Pork Scratchings, Mushy Peas, and Mick Jagger

It has been a full couple of days.  Yesterday started with a longer than expected run along the Thames.  I paid for it later with very sore legs, but the scenery just got more interesting and more lovely with every step.  The rain and wind held off until I turned around to head back home.  Song birds, grey squirrels, brick palaces, rowers gliding gracefully alongside swans, cathedrals, and arched bridges made it all worthwhile.

Central London is quite a different experience.  I was thinking about my comment about how everything is quaint and little here and then it dawned on me that everything is HUGE in London.  Quite the contrast.

We did lots of walking and peeked in on Buckingham Palace, which is not very palacey in my opinion, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey (too long of a line-up to go inside), the National Gallery, the Portrait Gallery (wish we had more time here), the Calvary Museum (complete with guards on horses with signs that say these horses will bite and kick... being a guard at the Calvary Museum seems like a terrible job to me), and my favourite, Westminster Cathedral.  This was my first experience inside a cathedral of this magnitude.  I lit a candle for my Dad and just stood in awe at all of it.  I was reminded of "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follet as I stared up (and up and up) to the mosaic ceilings and marble pillars.  I wondered how many years it took to build and how many people lost their lives and how many babies were born during the construction.  And then of course I thought of how much it must have cost.

The other London highlight was Billy Elliot.  Thanks Ma, for insisting that we see a show while in London!  The brochure promised "unforgettable music by Elton John, sensational dance and a powerful storyline, this astonishing theatrical experience will stay with you forever"... it will.

After the play we headed out on the train and bus to Twickenham for a Rotary meeting.  Our lack of sleep showed up looking something like bickering about which bus was going where.  We ended up hopping on and off two buses after asking the bus driver if it was going to Trafalgar Street (who knew there were so many ways to pronounce Trafalgar).  Turns out either of those buses would have taken us where we needed to go, but my questioning confused the matter and caused us an extra 20 minutes of standing in the rain.  When we did make it to our destination, we found the pub where the meeting was to be held, but the meeting had been cancelled for the Christmas break.  A disappointing end to a great day.

Terry's British breakfast of champions

Today we walked the Thames with friends Andy and Maxine whose commentary added a whole new element of delight to our walk which we have become quite familiar with after only two days.

The quaint little (or not so little) brick buildings we have been passing all have a story.  Little did we know that we have been walking on Royal ground.  Here is King Henry I's house, first occupied in 1125.  The sign out front boasts of many Royals who died here... hmmm... Edward III died here in 1377, Henry VII rebuilt the palace and then died here in 1503, and Queen Elizabeth also died here in 1602.  Not sure what all the dying is about, a hospice of sorts maybe.

River Frontage of the Royal Palace

A little farther in our walk we passed homes owned by Mick Jagger and Pete Townshend.  Shops and alleyways, pubs complete with more kids, dogs, fish and chips, and mushy peas, ooo, and a cheese shop.  A very excellent day.  We had plans to go to a meeting tonight, but our afternoon nap, extended a little longer than planned.  So, it will be a quiet, likely sleepless, last night at The Swan Inn before we fly out in the morning to Nairobi.

View from our room in Old Isleworth