A Few Days in London

We arrived in Paris on Monday morning. Jacques picked us up at CDG and we stopped at the rental office to pick up a key to 27 Rue Bourg Tibourg. Our actual rental started on the following friday but, it was available, so we rented it for 1 night. Jacques and Claire came  in to Paris to spend the night  and we ate dinner at Au Petit Fer a Cheval in our neighborhood.

The next morning we took the metro to Gare du Nord for the high speed train to London. This train goes about 180 miles per hour. We had no sensation of the speed. It took about 10-15 minutes to cross underneath the channel in the Chunnel and we arrived at St Pancras station in 2 1/2 hours.

We checked our bags at the Royal National hotel and went looking for the nearest tube. After walking for a mile or so in a circle, we finally came upon the Russel Square tube about 1/2 block from the hotel.

We had to make a change to get to our destination, Westminster Station. The tube stop was very interesting. Very modern looking.





Our first stop was the Churchill War Rooms. This was high on my list after seeing a few of the recent movies about Churchill and reading a few books on his role in WWII.

This was really fascinating. It brought to life the workings of the Prime Minister and all his support teams and how they planned and fought the war from this underground network of rooms.
Everything they needed was located in these well protected chambers.





Steal beams provided protection from aerial attacks.

A power plant was needed to keep the lights and air conditioning working.

Churchill's wife Clementine has a room in the event she needed to stay with her husband in the War Rooms.

As Churchill loved his gourmet meals, there was a well equipped kitchen to provide for him and the staff.

Everything needed to conduct the war was there, from the communications rooms...

To large meeting rooms to plan the next steps...

Another thing, the mannequins were really life like. We spent about 2 hours there with the free audio guides which gave us a better appreciation of what it took to run a government during war time.

This was my first time in London in close to 50 years, so there were many differences.

After leaving the War Rooms, we walked around The Parliament building. One recent change in the area was the addition of barriers separating the sidewalks (pedestrians) from the cars in the street. This will prevent any would be terrorists to drive a car or truck into a crowd of people. If cars need to access a building, like the Parliament, they needed to pass by a police guard. Sign of our times.

Most of the typical tourist buildings were hidden with scaffolding. Here you can see the Eye , another addition to the landscape, between the Parliament and another government building.

Richard the Lion Hearted guarding the Parliament Building.

View of the Eye across the Thames. 

The Brits have their own political problems, so we saw both sides of the Brexit issue on display. When I read this in the future what will the UK look like. Still in the EU or on their own?

Outside the Parliament Building, these guys were protesting to find a way to stay in the EU, while...

 these guys say, 'Hey, we voted on it. We must Leave."  Who will win out?

While we were mingling with these peaceful protesters, a car came out of the Parliament Building parking area with a woman passenger. A woman next to me started yelling into the car. I asked her who was in the car. She laughed and said, "I don't know. I'm just yelling anyway."

That night, after a short rest at the hotel, we ate dinner in a Indian Tandoori restaurant  in the neighborhood.

The next morning we headed to the Tower of London.

And a beautiful view of Tower Bridge

There we decided to take the river cruise to Greenwich for lunch.

The original Cutty Sark is on display along the river.

On the way up and down the Thames we saw many of the new, modern, expensive apartment buildings. And also, some of the old historical taverns, like The Prospect of Whitby and

The Grapes, where Dickens is supposed to have written a few of his famous novels. It is now owned by Ian McEllen.

This was a really enjoyable way to spend some time. The weather was fantastic and the running commentary from the crew was very entertaining. After giving us the government mandated spiel on safety equipment, the crewman said, "not to worry though. This is only a precaution. After all what are the odds of having 2 accidents in the same day!"

A thing that amazed me was the amount of new, modern construction all over London. Here are some of the buildings in the background of the ancient Tower of London.

But we had a very clear view of the Tower Bridge as we headed towards Westminster bridge. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of juice at this point.

We walked across the Westminster Bridge and we split up at the Waterloo Station. Jacques and Claire went back across the river to find the Liberty Store on Regent St and we walked to find the Tate Modern. Judy was very interested in visiting this museum to see their exhibit of Bonnard, one of her favorites. After walking from the station to the river, we finally came upon the museum. The image below is one of her favorites. She actually broke down and spent 60p for a postcard,

After the visit, we followed the Orange Light poles back to the nearest tube and made it back to the hotel. That night we ate dinner in French restaurant (next to the Tandoori restaurant), Some of us enjoyed our meals.

The next morning we split up again. Jacques and Claire went to Oxford Circle while Judy and I tried to find the Dickens Museum. We were a bit pressed for time. So,when we finally found it (I made a couple of wrong turns) we only had 30 minutes or so to visit.

Here is the table in the dining room set up for Christmas Dessert.

In the servant's quarters, there are the actual bars from the Debtor's Prison where Dickens' father was
jailed

From there, we rushed to meet the Bornstains at the Victoria Theater. We  had tickets for the matinee performance of Hamilton. As soon as I knew we were going to London, I decided to check to see if Hamilton was playing there. Sure enough, it would be playing when we would be there. I jumped on tickets.
I was dying to see this play and had tried to get tickets in NYC, Boston and with the ticket lottery. This was one of the highlights of the trip along with the War Rooms and River Cruise. All of us really enjoyed it. Even if one (the French) could not understand all the lyrics, they could appreciate the staging, choreography and talent.

The theater was really beautiful and a perfect location to view a performance. We were in the first balcony with clear sight-lines to the stage. Photography was not allowed, so I put away the camera after I took this photo of the stage.

We had a delightful mother/daughter couple in front of us. They were Irish but lived in France for a long time. This was the girl's 16th birthday present. We really enjoyed talking to them.

That night we had a delicious meal in an Italian restaurant which we had noticed earlier in the day as we stumbled to the Dickens' Museum. Spaghetti Carbonara just the way I like it.

It was a great way to end a whirlwind few days in London. Back on the train the next day and into the apartment by 3:30.

On to our next adventure.