that line the city streets have not been hacked into ugly-looking shapes in order to string up all the wires and cables. I assume the city fathers here have had the sense to install them underground.

Our first pub for this tour.

There you go! An incentive to be polite.

Some of the photos of British monarchs in the pub.

More of the pub.

People walking to work in the drizzle on London Bridge. Apparently this is about the sixth bridge in this spot, the original one built by the Romans, hence the nursery rhyme 'London Bridge is Falling Down . . .'

St Paul's Cathedral.

More of St Paul's Cathedral, where Charles and Di were married. It is on the front steps of the cathedral here that the old woman sang 'Feed the birds. Tuppence a Bag . . .' in Mary Poppins.