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Monday, August 6, 2012

London Tour June 2012


Grant and I spent four days in London just touring. He'd never been to this city while I had so it was fun to share the experience with him this time. Although it rained the first day (what's new?) we decided to make the best of it. We caught a hop-on-hop-off bus and succumbed to the tour guide's corny commentating. (Everything he said was exactly what I heard the tour guides saying way back in 2005!) Above photos are of Trafalgar Square. Apparently the artist who sculpted the lions had no idea what a lion looked like.So he was given a dead lion as a model. However , the poor creature decomposed within days. No problem to the artist; he used his cat and dog as models. So forever after the lions of Trafalgar Square lie in a cat-like position with mouths open like a panting dog!

Clockwise from top: A small pub in an alleyway, the Albert, Oxford Street and Grant haring along in the cold!
St Paul's Cathedral was beautiful. I wipped out my camera as I entered the great doors, then I saw them: many, many signs prohibiting photographs. We wandered through the church where a Eucharist was being held, walked up the 234 steps (I counted them) to the Whispering Gallery. The view from the top was amazing so I surreptitiously took my Smartphone out of my pocket but as I turned on the camera, Grant nudged me and pointed to a sign nearby: No photos or videos! We descended the 234 steps and joined in a queue to have communion.

The old and the new: Big Ben and the London Eye

I wish you all a wonderful week ahead.

3 comments:

  1. Looks like a fun trip, Jo! I really enjoyed your photos! Hope you have a great week ahead! Enjoy!

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  2. What fun for you to be with Grant his first time seeing London. I still have fond memories of seeing London for the first time in September of 1968...It was so exciting. I was 20 and on my way to study math at Trinity College in Dublin. There were about 20 of us from California there for several days of orientation before going off to our different universities. We were all giddy with excitement.

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  3. and I had been there yesterday !! I arrived early morning in London, went to the London Tower to see the Crown jewels and then took various buses back to St. Pancras to catch my train at 5 ! So I had a nice sightseeing sitting on the top of the buses just in front. London in its Olympic dress ! I'll write about that tomorrow. Today I have the blues, I had such nice holidays ! I miss the patchwork countryside with the little villages where the time stood still and the sea of course !

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