London in a whiz.

This morning, Nancy and I caught a train to London. This was after a huge breakfast and then afterwards, we had to get hotel maintenance to open our room safe. (Not our fault, no matter what you are thinking).  The train ride was about an hour, and round trip was 43 pounds (l lb = $1.66).  Thankfully, they took a credit card because apparently UK is having trouble with their ATMs reading US debit cards (according to my online chat with the Credit Union tonight). After we both got notices that our card couldn't be used because we had reached the max limit for the day, we got a little concerned.  But we are OK now..

But about the train, it was a nice ride that let us off at Waterloo Station in London. We went after rush hour, thankfully. We sure could use a good train system in the U.S.

 Once there, I knew how to make Nancy happy,  so we headed right to Starbucks. Then we took care of some business.  Now, I don't know what you think of pay toilets, but it does make a bathroom available and pays someone to keep it clean. It would have been worth every pence.  I lucked out since I didn't have 30p in coins. They were doing maintenance on the machine, so my cost was zero, or as we said, "a free pee".

Then we headed out on a walking tour to all the major sites. We love parks--just seeing how people use them and watching the people.  Our first park, along the Thames, was Jubilee Gardens, with lots of areas for kids, eating, relaxing and the biggest ferris wheel I have ever seen.

We watched a performance by a ribald street comedian that had me laughing about things that he implied as much as what he said.







Then we engaged in some obligatory photo ops.

Big Ben is just a wonderful background for a photo.

















Then we were off to another, garden, The St. James Garden, looking for some food street vendors for a late lunch. They were nowhere to be found, but we finally found a food booth in the park and had to settle for a New York hotdog, of all things.  That is a huge park with a free WC, and we felt like we were at the UN with all the conversations around us.

At he FAAR end of the park is Buckingham Palace--a must see for the London visitor.

 No majesties were around for us to see, but they were well guarded anyway.  There were lots of prams around, and people were good about discarding their rubbish.  The language is fun, but I think it needs to be standardised (did you see what I did there)? Neither one of us was inclined to stand in line, so we eschewed the tour. but opted instead to visit the gift shop at the Mews.

The Mews was the stables, but these were the only horses we saw.





Walking further away, we found ourselves in a older section of the city and just wandered around some of the theatre district and up and down some streets, trying to find our way (without a map) back to Westminster Abbey. 

Before we found it, we found Westminster Cathedral instead. It has the beauty of many old Cathedrals and satisfied our need to see iconic church art.

I do have to brag that my not infallible sense of direction took us right to Westminster Abbey which had a long line.  We opted to skip the tour and have coffee and carrot cake in their small hidden restaurant.




When as we left, we marveled at the beauty of the House of Parliament.

Nancy loved the gargoyles.  This is some intricate work.

Then serendipity came up and grab us by the lapels.  We were drawn down a street behind Westminster Abbey to a courtyard that led to Westminster Abbey Choir School .  We walked through "The Dean's Yard" and enjoyed the old buildings from 1919.
By this time, we were bushed and needing to get back to Waterloo station for the 7:05 train (4pm-7pm is considered rush hour and the fares are higher). We got back in time to buy some pasties for dinner on the train and join the crush of humanity ,that filled the train to standing room. Our trip back was fun thanks in part to a little girl named Izzie who kept us entertained.  Interesting observation:  There are five golf courses that you can see along the railroad between London and Southhampton.  It is a fun view through the countryside.

Once we got back to Southhampton we did a little shopping at a nearby grocery for some shampoo, other toiletries and granola bars to take with us on the ship. Two bushed travelers got back to the hotel with at least six miles of walking today, but it was a great start.