UK PART TWO

We came back into the UK via the chunnel from Paris into St. Pancras, a total of just over two hours.  St. Pancras station was the hub of the Olympic traffic during the summer and it was still abuzz with Olympic signage and shops. 

St. Pancras railway station was originally opened in 1868 and when it opened it was the largest single span roof in the world.  Over the last couple of years, in anticipation of the Olympics, the station has undergone a makeover and they have done a fantastic job.  The original architectural interest has been maintained while bringing the whole station up to date.  Very well done. 

One of the interesting things in the station were brightly painted upright pianos available to any passerby who felt like playing a tune.  Surprisingly, while we were there all the pianos were in use and being played very well.  There are obviously a lot of talented musical travelers.

One of the tasks we had to complete while in London was getting our Chinese visa.  We went down to the visa office in the City of London and got our visas and then celebrated by having lunch at Ye Olde Watling Pub on historic Watling Street.  Watling Street was a main East West thoroughfare built in Roman times, but obviously has been upgraded since then.   Had a nice pub lunch and then wandered over to nearby St. Pauls Cathedral.

Jann in front of Ye Olde Watling pub

View up Watling Street to St. Pauls

In all our visits to London I had not taken a tour of St. Pauls so I was excited to add this to my experiences.  After walking around the nave and smaller chapels and walking in the steps of Diana when she married Charles, I decided to climb up to the whispering gallery.  This circular gallery runs at the point where the dome starts to curve inward.  The reason it is called the whispering gallery is because a person facing the wall on one side of the gallery and whispers will be heard perfectly at the other side of the dome due to the curvature.  There are 257 steps up to the whispering gallery, not all uniform and some circular.  Quite a trek but once I got there I saw a sign for the Stone Gallery-- another 119 steps but the promise of a good view over the London skyline.  So I figured – I got this far might as well go for it.  Well, got up to the Stone Gallery and there were indeed some good views, but yet another sign indicating just another 152 steps would take me to the Golden Gallery at the top of the dome where the views were spectacular.  I realized at that point that I would never be doing this again, so I continued on to the Golden Gallery – 528 steps altogether.   The views were indeed worth the climb but it was a little intimidating being that high on the outside of the dome.  The steps down were a little more tricky but a nice young man helped me navigate the worst of them and I did manage to get back down to the floor of the cathedral.  To say my legs were shaking would have been an understatement.  I took a good 5 – 10 minutes before I could comfortably put one foot in front of the other, but the trip was worth it – never to be repeated.

Jann in front of St. Pauls

Some of the 528 steps going up to the dome

Just in case no-one believed me !

View of Tower Bridge with the Paralympics logo

Holding on for dear life at the base of the dome of St. Pauls

Steps down with my toes showing

 Jann and I then walked up Fleet Street, which used to be home to all the British newspapers, until we reached another historic pub, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese.  There has been a pub on this site since the 1600’s and lots of the world’s greatest writers have raised a glass there, including Dickens, Twain and Voltaire.  It has multiple levels below ground and has a great atmosphere and history.

Interior of Ye Olde Cheshsire Cheese

 Then it was on down the Strand and back to St. Pancras for the train to St. Albans.

Since we were going to be gone for an unknown period, we decided to do one last round of my relatives before we left. 

First we drove up to Leicester where Pat's cousin Lynn and her husband Bob live.  Our cousin Lesley’s husband, John, in Harrogate has had a stroke and so we made a day trip with Lynn and Bob to visit them.   Lynn and Bob are not able to drive long distances themselves any more so it was nice being able to get everyone together.  Shirley, my cousin Don's widow and sister in law of Lesley, was able to join us.  After a fun lunch we headed back and, despite Lynn and Bob living in Leicester their whole lives and Bob being the navigator, we managed to get lost and overshot Leicester and finished up in the next county south, Rutland.  Believe me, we did not allow Bob to live that down.  Getting old is a bitch !!

Front row, cousin Lynn, John husband of cousin Lesley, back row cousin Shirley and Lynn's husband Bob

Bob, their son Richard, Lynn and Pat

We then drove up to visit Pat's stepsister Jean and her husband Jimmy's home in Cheadle Hulme and then on to Carlisle, her hometown.  Pat was planning on visiting her stepmother who is in a home there but she was not up for it so we just spent the day visiting all the memories of Pat's childhood at her grandparents home and the downtown area.  Carlisle is an old Roman town and has lots of history including a castle that once housed Mary, Queen of Scots, a cathedral and lots of roman history, including Hadrian's Wall just outside town. 

Jean and Jimmy

27 Greystone Road, Carlisle (on left) Pat's first home

Town Hall, Carlisle where Pat's Grandad, as Lord Mayor of Carlisle, announced the went of WWII

Carlisle is the capital of the Lake District, and not being biased in any way, Pat feels the Lake District is one of the most beautiful parts of England.  We drove down to Ambleside and stayed for a couple of nights at the Queens Head.  Although we have spent a lot of time in the Lake District over the years, Pat still doesn’t feel like she has been home until a visit to that area. 

Road down to Lake Windermere

Lunch overlooking Lake Windermere

Ambleside is a very quaint village situated at the head of Lake Windermere, the largest lake in England.  We drove down to the town of Windermere and had lunch right on the lake.  Driving around the lakes is like a Kodak moment around every corner. 

From the Lake District we drove down to Shrivenham in the Cotswolds to stay with Tony and Pauline’s oldest daughter Ellie, her husband Scott and their son Alfie. 

We hadn’t been to the Cotswalds before so it was fun driving around the discovering the area.  We had lunch sitting beside the Thames on its way down to London and we visited the renowned Cotswold villages of Upper and Lower Slaughter. 

Lower Slaughter, Cotswald

Lower Slaugher, Cotswalds

Upper Slaugher, Cotswalds

Cotswald pub

Lunch by the Thames in the Cotswalds

After a really nice visit with Ellie, Scott and Alfie, we headed down to London where we had booked an apartment in Brixton through Airbnb.  It was a relatively small apartment and the neighborhood was definitely eclectic, with a Caribbean overton but it was close and convenient to the tube and buses. 

We went to Kensington Palace which has been refurbished in the last year and they had opened up some of the other royal apartments. 

Victoria statue outside Kensington Palace

There was an exhibit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert memorabilia  (Victoria Revealed).  She was born in Kensington Palace, where she first met Prince Albert and it was there that she was pronounced Queen.  

There were a lot of their personal possessions, including her wedding dress, personal letters and artwork that they had created.  It was a very interesting exhibit and gave a look into their every day lives and how much in love they were.   Things were never the same for Queen Victoria after Prince Albert die and forever after she only wore black.

Victoria's wedding dress

Victoria's riding habit

Prince Albert's travelling toiletry case

Victoria and Albert outfits

They had also opened up apartments that had been used by Kings and Queens in the 1700’s, including George III’s apartments and throne room with his coronation robes on display.

There was also a temporary display in Princess Margaret’s old apartment of some of Diana’s dresses not previously seen.   One of the hallways had some Diana wallpaper made up of very colorful illustrations of Diana’s life.

Throne of King George III

King's apartments

King George III's coronation robes

Queen's apartments

Diana wallpaper

Any visit to London would not be complete without a trip to the theater and this visit was no exception.  We went to see War Horse, which is an amazing piece of theater.  It is the sets and the horse animation that set this play apart.  You know the model horses look lifelike when you get teary at the site of the "model" when it gets caught up in barbed wire. 

We also went to see Billy Elliott, the musical and absolutely loved it. 

On Saturday we went down to Portobello Road, along with thousands of others, and shopped in all the antique and boutique shops.  It was a beautiful day and we met Vincenzo and Mark, our friends from Palm Springs who have relocated to London.

Portobello Road

Vincenzo recommended an organic café near Portobello Road and we had a really nice visit catching up on each other’s lives.  Wow, how much have they changed since our time in Palm Springs.

Vincenzo and Mark

The buses ran right outside the door of our Brixton apartment so we decided to explore London by bus (since we had an unlimited pass!)  On our explorations we found a fantastic pub called the Churchill Arms.  You almost couldn’t see the pub for all the hanging baskets of flowers covering it and inside it was just as funky with lots of copper containers of various sizes hanging from the ceiling.  We even had a jokester as a bartender who pretended to bring a glass of Guiness to us and tripped, aiming the contents of the glass at us.  Sufficeth to say, it was not a real glass of Guiness.  Fun place.

Churchill Arms

Jann in front of Churchill Arms

Inside of Churchill Arms

St. Martins in the Field by Trafalgar Sq. & museum.

Yes, this is a statue of George Washington in front of the National Gallery Museum.

Fran and Di were also over from LA and staying in Di’s bungalow in Snodland, near Maidstone in Kent.  We drove down for a couple of days and it was really fun seeing them again and catching up. 

Jann, Fran and Di having a pub lunch around Maidstone near their bungalow.

While we were there we went with Joanne (a friend of Di’s whom we had met in Palm Springs) to Chartwell, Churchills ancestral home.  Unfortunately the day we went the main house was closed but we were able to go into his art studio, which looks as though he just stepped out for a cup of tea. 

Joanne standing in front of Churchill's art studio which is separate from the house.

Chartwell is in a beautiful setting looking out over rolling countryside and the gardens were very well maintained and pretty much as they were when Churchill was there. 

The front of Chartwell House--Winston Churchill.

Chartwell from the side.  Flowers grow up the side when in bloom.

Jann and Joanne at Chartwell

Chartwell

Gardens at Chartwell

Great place to sit and viewthe countryside with Churchill

 When we got back to London it was Pauline’s birthday and her daughter, Michelle, had arranged for everyone to meet up at a pub in the country for lunch.  Two of Tony and Pauline’s kids and husbands were there.  Haley who is in Sydney and Ben who lives in LA were not there for Pauline's "surprise" party.  I don’t think she was surprised.  Everyone agreed that it is very hard to surprise Pauline, but that didn’t mean that we didn’t all have a good time.

Pauline, Frank, Tony, Scott, Chris, Jann, Ellie and Michelle with Alfie

So it was bittersweet that we headed out from St. Albans to Heathrow for our flight to Bangkok and the continuation of our adventure. 

On to Thailand.