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London Sharon and I took the train into London. There was a self serve ticket machine. You could pay any amount and get on the train, then at the other end you paid the full fare. We paid twenty pence each and got on. At the other end, no one was in the booth, so we walked past the ticket office. We bought a travel card for $7 each that allowed unlimited travel on the underground tube and buses in the Central London area. The subway was clean and free of graffiti. Following Alistair's explanation from the night before we found the tube colour-coded and easy to use. Being in an English speaking city was infinitely easier than in a city with a foreign language. Other passengers were friendly and helpful. Above ground signs pointed to tourist sites. London had a population of fourteen million and got * million visitors each year. Postcards were twenty for £1 so I had to buy them. The clerk was friendly and talkative. Everyone seemed so patient and polite. We went to an Outdoor store. When riding escalators everyone stood on the right leaving the left lane open for anyone who wanted to walk quickly. "Stand on the right please," I heard the first time I stood in the fast lane. At Buckingham Palace an enormous collection of people had gathered. I wondered if there were usually that many to watch the changing of the guard. Inside the gates were rows upon rows of Royal Guardsmen standing stiffly at attention clad in red coats and tall furry hats. We heard someone say there was going to be a fly-over in ten minutes. Barricades and bobbies lined the streets for crowd control. Several were on horseback. One bobby took a tourist's camera and snapped a picture of the tourist with Buckingham Palace in the background. John was right, the bobbies were remarkable. The Queen and her entourage came out on the balcony. The crowd surged forward to the gate waving tiny British flags. A low level fly-over of nine jet fighters buzzed the palace. Marching bands went out the gate and down the street. The Scottish clan regaled in bagpipes and kilts. We walked along the park path. A portable toilet beckoned me. On the door it read: BBC crew only. Skye to go behind a tree. I used it anyway -- the experienced traveller coming through. One toilet at hand was worth two in the bush? At the edge of the park we saw a cyclist with a backpack and sleeping bag. He had just arrived from South Korea. When we spoke to him we found out he didn't know much English. I knew exactly how he felt. He had a heavy tripod and used it to take a self-timer photo of us in front of a war monument. If I was going to lug a tripod I would make sure I used it too. To get out of the rain Sharon and I ducked into the National Art Gallery. A pleasant surprise -- it was free. The paintings were bought with public money so they reasoned the art should be freely available to the public. Of course donations weren't refused. I noticed the gift shop was doing a brisk business. We looked at paintings from 1260-1500 a.d. Most were religious of course. I had developed quite an eye for those. Interestingly, most came from churches in Italy and were what I would have seen in Italy if only the light in the old churches had been better. The museum's lighting was excellent and I could get within a foot to examine the detail. We joined a tour group with a guide telling fascinating anecdotes about the painter or the painting. We looked at five different works and the hour tour was over quickly. The paintings had an information blurb beside them, but it was a lot more fun on a jaunt with a humorous and knowledgeable guide. The bus pamphlet Alistair had given us said there was a London tour bus route. We tried to find the embarkation point, but after wandering around Piccadilly Circus for an hour we decided to just get on a bus and go wherever. London's buildings were mainly gray or white. We were going to have to talk to Alistair about that. The gray drizzle did little to cheer London sight-wise. Other than that London felt like a friendly vibrant city that I would like to spend a great deal of time in. Having eaten only a Snicker's bar since breakfast, we were starving. We found the Indian restaurants Alistair had mentioned (he had been born in India) and finally chose a trendy vegetarian place after having walked up and down the three blocks reading menus and trying to decide on meat or no meat. After supper it was back on the tube to London Bridge. We walked across the bridge and took in the sight of Tower Bridge with lights shining on the Thames. The tube stopped running at midnight so we caught the 11:15 back to Euston station and bought a ticket to Tring for $16. Back in Tring I checked the price on the self-serve machine. It was $16.50 for a round trip including a day travel card. My folly had cost us an extra $12. Oh well. Live and learn. I considered it the price of admission to the Queen's birthday. |
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