So, with one day in London we decide to grab Hop On, Hop Off bus tour.
Great idea, except for one thing - I saw so much that my brain exploded and I can hardly remember any of it. And, a lot of my photos suffered from being peak-a-boo shots to having the heads of all my new friends on the bus in the photo. But I got them back - I was in a lot of their shots as well. BUT - I do not use a selfie stick. (I saw one couple attach their phone to the back of the seat in front of them and aim it back at themselves for the entire time they were on the bus.
So, here's what I will do - I'll put up some of the better shots and you can score me on accuracy and correct me where necessary.
First shots - these are of a gorgeous old hotel I think it is the Hilton. It was not far from Euston Station.
St. Pancras Station.
The Royal Courts of Justice - this one was easy, since I caught the name in the photo.
I forget what this one is about, and I know I've seen it before. Is it the Heraldic Dragon Monument at Temple Bar? I had to wait until I was behind the monument because of the sun's angle. Unfortunately, the bus cut off the sculptural detail below the photo.
This one's a gimmee to identify - St. Paul's Cathedral.
This one not so much. It's a market just down the street from the Cathedral and near the Bank odf England Museum.
A pretty spot. Anybody recognize it?
One of the new landmarks on the skyline - the Shard. Is was designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, and is the tallest building in the United Kingdom.
My only picture of Tower Bridge - bad sun angle.
City Hall - just as we are going to cross the Tower Bridge.
And on the other side is the Tower of London. It's more picturesque from the water side. Built in 1078 by William the Conqueror.
A view from around the corner.
Another 'modern' attraction - the London Eye. A giant ferris wheel with 32 pods holding 25 people each. It takes about 1/2 hour for a rotation, which is slow enough so that it can be loaded and unloaded without stopping.
I'd visit a museum before going on this ride.
My only halfway decent picture of Westminster Abbey. Darn bus wouldn't pull up in front of it for me.
I wasn't able to get any good pictures of the houses of Parliament or Buckingham Palace. Hopping off the bus would have been necessary and the day was wearing on - I think the trip is taking longer due to construction and detours.
The Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner
Harrod's - no, we didn't buy anything here.
That's about it. We ran out of energy down the street at Kensington Palace (William wasn't home), so we jumped off, had some lunch and took the Tube back to the hotel.
The JO, JO bus is a great idea, but you need a week for it in London, just to check out the sights along the route. After that, you need more weeks to go into each of the sights.
I'm trying for a quick trip to the British Museum after I deliver Laura and her bike to Heathrow Airport tomorrow afternoon. She has to get back to take Kye to the vets in Vancouver for a close look at the lump on his liver.
I'll keep pedaling, starting again Friday.
Hi:
No blog tonight. We did 57 km in the morning to Hertford and another 60 after lunch in convoy into London. Lots of dipsying and doodling. We just got finished dinner and back into our hotel & it is 10:30 pm. I'll try to get up early and put something together.
Our problem -- we have 1 day in London; what do we do? We're leaning to the Get On / Get Off bus tour. Any suggestions?
It's Wednesday now. We've been out & about London, but I'll start with more of Tuesday's story:
Sue - this one is for you and me! Check out the name of the church where I chose to do (poorly) my Tai Chi pose.
And here's a better view of the church.
Of course there are all kinds of pubs with interesting names. I'd never get anywhere if I took pictures of them all. But here is the classic 'Fox & Hounds.' I wonder how many of them there are in England.
Here is some of the group waiting in Hertford for the convoy to begin. Luckily there was a cafe across the road where we could get Lattes.
The convoy has begun. Here's Becky and Bruce following behind as I am riding along, holding the camera above my head, shooting blindly. Not smart, but I managed to get away with it.
Much of the convoy was cycling alongside the canals. In many cases the houses are built right up to the edge.
Lots of cobblestone sections of road - teeth jarring!
We stopped for a (much needed) pee break & coffee at High Bridge in the Lea River Valley
Narrow boats docked alongside in both directions.
These boats are upstream of many of the low bridges on the canal. I checked out a couple and they have pivoting masts with heavy counterweights to make it easy to swing them up & down. I suspect it makes them inefficient as sailing vessels.
I'm in the first half of the convoy at this moment. This is looking back as everybody climbs the switchbacks to get up and over the bridge.
One of the canal locks right in the city suburbs. It's amazing how extensive the canal network is. I assume it developed from times past when boats were the main means of transportation, but it is surprising how they have remained.
After many bike paths and some back streets, my first view of the Thames.
We were right in the city, but with the vehicle restrictions the streets were surprisingly quiet until we got near the hotel and hit some of the main streets.
There are some seriously busy cycle lanes on some of the main streets, and some of the cyclists are really flying by us. Luckily, no mishaps. The convoy gets split up often as half of us get caught by a red light.
At one point we saw half a dozen riders miss a turn and continue down the wrong street as a couple of us ducked into traffic and gave chase to round them up. It's not that bad as the traffic is moving slowly enough that cyclists can keep up with it and zig & zag.
Last shot if the day: We're lining up to "regroup" and get together as a single group. When it got crazy near the hotel, I stopped trying to take photos. That would have ended badly.
Touring London on the next installment.
110 km today under clear skies that almost got too hot towards the end of the day (oops, there's a bylaw that says you aren't allowed to complain about it being too hot in England).
Another feature of our ride is that it has been planned to use secondary roads as much as possible and avoid crowded highways. We appreciate this; here's an example of a "very secondary" road we traveled on for a few km. Actually quite pleasant.
And, we cross into Cambridgeshire. That's Laura's bike; where is Laura? Communing with nature, something we've all had to do on the trail.
We're still in the flat lowlands. this is the Hermitage Lock.
Nearby Narrow Boats. 6 feet wide and up to 60 feet long.
And, some of the locals. Dad is rooting around in the weeds to the right.
Getting close to Cambridge now and we pass through a modern subdivision. Brand new 'flats' designed to fit in with the older ones. I guess it works.
In Cambridge now, here's the entrance to King's College (costs to get in, so I stayed out).
Cambridge is a collection of 30 colleges that are part of two universities. I'm not really sure about the relationship between the colleges and the universities, so don't quote me. In any event, education dominates the town. The University of Cambridge was founded in 1209.
The street just outside King's College. Very busy; full of tour groups and bicycles. Cars are not really encouraged, so bicycles dominate.
Inside the courtyard of Corpus Christie College.
The whole town is a collection of beautiful architecture, but in the interests of brevity, I'll skip to the next topic - the Eagle Pub.
Here are some of us enjoying a well deserved brew. Note how it seems to be the same group of people day after day?
This is the Eagle Pub, opened in 1667 and is located in the heart of the town. One of its claims to fame is that here in 1953 Francis Crick and James Watson announced their proposal for the double helix form of DNA (they often had lunch here).
I had their feature beer: DNA Ale!
Cambridge is located on the River Cam, and one of the activities you can do is go "Punting," which is propelling a small boat with a pole pushed into the river bottom (as opposed to a Gondola which is propelled by an oar). You can rent one for 30 Pounds an hour.
I'll leave you with this one - the "Punter," in addition to doing a poor job of poling, is passing a bottle of wine back & forth with the passenger (is he the "Puntee?").
I was sure he was headed for a splash, but he didn't.
We're staying out of town at large B&B called the Rectory Farm. Had dinner down the way at the Plough restaurant.
Tomorrow we head for London, but it will be a long day.
Boston, Lincolnshire that is. A number of emigrants from Boston, Lincolnshire (Puritans) left for North America in the early 1600's to form Boston, Mass. That's it for the history.
Today started off cloudy, we got a good start for a short day of 76 km (77 for Laura and I as I missed a turn). On the way to Boston we noticed two changes in the countryside. First, the farm fields were no longer bordered by stone walls, but by hedgerows and rows of trees. The photo shows the fields as we head towards the coast. This area is known as the Lincolnshire Wolds.
For the last 20 km we went onto the eastern coastal plane; very flat and also larger fields looking very much like large North American farms. And it got sunny - full sun by the time we made it to Boston.
We're nearing our hotel - this is on the last bridge over the River Witham (I don't know if that is pronounced 'With Am" or "Wit Ham")
The St. Botolph's Church is in the background (more about it later)
We are staying at the White Hart Hotel. It's an older building with no elevators, and we had to haul our bikes up 1 floor to the Event Room to store them (we were asked to keep them on the carpeted parts and off the hardwood as the Salsa Group needed the hardwood floor to practice on).
Here's Reception with a most unusual Reception Desk on the right. To the left are some of our bags plugging up Reception.
A better view of St. Botolph's, one of the largest Parish churches in England. It was started in 1309, and the tower was completed in 1510 - 1520. They had problems with some of the foundations for the central portion (called the Nave, I believe). When they built the tower they were able to solve their foundation problems; there has been no need to perform restoration work to realign the tower foundations despite it being only 10 metres from the river.
One of the stained glass windows. The colours showed up brightly with a sunny day outside.
And a view inside, toward the chancel end, showing the choir and the organ. Note the wooden, non plastered ceiling.
The land around here is very flat, and has been drained for farming, and is used for boating. The river is tidal here and has 'Sluice Gates' for protection from flooding. This necessitates locks and this is a view of two boats exiting the 'Great Sluice Lock.'
Around town I checked out the railway station (definitely local trains only) and also saw this building. It's name? Swan House, of course. It started out as an industrial building and has been converted to housing.
The centre of town, dominated by the church. Cars and pedestrians both used all of the space, so one had to keep an eye out!
And I'll finish with a picture of some of the crew at the 'featured pub,' the Goodbarns Yard, located just behind the 'Stump' (local name for St. Botolph's) in the above photo.
First shots - these are of a gorgeous old hotel I think it is the Hilton. It was not far from Euston Station.
