TRAVEL TIME: London In the Rain

First of all, I am giving myself a pat on the back for selecting the cosmopolitan Strand Palace from the choices our travel agent provided. The location is within easy walking distance of many of the famous sights. We are in the heart of the west end theatre districts, three short blocks from Covent Gardens and two blocks from the River Thames. There are shopping and restaurant opportunities galore. The hotel itself is huge; nine floors and on our floor alone I counted 105 rooms. A full breakfast buffet is included. If visiting London, a stay here would put you in the midst of it all.

We awoke to the sound of rain, lots of it. So began our first full day in London. From what I have heard London wouldn't be London without a bit of a sprinkle. Given the all day rain forecast, we revamped our plan to spend the day on an open top hop on/hop off bus. Over breakfast, while listening to no less than 10 different languages being spoken, we decided to fill the morning hours by taking an umbrella walk to get our bearings while heading to Trafalgar Square, where we would board a bus for Stonehenge at 12:30. It was RP's idea to really dig up some antiquity on the last leg of the journey and maybe call on some ancient spirits to bring on the sun.

London is a spectacular city, beautiful even in the rain. Under the cover of the huge Callaway umbrella I managed to capture a few shots, as follows.
The Nelson Column:

Canada House, closed to visitors in the mornings and Gordo nowhere to be found:

A golden tribute to generations of the future:

The London Eye:

Big Ben:

Hungerford Foot Bridge over the Thames:

Charring Cross Station in the rain:

A few of the hundreds of double deckers that can be seen at any given moment from any given spot:

Pedestrian crossing warnings are often painted on the roads. It seems to us that the citizens of the UK do not always have the right of way, nor do they pay heed to the signals. Jay walkers, ourselves included (getting braver) ALWAYS look right or left first depending on which side of the road you are on.

The umbrellas kept us pretty dry; we bought some postcards for the grandkids and a ticky-tacky tee shirt for RP to wear to the gym. Then it was time to board the bus. Interesting that the tour company is named Evan Evans.

Great Grandpa John's youngest brother was Henry Evan Evans. Now this bus is a Mercedes Benz and offers grand luxury. We sat ourselves in the front seat for the best view and received entertainment not expected. That would be the ordeal of getting out of London but not before making a couple of stops to pick up passengers.

Now for a few pictures of us getting out of London in the rain. New Delhi comes to mind except horns are seldom sounded, there are no 3 wheelers and the vehicles here are much, much larger. Talk about gridlock. We from Victoria must try to remember this perspective next time we find ourselves in The Crawl.

4 lanes merge into one due to construction, which is happening all over the city.

Big or Teeny, transportation to suit all.

Stonehenge is about 80 miles from London to the west near Salisbury. We both learned about this phenomenal site many years ago in Social Studies but nothing read about can quite prepare for actually viewing it. It is stunning in its magnitude, awesome in its majesty and astounding in it history. Now, 5000 years after construction began, it is designated with world heritage status. There was no need to perform a sun ritual for the closer we got the brighter the day became. That is a good thing as I doubt it would have been as enjoyable in rain like we had in London this morning.

Once at Stonehenge patrons are given individual audio sets, which allows for viewing the prehistoric monument at leisure. We took one hour to follow the audio tour and then had a half hour to get a snack while chatting with others visiting. We are glad we made this impromptu trip. Good call RP!

We also got in on a bit of action. Apparently one of the many coach drivers had a bit of a melt down. He yelled at his passengers and then abandoned them and his bus in the parking lot. That crankiness required calling the bobbies, the bus company manager and making arrangements for the passengers. Guess the driver took off with keys. I am blogging this as we head back to London (love the iPad). Our bus driver kindly offered to take as many stowaways back as possible. They were ever so grateful.

As according to sun dance rituals, the sun does shine, here much later in the day, on Charring Cross Station, just two blocks from our London home. All distances in London are calculated using Charring Cross as the base point. Charring cross after the rain:

It had been a long day so we thought we would have dinner at the nearby Maple Leaf Restaurant. No luck, not a spare seat in the house. We will try again tomorrow. It must be good. Back to Covent Garden for a delicious dinner at Navajo Joe's, which is across the street from Great Grandpa John's home and workplace in 1862. It also happens to be the restaurant youngest son's good buddy, Clarkie, worked at some time ago. Small world it is. The view of #13 King Street from Navajo Joe's:

Now for a political aside. We are staying directly across the street from The Savoy. This, I believe, is the hotel where one of our esteemed MPs stayed at a rate of 600 pounds per night, ordered a 14 pound glass of orange juice, and opted for limo service to get to Canada House in Trafalgar Square, because a taxi would take too long in the congested traffic. We, across the street, are paying less than half of the MP rate, have a full breakfast included with as much orange juice as we want and we walked to Canada House in the rain in less than 10 minutes. I believe said politician has resigned as it should be. That is my 'wee' rant for today. "OH CANADA,"