London
Highlights Liz was a passionate Blue Badge Guide, a prestigious designation for those in the tour guide business. She brought London alive and gave us an excellent overview of the city within the city.
She gave us a wonderful introduction
to St. Paul's Cathedral
and entertained
us with her dry wit and feminist
comments.
What was the symbol strength for
Londoners during the
Blitzkrieg attacks
on London by the Germans?
Liz took us to "a little
known spot" where
the guard allowed us entry and, after a
short walk,
we found ourselves on the
edge of the Thames with a view of
the Tower
of London. On London day
4 we would see much of this infamous location.
Liz conjured up graphic images of the living conditions of Londoners during the Middle Ages pointing out the lack of in-house bathrooms and what that meant to the "man on the street!"
Remember what happened in 1666?
From our "special" vantage point, we
could see the new, modernistic London
City Hall behind us and off in the distance
and across the Thames, the pointed
"Gurken" (cucumber) building.
It's NOT Big Ben!
We witnessed the change of the guard
at St. James Palace, enjoyed the
beautiful gardens of daffodils, and
took a much needed bathroom break!
We ended up in Covent Gardens, where
we were entertained by a variety of
entertainers and grabbed a traditional
Cornish pastie.
After a busy day of sightseeing, albeit
mostly from our bus, and still exhausted
from our trans-atlantic flight and the
loss of 5 hours, we were
ready to chill
in our Novotel London West hotel rooms!
Our first exciting day came to an end.
See London views from the
London Eye ferris wheel.
Photos ©2006
William H. Booz