Today is Sunday and we are now in Krakow, Poland and Scott and Ria have joined us. Seems surreal to be here. Who would have thought that when the four of us met on the 7th tee at the 2001 Husband and Wife tournament at Pitt Meadows and discovered we lived 6 doors apart, that just under 15 years later we would be here? Yes, surreal is definitely the word.
Anyway a quick tour of our last two days in London.
This was our walk on Day 5. My Pacer app said it was just over 22,000 steps.
Add to this an hour of walking around Westminster Abbey, an hour of walking around the Victoria and Albert Museum and you get two very tired people at the end of the day.
The sights
Lunch at Cafe Brindisa – Finest olives we have ever tasted.
Charcuterie, Olives, Bread and Oil and 2 glasses of Sauvignon Blanc. A meal fit for an outdoor cafe
Then we were off to the Victoria and Albert Museum
An original Mary Quant dress – creator of the mini-skirt
A couple of pairs of shoes which prove what goes around, comes around.
And for the wine lovers out there…
Now this is a wine serving set.
A tired Terry (and at this point we are less than halfway through our walk) and a very very dusty Chihuly sculpture. We saw this 15 years ago when we first came to London and it sparkled. Not so much today, though
Hired help only
On our walk we stopped in to view this exhibition. Since no photos were allowed it was perhaps the definition of irony
… or maybe hypocrisy
In Kensington Gardens we came across the Albert Memorial. I always thought Queen Victoria had all these memorials created because of her love for Prince Albert. Maybe not so much
Perhaps the most garish memorial ever created. Recently they spent 11 million pounds to refurbish it. I don’t know if the “they” was the government or the royal family.
and right across the street
Royal Albert Hall – one of the finest concert venues in the world.
We didn’t see Kate and Wills but it is a beautiful spot.
Kensington Palace and the front garden
My apologies for the invasion of their privacy, but this was just too good to ignore.
How do they do this? They were sound asleep.
The next three photos are of the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. It is difficult to see, but it is a ring with various mini fountains spurting up water with different textures and widths of channels to create a great place for kids to play in. Why anyone would have put a sign there asking people not to walk in it is beyond me. (Ok, maybe it’s a legal thing, but still.) It is the perfect play place for kids and from I read about her, something the Princess would have wanted kids to do.
A very cool looking tree in Hyde Park
So that was it – Day 5, Thursday.
Day 6 Friday
After our 22,257 paces, 16.2 Kms on Thursday we took a day of rest.
We cruised up the Thames for 1 1/2 hours to Kew Gardens. We passed under 11 bridges, one of which was the Albert Bridge (named after you know who).
The Albert Bridge
Here’s a quiz for you. Which band used this as a backdrop on which album?
Hint: It’s the Battersea Power Station
There were several homes with impressive wysteria on the walk to the gardens from the boat dock. This was just one of the impressive ones.
Wysteria on a house
I think we called these Bleeding Hearts when I was a kid. Interesting fact about the DNA.
The treewalk is an elevated walk about ten to twenty feet below the treetops. It is 104 steps up from the ground – That is 34 feet. Very cool.
These provide all sorts of information along the walk. – “tree roots are twice as wide as the tree is tall but only a metre deep”
This is a swamp cypress and those nodules are all roots
Terry in a rhododendron tree
We saw this sign at the airport as we were leaving.
Could someone, anyone, anyone at all please explain the logic, relationship or whatever else it may be to me. Please.
And, almost finally, in the 6 days we were in London, according to the Pacer app on my phone, Terry and I walked 103,220 paces or 83.5 kilometres in the roughly 96 hours we were awake. No wonder our feet hurt.
Last, but far from least, here are 3 minutes of the Queen tribute. If you watch it, please be aware that there are 20 seconds in the middle (2:00 – 2:20) which are a little blurry, but then it clears up again. Please enjoy. We did.
The Shoe Blog
These could DEFINITELY be found in modern day China
Our next posts will be written in Prague about Krakow, Oskar Schindler’s Factory, Auschwitz and Birkenau.
Looks like you had a wonderful trip to London. Thanks for sharing, and I hope you get a chance to rest your weary feet before your next adventure. Hello to Scott and Ria.
We did have a great time Ingrid. Today at Auschwitz and Birkenau was a very powerful experience very similar to what we had at the Killing Fields in Cambodia.
How was Paul’s first week back at work? Say hi for us and Scott and Ria say hello back.
Love reading your posts. Some is new info and some brings back happy memories. Looking forward to Poland, since I have never crossed the Tatras. Prague is like home; 6 times over the years but always changing.
Very interested to hear your thoughts on Auschwitz….one could avoid the impact of such a place knowing the history and evil that existed there.
oops…meant to say…one could NOT avoid the impact of Auschwitz.