Had been a bit colder overnight, so the walk through the park (one of two routes to the main part of St Albans and the rail station) was quite misty--very impressionistic!
This morning we toured St Paul's Cathedral, again no photography allowed except once we climbed over 200 twisting, stone steps in a narrow stairwell, first to the Whispering gallery that overlooks the sanctuary and then on up another level to an outside balcony that circles the steeple. Wonderful, panoramic views of London--a bit hazy though.
After seeing the cathedral, we headed into the true "city" of London, i.e. the financial district, where we met Cora for lunch. We had sandwiches al fresco (but with huge space heaters right by the table) in the many laned arcade of Leadenhall.
After eating, we three took a brisk walk over to the Tower of London. While Cora returned to work (would have enjoyed having her be able to spend the afternoon with us, but golly gee one does need to work!), Mike and I bought tickets for the 2:30 p.m tour of the Tower. We were escorted around by a Beefeater in full uniform. He regaled us with history and humorous asides. Unfortunately because of the lateness of the tour, and the early sunset, we could not fully explore the grounds as well as we would have liked after the talk was finished. The gates do really close at sunset!!
Once outside the prison walls, we walked across the Tower Bridge and were also able to get night shots of the Tower all aglow.
After returning across the bridge, we made our way home. This night CW came upon us as we walked towards their cottage! He left us at another area pub, Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, reputed to be the oldest continuously running pub in England, while going on home to attend to Guinness. Later CW and soon after Cora, joined us for another pub grub meal--yummy! We ended the evening at the Rose and Crown, the pub right around the corner from the house. Thursday evenings will find a miscellaneous group of folk musicians wander in any time after 9p.m, grab a pint, settle in near the fireplace with whatever instrument of choice they have and then seemingly know instinctively what tune to play! Nothing is announced to the patrons, indeed many never stop their conversations, but it really is quite alot of fun to sit and watch it all!
We left everyone still fiddling and strumming away around 10 p.m. as another day of work loomed ahead for two of the four in our party.
1 comment:
Great blogs so far and wonderful pictures! Nice to see it all again through your eyes! It was a great week and good time spent with you both. Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your adventures in this way...
Lots of love!
Cora
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