Wednesday, June 20, 2018

Day One in London

Horse Guards parade ground 


I landed at London Heathrow at around noon today and checked into my hotel without having to wait for it to be ready. In my room, I kind of got hooked on the Portugal vs. Moracco World Cup match. Then it occurred to me that here I was in beautiful London and I was in my room watching television.

Piglet watching World Cup


So it was time to hit the road Jack and get about and around town. My first stop was the Guards Museum, but the last admission is at 3:30pm and the building closes at 4:00pm. My taxi driver thought that I said the "Science Museum" so we were stuck in traffic in Kensington (which is far from Museum). The minutes were rapidly ticking away on my watch, but we finally made it with about ten minutes to spare. In my previous visit to London I got to the museum just as it was closing and I was experiencing some serious deja  vous here.




I can't seem to upload pictures using the Blogger mobile ap, so I will post pictures from the museum when I get home.

From there I strolled over to Horse Guards parade ground and walked (marched) around the perimeter so that I could say that I had marched at HG.



Next stop was a visit to Hatchards bookstore on Picadilly and found a book about Frederick the Great that I hadn't seen before. This is a really neat book store with about five floors of books. If you are ever in London then take some time to visit Hatchards.

My last stop was at Fortnum & Mason where I bought some scones for tomorrow's breakfast . I always enjoy visiting the Wine and Spirits department to look at some of the insanely priced scotch whiskeys in stock. There was a bottle of 40 year old Balvenie for  £3,500 for sale and I'm sure that it will be there when you visit on your own.



That's all for now. I'm off to bed to catch some zees.

S





7 comments:

  1. Looks like you are getting a rapid tour of london! - I hope you get time to enjoy it!

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  2. Very envious Jim. One of my favourite cities in the world and can not possibly ever be bored there. Really need to catch up with my Brother-in-law who resides in the fair London town and make an excuse to go to every military attraction I can find. By the way, two bottles please!

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  3. If you're wandering about today have a walk down the south bank. Check out the Globe, Golden Hind and Borough Market (lunch!) and pop into the Rake for a bier...(an old stomping ground) then carry on down to HMS Belfast, the Shard and then The Tower.
    Enjoy London

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  4. Hope you enjoy your stay in the Smoke. Plenty to do for free which is a bonus.

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  5. Nice to see you over here again Jim, enjoy the weekend. By the way if you had time I would suggest a stroll down to Westminister Abbey to see the new glass tower and artifacts now on display in the freshly renovated roof area.

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  6. Jim,

    looks like you have caught a rare few days of perfect English summer. Have a great time

    best wishes
    John

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  7. Like Carlo, I feel the wanderlust pangs! I'm not sure if you are into things medieval, but we had a great time one wet Sunday morning visiting the Brass Rubbing Centre in the crypt of St Martin in the Fields church near Trafalgar Square. We did our own rubbing - a life size Sir Robert de Bures that hangs in our hall - a great momento. The rubbings can be done in many sizes. Something different, and the bonus of our visit was hearing the music of the Academy orchestra coming down through the floor! The web pic of the shop looks posher than I remember 20+ years ago! Cheers, Rohan.

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