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London is a magnificent city, but I have to admit it was my least favorite part of the trip. We only spent one full day there, and it was an adventure taking the tube (London Underground)! (Strange people!!) But with the traffic and the crowds, I missed hedgerowed lanes and sheep….. It was the first day of ice skating at the Tower. Nine hundred years of violent executions and now they hold ice skating there! Makes a pretty picture, though, huh?
We did the Thames River walk, which took about an hour and an half, starting at the Tower of London.
The Thames River path is a great walk and brought us by Tower Bridge, the replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Fishmongers’ Hall, Southwark Cathedral, the Tate Modern Museum, the famous OXO Tower, the London Eye, Cleopatra’s Needle, Charing Cross, and ending at Parliament and Big Ben.
It started raining and it got too dark to take decent photos. We’d arrived in London the night before, late, turned in our rental car and taken the tube to an ill-chosen hostel where we’d arranged to spend two nights. It was the most awful hostel in the history of hostels. I sat down on the street in front of it at midnight and cried because I didn’t want to go inside, but it was too late to do anything else. It was just as awful inside as I expected from the outside. I was exhausted by the following afternoon from a night of loud noises, voices inside the hostel, banging outside the hostel. We did not stay the second night.
Across from the Parliament, we dashed into a pub till the rain let up then back on the tube–to a nice, clean, lovely Holiday Inn near the airport.
Ninety-nine percent of the trip was incredible, so I can’t complain too much. You gotta have a little rain to have the rainbow. (Sometimes, you gotta have a little rain on your camera lens, too.)
(Photo of a double rainbow taken from the side of one of England’s scary roads.)
The next time I go to England, I doubt I will plan any time in London. It’s a beautiful city, but it’s expensive and crowded and it’s just not my thing. I absolutely loved the English countryside. I want to spend more time clambering over hedges and climbing on rocks and hiking up hillsides and dreaming in ruins.
And, you know, of course…..
….I need to spend more time with my friends. Goodbye till next time.
Honey, I’m home!
Posted by Suzanne McMinn on August 15, 2009I’m on vacation. This week, I’m republishing a series of posts from my 2006 trip to England. Enjoy! Keep up with my current trip on the Daily Farm Photo page.
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Welcome home. Can’t wait for tomorrow to see how everything has gone at the farm while you in Florida!
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I’m sure that the undergounds attract the nutters. The Tube in London certainly does and we’ve met a few in Barcelona on their Metro. That’s apart from the thieves!
Suzanne maybe you should try south west Wales next time, the coast and countryside is lovely. Alternatively come north, Yorkshire countryside is lovely and the Northumberland coastline is fantastic and usually deserted. Take a trip to Lindisfarne, Holy Island as we call it, just beautiful. Then there’s Scotland! Sheep aplenty in all these places!
Hope you had a lovely holiday.
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What I loved about London was the architecture … and the fact that she survived the bombings during the war. I loved Trafalgar Square, WestminsterAbby, Buckingham Palace and St. James Park ….. just loved it all.
You would love Ireland …. they have sheep there too.
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And the rain in my trip was food poisoning in London! It was HORRIBLE. And since I went by myself, I had no one to look after me. It was just me in my hotel room. Nothing much worse than being so violently ill in a foreign country, all alone. But I made it through.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see a bit of London – just the tube. I got in on a Friday night, checked into my hotel, and ate supper – 20 minutes later I was sicker than a dog. So, no traipsing around London. Unfortunately, I had wanted to do most of my souvenir shopping for my family/friends in London, so they got the short end of the deal!
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