Farewell London and happy birthday Craig!

Tuesday 18th October

Let’s start off by saying happy birthday Craig, which we should have said yesterday as he is so far ahead of us! Hope he managed to have a great day.

An earlier start today as it is our last day in London. We caught a tube to Cannon Street station, as I wanted to replace the photos I lost of Tower bridge and theThames River at low tide. Got some nice photos then walked along the river bank towards the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. We came to the tower and walked around the perimeter and got some more photos. Then we crossed over the Tower Bridge by foot. I got a photo of Jill with one foot either side of the drawbridge looking far down into the river. After we crossed the bridge we walked back towards the Globe Theatre along the Southern Embankment. The HMS Belfast, a World War II warship is permanently moored in the Thames as a memorial. This is a very old, less developed part of London with a lot of interesting back streets. We came across a replica of Sir Francis Drake’s Galleon called the Golden Hinde in which from 1577 to 1580 he sailed 140,000 miles, including sailing around the world. Then we came across the ruins of Winchester Palace which was the home of a 12th century bishop.

We eventually arrived at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and had a guided tour around the theatre. Unfortunately the season for the actors had finished a couple of weeks earlier so we couldn’t see any performance, but it was very interesting nevertheless. It was also interesting that for the several theatres in the area at the time of Shakespeare, the main competition was the bloody and cruel sport of bear baiting, where a large Russian bear would be tied to a pole and dogs set on it to kill it. This was one of the favourite sports for Queen Elizabeth I.

We continued walking, and crossed over the Millennium Bridge until we reached St. Paul ‘s Cathedral where we replaced some more lost photos and got some pics of the protest against the economic situation here.

Then we became a bit disorientated, but found some very interesting back streets and landed up back in Fleet Street, so we had our lunch (stuffed potato in its jacket) in a cafe there before continuing up Fleet Street until we reached Temple Bar where we saw the Royal Court of Justice. We then headed for the nearest underground station where it turned out that Jill’s oyster card had been drained of its balance, even though we had put money on it this morning. When exiting the station this morning at Cannon Street she had inadvertently clicked out and then clicked in again, so all money on the card was used up. Had to eventually put more money on the card after some deliberation with the ticket officers. We then decided to go to Marble Arch and see if there was anything worth buying at Primark. There wasn’t however, so we wandered down Oxford Street until one of us (Jill) was exhausted, so we had a cup of tea then got the tube back to Earls Court for the final time.

So, this is the end of our blog!! The whole trip has been rather exhausting but most enjoyable and we would happily do it all over again. Our only disappointment was that we didn’t get to see much of Shaun, but understand that he needed to accept the job.

THE END