N and N's New Adventure: Day 27 June 21. Out of order..sorry

Thursday June 21, 2012

Day 27 of our second European Adventure.

Day began in our cubicle—showers, breakfast muffins and then off to Victoria Station to begin a tube day. We began at Victoria and took a tube north, a very crowded train. Then got off and transferred to the Picadilly Line and east to Picadilly Circus for a quick look around. We decided to walk so we could find a coffee shop and take a short break. But first there was the London Bliss souvenir shop with every kind of keepsake you might desire. Across the street was the London M&M store, we had been in one in New York and tried this one as well. It was fun with portraits of the red M&M as Henry the VII or the Green as Elizabeth I. It seems the British have more tolerance for fun than we do. Finally, a coffee shop, we shared a coffee and rested out feet. Then on to St. Paul’s Cathedral. Here we went in, but the admission price was 14 pounds each and having spent nothing on fun stuff earlier decided against the expenditure on serious stuff. We walked in as far as one could without a ticket and then left. We stopped at Garfunkel’s for lunch with a small salad bar and a jacket potato, again resting our feet.
After lunch we went to the London Museum which dealt with the history of the city from pre-Roman times until the upcoming Olympics. Much of the early history section had just been redone for the Olympics crowd and will open tomorrow, June 22. We did see some fragments of Roman and Medieval London. The most interesting exhibits were the Great Plague and the Great Fire of the 1300’s and the 1600’s. We meandered through not really giving the museum enough time, but we saw as much or as little as we wished. We walked to a central line tube station and took the central line west until we could transfer back to the Picadilly Line and then west to Harrod’s.
Before going into the store we found a place for a lemonade and took a rest. It had begun raining again, so we relaxed for a few moments inside. Then we went across the street to Harrod’s. First of all, it was packed, probably with people a great deal richer than we are. We walked through departments on the ground floor for purses, perfume, cosmetics, and a food store, all packed with people. We went upstairs because Neil was planning a trip to the toy department, but its preparation would not be complete until July 23. We did look through a number of departments, jewelry no one should be able to afford, a single china dinner plate on sale for 169 pounds, a vase--an original art object for 16,500 pounds, until we came to the Harrods souvenir shop. Here we bought a Harrods rubber duck for Joey and a Harrods stuffed bear also for Joey, Interestingly they would take American cash converting it to pounds in the computer register. After a brief stop in the book shop which was long on coffee table books and short on mysteries and science fiction, but otherwise like any other book shop, we decided to call it a day.
We went by the C1 bus to Victoria, had dinner, picked up some Cokes at Sainsbury’s and returned to the easy /hotel cubicle. On the bus ride we discovered that the next day the bus drivers would be taking an industrial action over overtime pay during the Olympics and would not being driving busses tomorrow. Yes, a nice way to say Strike. This changed our plans as we knew the crush on the tube would be worst, there would be no busses, and taxies might be in short supply. Our plan was to get up early and take the tube before the big rush. This necessitated packing tonight, and an early bedtime. And so to a little TV, packing, and on to bed.

17,917 Neil Steps