Aug 10 2003 - 1st stop London: We spent four nights in London, where we took in all of the sights we could. Arriving at the hotel around 6 pm, checking in proved to be a bit of a problem. Apparently a someone else already checked in under our name earlier in the day! After getting all of that straightened out, we arrived in the room and realized the air conditioning wasn’t working. (with the heat wave in London, the temperature in the room was hotter than outside!) The last night we were there the AC finally came on, though that was the first cool evening since we’d arrived.
However, the nice weather meant very good sightseeing…
First we took one of the open top double decker buses and got a view of the whole city and its main sites. It included a nice cruise up the Thames. Here is the start of the cruise where we took a nice shot of tower bridge.
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Here are the House of Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey as seen from the end of the cruise. We toured these on the next day.
We also went to the British Museum where we saw lots of cool stuff including the Rosetta Stone. (Can you see us in the reflection? That was not on purpose but I thought it looked sort of cool)
Trafalgar Square was a nice relief to the hot weather, as the fountains are used as swimming pools. Here we took pictures of the lions around the monument. Richard is sitting on this one…
We also went to:
- Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard
- Picadilly Circus
- the Science Museum
- the Museum of Natural History (lots of dinosaur bones and other dead things! and a nice rock/mineral collection)
In the evenings we went to shows - we saw Stomp and Phantom of the Opera. Both were good, but Stomp was much more fun!
Yesterday we rented a car and drove up north to visit James and Charlotte, our friends in Peterlee (near Durham). Today they took us to see a Barnard Castle (it is in ruins), Bowes Museum and Durham Castle and Cathedral. I’ll put more put more pictures up later…
Updated: Aug 25, 2003
We also drove to the Northumberland coast and to Newcastle - where we visited more castles and cathedrals. Another day we drove to Scotland and went to Edinburgh and climbed the Scott monument and visited Edinburgh castle. James and Charlotte, our ever-patient guides, also showed us the Scotland highlands and Hadrian’s Wall.
On our way south through western England, we visited Richard’s uncle David and his wife Aileen in Lytham St. Anne’s. From there we navigated our way to Avebury stone circles and to Stonehenge. From here we made our way to the airport to return the car and catch the tube to Waterloo Stn for the Eurostar train to Paris
Sorry I can’t put pictures up, I’m at an internet cafe that doesn’t let me do it!
Next to France
