London, East Anglia & Paris
July 16 through July 26, 2000
Adventures of Bill, Linda and Betsy Ross
Day 9, Monday
London, revisited, again, and another Palace
Up early to another casual breakfast, but not much time to linger. We loaded the car with our luggage and headed back to the Norwich train station. I took a last look at the Noel-Tod home where we had been blessed with great hosts and hospitality and some very good memories to take home.
Leaving the Noel-Tod home. The ride back to London was anti-climactic, and the gray weather followed us back. Not quite as cold as Norfolk, but every bit as gray, Liverpool station dropped us back into the urban scene. It was lunchtime, and feeling temporarily un-London-like, we gave into a Big Mac attack, and ate in the MacDonald's at the station. In all honesty, the British don't quite understand the American hamburger. I can't say why it was different--it had all the right ingredients--it just wasn't as good. Still, we were all kinda glad to get a hint of home after a week of sensory overload from new experiences.
We managed, once again, to get the luggage thru the tube to Queensway, and back to the hotel. We were promised the same room, and got it--deciding that the devil you know is better than the one you don't!
After a brief think, we hopped back on our tourist horse and headed off for a walkabout around Buckingham Palace. It wasn't really high on our list of things to see, and we'd seen it often enough from bus windows, but somehow it seemed right and just that we should pay our new friends a visit. After all, they'd just waved to us at Sandringham!
We took the tube to Hyde Park Gate, maneuvered across the impossible intersection, and headed down Constitution Avenue. With Green Park on our left, we felt somewhat at home, having lunched on hot dogs there the week before (albeit on the other side!). Buckingham Gardens were tightly walled off on our right, so there was nothing special to see for awhile. Then we made it to the end of the road, and there we saw the end of the Palace and the Victoria Monument across another insane intersection. We paused there for a couple of pictures. I decided that the Palace must have had a good cleaning since the last major televised event (was that Di's funeral?), because it looked very white in the gray light of the cloudy and chilly day.
Buckingham Palace. Crossing the street, we lingered along the Palace Gates, walked up and around the Victoria monument, took a distant peek at St. James Park, took a few more photos, and then headed down the other side of the palace to the Royal Mews. It was late, and we didn't spring for a paid tour, but we did go into the Palace Mews Shop. I bought a much-needed roll of film--but that's all. The ready cash had about run out, and we were hoarding it in hopes of being able to pay cash for a taxi ride to the airport on Wednesday!
Bill and Linda across from the Victoria Monument.
Buckingham Palace, the Main Gate. We picked up the tube again, having walked a triangular route back to our beginning, and went back to Queensway. The Rat and Parrot was not yet full, so we went in and got a table. I finally got to sample the Steak and Stilton Pie, and it was very good (make that a minced beef pie, in simpler terms). Very easy on the palette and the teeth! Bill tried the Bangers and Mash, and I forget what Linda ordered. We didn't linger too long, since the crowds were starting to appear, but walked home and unpacked for another 2 nights in London.
Bill and Betsy, on steps to the Victoria Monument--quite a background!
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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!
