Lucy and Ethel
Do London
Do London
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My sister Pat and I have been referred to as the Lucy and Ethel of the modern day and if anyone had been keeping track of us on our England adventure, they would have been convinced of it! Most of our two and a half week excursion was spent in London because it has so many wonderful places to see and things to do. We had the opportunity to see four plays - "Phantom of the Opera", "Cats" "Mousetrap" and a newly released version of Well's, "The Invisible Man".
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The Tower of London Bridge
Yeoman Warder(Beefeater) at Her Majesty's Tower of London.
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Observations on a London Holiday
(Rather than give you a history lesson or a running diary of our trip, I have decided to just give you a few of the thoughts I gleaned from our trip.)
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* "High Tea" is a tradition that America should have adopted, rather than to have thrown all that tea into Boston Harbor.
* Absolutely NONE of the shoes we have in our closets(nor the ones I took on the trip) are resourceful enough for those brutal cobblestone streets.
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(Only the royal family may use the center portal)
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* The British put cream on apple pie, cream on cakes, cream on pancakes....but it is almost impossible to get cream for your coffee.
* Even though warned that English food was tasteless....I found enjoying food for me is never a problem. Food such as "bubble and squeak" - a panfried dumpling made from potato and cabbage - and "summer pudding" - made from cut up bread that has been soaked in fresh raspberry and strawberry juices, molded and topped with sour cream - and those wonderful scones and clotted cream, were wonderful treats.
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The gardens of St. James Palace
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* The British love their dogs as much as their children.
* All Englishmen are born with enormous green thumbs and therefore are able to produce the loveliest gardens in all the world.
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The British Museum
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* More than one day is needed to see all the wonderful pieces of history that are available at the British Museum....you could actually spend your whole vacation there if you wanted to and never visit the same room twice.
* The British are not a highly excitable people, as we evidenced when we were asked to leave the underground one day because of a bomb scare. The only commuters who were leaving in a hurry were those wearing fanny-packs, carrying touring maps, and looking quite disheveled. (Yes, we Americans are quite distinguishable from all those calm, respectable Brits.)
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The sisters in front of Big Ben
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* The underground railways and the British Rail system are the easiest, fastest, least expensive ways of travel. I might add that we were never afraid to ride the underground even after a late night at the theater. Too bad the same can't be said about its American counterparts in our larger cities.
* A trip to London is not for the infirm nor the faint of heart, for we were in, what seemed like, perpetual motion from the time we hit the ground running at Gatwick Airport until we returned there three weeks later.