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Days 25, 26, 27 - London: Museums, Museums, Museums - 15.6 Miles
Day 28 - Kew Gardens - 0 miles

Day 25  - The Albert and Victoria Museum and the Science Museum

    The next three days on our schedule were to be devoted to the sights and museums of London. Jeanette had a list of places she wanted to visit and so did I. Our first day was spent learning the subway system, (tube,) which took only a few minutes of looking at the maps and understanding how to change trains. 

    The museums on the schedule for the day were the Albert and Victoria Museum and the Science and Natural History Museums. On the way, we walked across the park to Prince Albert Hall and bought tickets for a concert for the next evening.

    We spent all day at the Albert and Victoria Museum and the Science Museum and didn't even have time to visit the Natural History Museum, even though the three were all on the same block. I was fascinated with the scars on the outside of the Albert and Victoria Museum left by the bombings of WWII. I asked one of the guides what had been done with all of the priceless artifacts that the museums housed. He advised that most of them were stored deep underground right at the museum during those years.

    We walked through Hyde Park back to our hotel at seven, the sun still out in this northern latitude. As we walked we passed the famous statue of Peter Pan, a boy who'll never grow up, frozen in bronze. Many of her majesty's subjects from India were in the park as we walked through, and although dressed slightly differently from the English population as a whole, they were doing the same things that all park visitors seem to do, play with kids, exercise, sit and people watch or feed the pigeons.

    We were exhausted and ate some food in our room that we bought from a sandwich shop across the street.

Total miles - 0

Day 26 - Regents Park, the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey

    We had been told of a pretty little park, Regents Park, close to where we were staying with a nice formal garden. It wasn't too far away so we decided to ride our bikes over early in the morning to take a look. It was threatening rain as we left but we weren't worried and were at the park within 15 minutes. The park was by no means small and we spent over an hour looking at Queen Mary's Garden, part of the formal gardens that the park had to offer. 

    A quick ride back to our hotel to stash the bikes and we were off to the National Gallery where we saw what must have been hundreds of millions of dollars of art from pre-renaissance to modern, many recognizably famous by artists from Michelangelo to Van Gogh. We toured the galleries until early afternoon and then ate lunch in Trafalgar Square while watching a band perform for a gathered crowd.

    After lunch we headed to the House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and St. Margaret's where we saw the tombs of England's royals, powerful and famous. We were just part of a huge throng of people that milled through the edifices, stopping, looking and pointing at such things as the tomb of Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, both buried in the abbey but on opposite sides of the building so that even in death, they would not be within view of one another.

    We caught a bus back to our room and again ate in the room so that we could have enough time to get ready for the concert at Albert Hall. We were tired and footsore and would have taken a bus but the hotel clerk advised us that the fastest and easiest way was walking. We walked straight across the park and arrived fifteen minutes early, settled in and enjoyed the concert although, since we didn't have a program, we have no idea what was played with the exception of the last piece which we both recognized as Beethoven's 5th Symphony, Da, Da, Da, Daaaa! When the concert ended, we walked straight across the park, walked into our room and plunged into bed.

Total miles 4.6

Day 27 - the British Library, the British Museum

    Jeanette was tuckered from all the previous day's walking and I couldn't rouse her from the bed. I let her sleep, dressed for a ride, ate a quick breakfast at the hotel and then took my bike over to Hyde Park. I was going to circumnavigate the park once, twice, maybe three times if the weather permitted. It was threatening rain as I started my ride and started to sprinkle when I was halfway around the first lap. I continued on but the rain slowly increased it's pace and I stopped with about a circuit and a half.

    I returned to the room and woke Jeanette. We took the tube to the British Library. It was really raining hard but the walk from the exit to the library was a short one so we kept pretty dry. The library contains some of history's most priceless literature, a second copy of the Magna Carta, a Gutenberg Bible, a Claxton Bible, the log of the Victory, open to the page where Nelson's death is recorded,  The list of treasures was enormous and we paused and read actual passages from many of these most famous documents.

    When we exited the library it was pouring. We argued about whether we should take a cab over to the British Museum but it was only four blocks so we ended up walking in the rain with Jeanette calling me names like skinflint and tightwad. It wasn't that I was so concerned about the money, it just seemed embarrassing to take a cab four blocks! The museum was another place filled with treasures without compare. We ogled such things as the frieze from the Parthenon, the mummies of Egyptian pharaohs, and the Rosetta stone.

    We took the tube home. Jeanette crashed on the bed, museumed out. I still had some energy and took my bike for another lap or two around Hyde Park. On the ride I passed an intriguing neighborhood and rode up to the open front of a grocery store. I ordered some pistachios from the the owner, who turned and gave his son, standing behind the bins, the order in what sounded like Persian. The son filled a scoop and tried to pour it in a bag his father was holding. Suddenly the bag and nuts fell into the bin of almonds below, mixing both pistachios and almonds together. The father yelled at his teen aged son in and the son yelled back just as loudly. Soon they were both gesturing and screaming. Suddenly the son threw his arms up in the air and walked away. The father stepped back to the bin, filled another bag and rang me up acting as if nothing unusual had occurred. I smiled, paid for the produce and rode back to the hotel. Being a teenager seems to be a universal curse, both to the parents and the child.

    Jeanette was watching TV when I arrived and in no mood for dinner out. I had passed a pizza parlor on the way back that looked like it made real American style pizza instead of the individual serving stuff we had seen elsewhere. Jeanette said pizza would be fine so I tied some bungee cord to my rear rack, rode back, ordered a pizza and had a beer while I waited. The pizza finished, I tied it to the rack and rode the eight blocks back to the hotel. A bottle of wine from the liqueur store across the street finished out the meal for the evening. We were asleep before it got dark.

Total mileage - 11.0

Day 28 - A trip to Kew Gardens

    We still had a list a half page long of things we wanted to see in London but, at the same time, we were saturated with images and data. Our internal microprocessors needed a break from museums and treasures. While traveling in the south, it was recommended again and again that we travel to Kew Gardens while in London. We decided to make a day of it. We walked the block and a half to the tube entrance in the rain and walked down the flights of stairs until we found the line heading towards Kew. We transferred at the appropriate station and were soon in the suburbs of London. 

    Kew is a delightful little village with the train station right in the heart of town. We looked at the shops as we walked towards the gardens entrance, determined to give ourselves time to visit them before riding back to town. The gardens took the whole day to view. We walked through the huge greenhouses, looked at the water gardens, visited the groves, looked at the displays and sometimes just sat on the benches, looking at the vastness of something we seem to have nothing to compare with in California. 

    We left early enough to visit the shops and loved the old town feel of a butcher shop, a produce and fruit vendor, and a grocery store all separate and all with their own atmosphere and ambiance. We bought a few things here and there, all precooked, enough to take home for dinner, 

    We were on the train for only a few stops when a young man boarded playing a guitar and singing loudly. He sang political songs he had obviously written himself and was actually very good and funny but somewhat aggressive in shoving his sock out for donations at the end of each song. We added several one pound coins to his collection and he thanked us profusely. No one else contributed so he exited the car, looking for greener pastures. After he exited, a voice came over the intercom telling the passengers not to contribute to the, "bounders" that mooched on the trains. We reached our transfer point a few more stops down the the track. Our connecting train was a twenty minute wait. We soon heard our troubadour on the platform. Apparently his singing or politics offended someone though and an argument ensued with the station personnel intervening before blows could be thrown.

   When we arrived at Lancaster Station, we found it was raining outside again. We walked the few blocks back to our room, food in hand, flopped on the bed, tired from another full day of walking and looking. We ate our prizes from the little stores at Kew, snuggled under the covers and watched TV until we fell asleep.

Total miles - 0

Day 29 - Last Day, a grand ride through London - 16.0 miles

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