London Trip - Day 5

On Wednesday we took our first day trip out of town. It was just as well that we'd scheduled this for Wednesday because that was the day of the weekly 24-hour tube strike (as I write this, they're in the middle of an 8-day strike). Getting around London that day was just horrendous, but we took a train from Victoria Station to Hever Castle, in York.

We both really enjoyed Hever Castle - it's the childhood home of Anne Bolynne and parts of the castle had been renovated to reflect that era. Other parts had been renovated as living space and looked quite comfortable.

This was the only day of our stay that it rained. We wandered the grounds a bit anyway, and found them to be quite attractive. The high point for me was the water maze, a maze of concrete pads in a pond. If you stepped on the wrong pad, it would operate a pump that would spray you with water. I managed to get to the middle with my clothes still dry.

A view of Hever Castle.

Another view of Hever Castle.

When we returned to London we took a bus up to Piccadilly Circus for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. We then walked over to Trafalgar Square to spend about 15 minutes in the National Portrait Gallery before it closed for the evening. On the way home the busses were too crowded due to the tube strike so we walked back to the hotel, which gave us a chance to see Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey by night.

See photos from our fourth day in London
See photos from our sixth day in London