DAY-03: Touring and Tea

Day - 03: Friday, May 29, 2015

Starting Location: The Trafalgar Hotel, London, England, UK

Interim Location: London Tours

Ending Location: The Trafalgar Hotel, London, England, UK

Today was to be our first official tour day with plans to see local London sites. We were up early, around 0600 to make it to the bus station by 0800. For breakfast we grabbed pastries from the hotel restaurant and were out the door to our taxi by 0730 for what turned out to be a 15-minute ride across to the Victoria Bus Station. I tried to pay the driver with UK currency I had left over from past visits but was told that with the exception of the 10-pound notes all the other bills (5’s and 20’s) were out of circulation and not accepted. Will need to find a bank to exchange the old currency, certainly don’t want to throw away $150 worth of old bills.

No Longer of Value

Anyway we were soon in the bus station; to say that the bus station was in the condition we might have expected is an understatement. Massive crowds, people running in many directions, PA systems blaring instructions, etc. Anyway we found our “gate”, #15; at the same series of gates 13-16 you could either go on a city tour or take a bus to Paris, Budapest, Prague, Warsaw, you name it, anywhere in the European continent with connections I’m sure to more places than I would want to know.

We found our guide and were boarded by 0815 but waited for the full tour group until about 0830. Our driver for the day was John, friendly chap with many stories to tell. Our driver was Lenny and congrats to Lenny for navigating the streets of London in such a big machine.

Our first stop for the morning was The Tower of London for a “privately” guided tour. Well the first 10 minutes were private with our own Yeoman Warder (Beefeater) to relate the history, myths and legends of “The Tower”. Our warder was non-other than Ms. Moira Cameron, the first and so far only female Yeoman Warder to serve at the tower. Her credentials included 22+ years of Army service and a personality that was an excellent fit for the tourist interface role. I’ve attached Wikipedia and YouTube links if you interested in meeting Moira.

• Moira Cameron (Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moira_Cameron
• Moira Cameron (YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFIAwHnwDWQ

After Moira’s presentation we toured the tower building seeing the Ravens, the Crown Jewels and the traditional uniformed military guards stepping off and standing rigidly at attention.

The Tower Bridge

HMS Bellfast

Just as we were leaving the tower the rain began and the winds picked-up but we were prepared with jackets, hats, umbrellas, etc. Our next stop was to be a river cruise on a Thames Clipper, basically a water taxi from the Tower down or up river to meet our bus for a quick ride to Buckingham Place for the changing of the guard. Along the way we passed various sites, including the restored Globe Theater, the Tate Museum, the HMS Belfast a WWII cruiser, a scaled replica of Sir Francis Drake’s Golden Hind, that’s a ship name for those who might question the use of the word “hind”. As for the changing, we had been warned that the palace guard doesn’t change in the rain so that event was not to be however en-route to the palace area, from the back of our bus came an alert that “Prince William’s, Andrew’s or Charles’, or someone’s limo” was passing our bus. Sure enough there was a sizable police escort and a fast moving black limo with some kind of flag flying so for now we’ll take credit for a “royal sighting” on this trip for those that would seem to know of what they spoke were certainly excited.

With some break in the rain we next drove to St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Christopher Wren designed and built structure, one of the most famous of all Europe. After receiving our instructions from the guide and a list of dining options we all split up and headed to pubs, cafes, pizzerias, sushi bars or whatever suited one’s fancy. For Sheila and I being that we were in England we headed to the first French place we could find, Café Rouge where we had grilled ham and cheese and really great fries.

After lunch we toured St. Paul’s for about an hour, seeing the famous site, including the crypts and statuary honoring Lord Admiral Nelson, the victor of the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar, the Duke of Earl, no scratch that, the Duke of Wellington, Napoleon’s nemesis and even a statue honoring General Cornwallis of American Revolution fame.

It's Tea Time!

 Our final stop for the day was a two-option deal, either the London Eye or afternoon tea at the Park Plaza Hotel; having been on the “eye”, we had pre-selected tea as you might have guessed.

The proper word for describing tea is delightful, so there I’ve used it though actually I had coffee along with another gentleman in our group of six sippers. The small group was all about cruising; one couple from Lakeland, FL were here for a cruise something approaching their 80^th cruise if I recall, the other couple, Canadians from Newfoundland I believe but also of Cocoa Beach, FL were also headed for a cruise, this time around the British Isles. Oh, before I forget did I mention the cucumber sandwiches?

We walked back from the Park Plaza to our hotel taking more photos of the “eye”, of Parliament, Big Ben and the like. Yep it was again just like Chevy Chase, “Hey kids…”!

In that the tea sandwiches and cookies hadn’t exactly sated our appetites, we headed upstairs at the hotel to the Vista Bar & Grill. The Vista provided a great vista of Trafalgar Square and other “high” structures in the area.

It was cold and windy but we were dressed appropriately and sat in a somewhat wind protected corner. As often happens in such places we chatted-up several people at tables near us, but who wouldn’t when you see someone wearing a University of Richmond Spiders shirt or four 50-year old British women there to celebrate their 50^th birthdays with a night in London. But back to the Richmond shirt, as Sheila would say, “it gets better!” Turns out the Richmond shirt wearer, there with her husband are headed out on a Baltic cruise, not the same as ours, but perhaps better, 12 days on a Disney cruise liner with the kids having been left at home with the grandparents. You might think that’s the end of the story, but again as Sheila would say, “it gets better!”; seems that the woman, a Richmond grad works for NASA and by now you can probably guess where, you got it, Langley. Seems she in an accountant in NASA’s finance department at Langley. We explained that we also knew someone who worked at Langley for NASA and with that I’ll leave the story for another day.

Dinner having consisted of beef and chicken skewers, a green & yellow tomato and mozzarella salad (they apparently don’t use the term Caprese or have red tomatoes) accompanied by Kir Royales for Sheila and Hendricks G&Ts with mulled cucumber for me was over, we headed down to end the night.

Nice Car