When I said you'll really fall for London,
I didn't mean it literally!

March 16

I was really looking forward to spending a week with my Mom in my favourite city, London. After initially being a bit ambivalent, she caught the enthusiasm full on and we were both anticipating all the different things we could see and do. First, though, we had to get there. It snowed here all day the day we were to leave, though not really hard. The drive to the airport was a bit dirty but the plane took off on time, luckily. We had the aisle seats with a spare in between and had a fairly comfortable flight over. We arrived in the rain but Mom was so busy looking out the windows of the bus that she didn't really notice. We were the only two passengers for that run in to the hotel so the driver chatted to us all the way.

This weekend, London is full of festivities for St. Patrick's day and our hotel, the Strand Palace, is quite close to most of them including Trafalgar Square. You might want to put a bit of emphasis on the "fal" part of that. Keep it in mind.

We got into our twin room right away but were not going to have a nap just yet. The room is nice, a little on the small side, and the bathroom is bright and has heated towel racks. We did notice the noise from the hallways though, as the door opened right into the room without any sort of entry way or hallway as a buffer. The outside window overlooked in inner "court" so there was no traffic noise at least. We unpacked as we'd be there for 5 nights and that gave us more room with one of the suitcases stashed in the closet.

Out for a walk and our (her) first look at London proper. The Strand Palace is right at the foot of Covent Garden so that's where we headed. First stop was the market hall where we saw some scantily clad jugglers on unicycles and some street musicians as well. We perused the craft stalls in the "Apple Market" section and then had a look at the Irish tent with the foods on display. We walked through some of the narrow streets, looking at the buildings, window shopping and keeping an eye out for a likely pub or café for lunch.

Up a small little lane we saw an old pub, The Lamb and Flag. They had a Sunday roast feature with several choices of meat so we went inside and up the stairs to the dining area. The pub had a very old feel to it and later I read that it is indeed one of the oldest pubs in London, formerly called the Bucket of Blood due to fist fights there in the distant past. We partook of the roast dinner, Mom having beef and me having the lamb. The food was good and hot and the barman even made us coffee though he seemed to be a bit short staffed. It got pretty busy shortly after and since we were sitting next to a table full of boisterously loud young men, we didn't linger.

We made our way through the streets, eventually reaching Trafalgar Square. There were hundreds of people there, plus the crowds were streaming past us, quite a few with funny green and orange hats on. I think we'd just missed the parade. The Square had a stage set up and were in between acts I think. We wandered over and that's when the "fal" happened. We were making our way towards the wide, shallow granite steps down into the Square when I looked down and saw Mom had fallen across the stairs. It's a good thing they weren't steeper. I think that's probably the only thing that saved her more serious injury. Someone helped me get her up and she seemed unhurt as far as broken bones and didn't seem to have hit her head. She was pretty shaken up though. Talk about a momentous start to the holiday! Yikes!

Anyway, we walked slowly around the square and decided to find somewhere to get a hot cup of tea but most of the places near there were full. We went back to the Strand nearby and made our way down the road. Luckily the hotel is only a couple of blocks and I thought the walk would be good to keep things loosened up. We stopped for some hot tea at Starbucks and took it back to the hotel. Mom had a hot shower and an Advil and we crawled into bed for a nap, since the long sleepless night was starting to wear on us on top of everything else!

The rest of the evening was spent dozing and watching tv. Our roast dinner held us well and we didn't get hungry so didn't have to go out for anything that night. We really just needed a good night's sleep after all that.

"Fleet" Street isn't named for the speed of the traffic

March 17

Turns out the beds in our room at least were really comfy. That's a plus. Sometimes hotel beds tend to be quite hard, in my experience. We got up and went down to breakfast which came with the room. It was a nice buffet of hot and cold so we had a good start to the day. It's overcast but not raining and it's a bit cool. First order of business was to get a tour bus ticket voucher from the concierge which we then exchanged for a ticket at the nearest stop around the corner on Aldwych. There was a lot of traffic and it took a good half hour for one to arrive and it took a good half hour for the bus to get up the road to St. Paul's Cathedral, where we planned to get off.

I had a coupon so we got 20% off on top of the senior's discount for Mom's admission. We walked around, necks craned backwards and upwards gawping at the beautiful painting, sculpture and mosaics on the ceilings and domes. Someone was playing the organ which added to the atmosphere. Especially lovely was the quire which was all gilded and the altar canopy soared over us. You aren't really allowed to take photos but I managed a few "stealth" shots with the digital camera held at waist level and aimed generally in the direction and I got a couple of good pictures that way. It just rankles me that they do that when you really know all they want is to sell the guide book and postcards. I'd buy some of them anyway. It can't be a matter of disrespecting the sanctity of a church when they've got gift shops scattered and a tea room.

Anyway, we went down into the crypt to look at the famous tombs including the simple one of Christopher Wren who designed this cathedral after the previous one burned down in 1666 along with most of the old City of London. Florence Nightengale had a memorial in the crypt as well. The Cathedral will be 300 years old in 2010 so the exterior is being cleaned up for the anniversary. Mom was quite amazed at the opulence of the cathedral. I said, just wait until we see a *really* old "proper" cathedral! Not that St. Paul's isn't proper but it's newer than the vast old stone cathedral with the vaulted ceilings and flying buttresses that were built another 300 or 400 years before St. Paul's.

We thought we would have time to walk back to the hotel along Ludgate Hill, Fleet Street to the Strand in time to meet Mom's friends who were meeting us there about noon. Turns out it was a little longer walk than the map might suggest. It took us about 45 minutes. Of course, we would stop to look in windows or take photos or old pubs (Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese and the Bell which was built by Wren for the workers of his new cathedal).

We weren't late, though, and were back to the hotel before our friends arrived. We took a taxi to a modern restaurant in the middle of Lincoln's Inn Fields, quite literally in the fields, in the middle of the large square green. It's called The Terrace in the Park and has large windows that open up in summer. On one side are tennis courts and there's an outside patio for the finer weather as well. The décor was cool blue and white with light wood and reminded me of a Scandinavian style. The food was excellent, too, and we all chose the set lunch menu which had several choices for each course.

Afterwards, we went in different directions. Mom and I went back to Aldwych to pick up the tour bus and do the rest of the city tour. Still overcast and it was a bit chilly, but we sat on top anyway. This bus had a tour guide instead of recorded commentary though some of them only have that. The guide was quite good though a bit cheeky at times. At Hyde Park we had to change busses and then again near Madam Taussauds. We sat down inside then as it was later in the afternoon and really getting chilly up top. This route did have only recorded commentary. We stayed on that bus until we got back to the hotel. At one point not far from Madam T's we came by a large group of people in front of the Chinese Embassy protesting China's treatment of Tibet. This kind of thing is going to happen a lot in the lead up to the summer Olympics in Beijing, I'm afraid.

Back at the hotel, we opted to get some sandwiches and drinks in the small Tesco's across the street and get hot drinks in Starbucks again and eat our evening meal in the hotel and stay where it was warm, under the duvet! Mom did quite well today. She's very bruised on her legs and a bit sore but things could have been so much worse. Being on the bus most of the afternoon and early evening made for an easy day at least. Tomorrow we're going to do our first day trip out to Brighton. We don't think Wednesday would be good as we have the theatre in the evening and I think it's going to rain on Thursday.

Next Page: Shopping!

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