London, East Anglia & Paris
July 16 through July 26, 2000
Adventures of Bill, Linda and Betsy Ross
Day 10, Tuesday
Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben time, and Mean Time at Greenwich
Now we were really running out of time and energy, but over breakfast made careful plans for this last day in London. First, we counted and pooled all our cash (British only), and found ourselves short for a taxi ride the next day. We simply couldn't face handling ALL the luggage with Mark to help us thru the tube tunnels, coaches, elevators, escalators and stairs, so we decided to find a bank that would convert our stash of US dollars to pounds. That taxi was going to be VERY expensive!
Luckily we found a Barclay's branch right on our Queensway path, and learned that Bill's MasterCard would work in their ATM machine! So I gave Bill all my dollars in return for his paying my part of the taxi in pounds--and I'm now broke--for cash transactions, at least! Except for the daily Travelcard to get me around, I must pursue only tube and walking tours today, and hope to use my Visa to eat.
Then it was off to Parliament, for a closer look at Big Ben--named after it's bell weighing 13 1/a tons. This clock has been visible in the background for many days now! We went straight to the Westminster tube exit, and walked around the Palace of Westminster.
Bobbies at the courtyard gate. We crossed the street, and passed between Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret's Church, to arrive at the West Transept of the Abbey. Onto this square faces the entrance to the smaller, but utterly beautiful St. Margaret's. It's here that our Sir Walter Raleigh is buried near the altar. We toured the interior of St. Margaret's, reading hundreds of memorative plaques, but not finding Sir Walter. The engravings on the floor gravemarkers are worn beyond reading. John Milton was married here (1656), as was Winston Churchill (1908).
Walking along the Whitehall Street side toward the Royal Gate.
Close-up of the Gate thru which the Queen (reigning monarch) enters Parliament.
St. Margaret's Church, 12th century; rebuilt 1486-1523. Turning 90 degrees from the last photo angle, we enjoyed the view of Westminster Abbey's west transept. This is the entrance thru which tourists are admitted, and the lines were way to long for us to consider spending our whole day in a cue. Once again, we opted for an exterior walkabout, and with no regrets.
Westminster Abbey's west transept. After a morning of walking Parliament and Westminster, we were hungry, and crossed over to a huge building named the Methodist Hall. We stood there pondering the John Wesley connection, when we saw a smallish sign near a low door: "Cafe". We went down the basement stairs and discovered a delightful cafeteria, run by the Methodists. It was just getting busy, and we beat the long line of locals who were dropping in. We ate a very nice sandwich and scone lunch, and pinched ourselves for finding a non-tourist dining establishment for a change!
Bill and Linda gawk and consider the long cue.
(Corner of St. Margaret's on the left)
The long line at Westminster Abbey.
Westminster Abbey main entrance.
The bride, Sarah Ferguson, entered here, and left as the Duchess of York.
Fortified anew, we hopped the tube to the Millennium Dome. We really weren't all that keen to go to the Dome, but the tube didn't have a direct connection to Greenwich, and we weren't sure how to use the buses for such a long ride. So we went to the Dome, where we walked around the outside.
Betsy and Linda oggle the Dome. From the Dome we caught the bus to Greenwich, which stopped in front of the grand Maritime Museum. Again, time didn't allow a tour of all the establishments, so we made our way straight thru the Museum grounds to the long climb up Observatory Hill and the Royal Observatory. Quite an uphill climb, too!
The white-on-white glare makes it hard to photograph!
Linda stands on the brass-outlined Prime Meridian, the line running straight thru the hillside. A few feet around the curve of the walkway is the famous Royal Observatory Clock. We took turns comparing our watches, our feet to the official standard of measurement (based on King Henry's own foot!), and posing for some tourist photos. The full impact of greeting the new millennium hits you when you stand on this spot where it all begins.
Bill and Linda check their watches. In 1427, Henry V's brother built a palace in Greenwich, and later enclosed a 200 acre park at behind the Royal Observatory. Queen Elizabeth I the born there. Near the observatory is another monument (please forgive, I forget to whom) from which the view of Greenwich village toward the river is breathtaking:
Betsy and Linda stand by (the sun is bothering me, again).
The Millennium Starts Here.
The view from the Royal Observatory hilltop. After a brief rest, we wandered into the huge royal Greenwich Park. Walking around the backside of the palace and observatory, we wound back through the park and down the hill to return to the streets beyond the Maritime Museum.
Linda rests and enjoys the view.
In Greenwich Park. Finding ourselves in the village proper (quite a large town, actually), we meandered this way and that until we located the Greenwich Pier. They just don't make sailing ships anymore, so the Cutty Sark, with all its glorious history, was a delicious sight. It sits in dry-dock, and is very beautiful!
Greenwich Pier and the Cutty Sark. After this long day, we looked for the number 188 bus, which we thought would take us "aboveground" all the way back to Holburn, where we could pick up the underground for home. After a few wrong turns, a dear elderly lady correctly read our confusion. She was a bit confused, too, saying that the route had recently been changed, but she thought she could find it. So the 4 of us struck off through the busy streets, and with her help, found the old 188! She was one of the nice surprises a tourist sometimes gets when encountering the natives!
Cutty Sark, the stern.
Cutty Sark, the bow with its maiden.
The bus ride back to West London was long, but covered ground we hadn't seen before, so we claimed the front seats on the upper deck, and had another very pleasurable tour. No guide this time, we relied on our maps and brochures to identify the sights we were seeing.
At Holburn (pronounced "Hoebun"), we abandoned the bus and found a sidewalk cafe serving tea. Well, not a real English tea, at least the teacup was styrofoam, but the milky tea was very good, and the upscale neighborhood a treat. It was rush hour by then, so we just sat there and watched the career women in their hard-soled high heels running to catch the buses and the tubes, and the many pedestians squeezing through the traffic in the intersections. We didn't wait long enough, though, and when we finally got on the tube, it was armpit-to-armpit!
Tired, we decided to do the King Prawn Fried Rice again. It was that good, and that close to the Bayswater tube station! So ended our last day in London, and our last meal (on MasterCard). Feeling quite content, we returned to the hotel to pack, make arrangements for the trip to Gatwick this next morning, and to get some sleep!
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Copyright © 2000 Elizabeth Ross.
The writer has made no attempt to use formal grammar, and the stream-of-consciousness style is no doubt replete with errors. It was a real trip, in every sense of the word, and the reader must forgive the run-on sentences, misplaced modifiers, and simple page layout!
