Shelleys in Whitechapel Road

Horse Guard's Horse whispers sweet nothings ..

Clive near Westminster Bridge and Big Ben

A London Tour

Last weekend, 17th/18th November we trained up(?)to London to stay with Paul for the Saturday night. Nothing planned apart from the 8.30 train Saturday am and the 4.30 return on the Sunday. It wasn't raining so we decided to take a flight on London Eye which allowed an easy 360 degree viewof London; from there we walked and walked - to the Houses of Parliament being dusted down and closed for the day for an upcoming event. Oh well! Let's go to Westminster Abbey across the road: closed for an upcoming event. (Turns out to be the Queens's/Prince Phillip's 60th wedding annivrsary and security, police and cleaners are everywhere sprucing the place up for national tv. We walked then along Whiehall to the Horse Guards and into St James' Park, Pall Mall and into Trafalgar Square (for coffee and to plan the rest of the day.) Plan decided we caught a bus through Picadilly Circus to Oxford Street and to London Palladium where we bought the last two tickets to the Stage show of The Sound of Music. Pure nostalgia and a trip down memory lane was not dampened by our having to split up to take our seats. Great show! And that's part of what London is all about. From the Palladium via several tubes to Paul's place (we're starting to feel at home amongst the rest of the tube populace) and a relaxed night reminiscing! Next day we caught the underground to Algate and Bricklane Markets, and in the bitter cold we wandered amongst the colourful side of London life: the stall holders and all manner of nationalities. A wander from Bricklane took us to Petticoat Lane Markets and on then to Spittalfields Markets. A day of marketing with not much more than the experience (some dresses for Shelley and some warm sox for both)to show in return. Plan C? To come back to Petticoat Lane in the warmer months of 2008.

It's NOT cold in Cambridge!!

The Bridge of Sighs

From Cam River across the Backs to Kings College

Persisting in Ipswich en route to Cambridge

A couple of weekends back we headed inland from here to the beautiful University city of Cambridge with all the Colleges which together, make up Cambridge University. When we left it was persisting down and we wondered just what we'd let ourselves in for given we were stepping further outside the comfort zone and not booking accommodation. However, by the time we arrived in Cambridge, two and a half hours later it had stopeed raining. We found a B&B through the Information Centre, caught a bus to it, dropped off our bags etc and bussed back to the city centre just in time to catch a very informative and interesting two hour guided tour of the city. We even had enough time to take in Evensong at Kings College Chapel and in the gloom of early evening we found our way to the Bridge of Sighs which, although built some centuries back, was modelled on the original in Venice. The Sunday morning, after a huge full English breakfast, we walked back into the city via the Cam River and Jesus Green to go to a Remembrance Day Mass at the Catholic Cathedral. Then followed a visit to the Fitzherbert Gallery (where it was warm!!), another hike across town to the Round Church and eventually we found our way in the Sunday night (?) dark - at 4.30pm - to the bus for our return to Colchester.