01_London

London

London, Wednesday & Thursday, April 6 & 7

We left Encinitas Tuesday morning, April 5, and got to the airport only to realize that we (I) left the camera at home! After a futile attempt to find a replacement at a store near the airport, we asked our friend Jan, who would be checking the house while we were gone, to see about overnighting it to our hotel in London. That worked out fine, we got it on Thursday and G&K had brought along a second camera that we were able to use until then.

We arrived at Heathrow at around noon on Wednesday and took the Express Train to Paddington Station and then a cab to the Lime Tree Hotel on Ebury Street, Belgravia, London. There we met G&K and headed out for a walk around the neighborhood. We walked to Buckingham Palace to see the queen but saw the Beefeater guard guy instead. That's the Queen Victoria Memorial which is sort of in front of the Palace. Then we followed "The Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Walk" through St. James Park.

These photos a all from St James Park until the one with the jumbo Ferris wheel, also known as the "London Eye"

I don't know exactly where saw these natty soldier guys, but we were headed toward Trafalgar Square.

There are a lot "look left" and "look right" signs painted on the streets at crossing points, I suppose to remind clueless Americans (and maybe French people) that the traffic comes from the wrong side of the street here in England. The guy on top of the pole is Admiral Nelson.

I'm not so sure what took us so long to stop at a pub but here we are at The Clarence, where old derbies live out their lives as bar lights and you can get "real ale in a real mug" and has been famous since 1862! Before that it was just fairly well-known.