Travel Journal 4

(Scroll down to the beginning of the September 29th 2005 post, in order to start at the beginning of these journal entries from England. :) )

9.2.05 8:00 a.m.

Wow, what an awesome night's sleep!! This place is amazingly quiet at night.

We woke to the sound of a pigeon cooing. Glanced out the French doors and saw the fellow perched on the corner of Harley's roof. My word, what kind of pigeon is that? It's huge!! We decided he is a very proper pigeon, who likes reading Charles Dickens. His favorite book is no doubt The Pickwick Papers.

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9:10 p.m.

Started the day off with a long walk around Balham, and Wandsworth Common. Not realizing that we went the opposite direction the train station we were looking for, we ended up seeing lots of quaint neighborhoods. However, we did stop at a place called Cafe' Moka for some lattes, and had fun chatting with the young guy who works there.

Something I noted along the way; nobody has screens in their windows!! With it being 70-80 degrees out, all windows are wide open, but no screens anywhere. Oddly enough, I haven’t seen any flies yet, so maybe it’s not so much of a problem here??

We finally caught the train at Wandsworth Common, and I realized this was the same route Amy and I took from Streatham Hill when we stayed there in 2000. So, lots of flashbacks for me as we clacked our way down the train tracks towards Victoria Station.

Victoria was overwhelming and awesome as I remembered. People going every direction you could possibly imagine, with rail schedules and platform numbers booming from the loudspeakers overhead. We walked outside, and promptly headed in the wrong direction from the main sites…having forgotten our city map back at the B&B. But we didn't worry. It gave us a lot of chances to grin and each other and count back the hours to the time zone at home… and think about how everybody else was getting up and heading to work. And where were we?? Lost in London! How fantastic was that?!!

We finally found our way to the Thames, and followed it up past the Tate Modern, to Parliament. A gorgeous blue sky day, shining down on the gold trimmed glory of Big Ben. It gonged the hour as we crossed the bridge to eat lunch beneath the London Eye. What a view!! Massive summer crowds, but it made for lively people watching. We ate chicken curry rice bowls and drank tart lemonade.

After resting there awhile, we made our way to Buckingham Palace via St. James's Park. The green grass was covered with people seeking shade from the sun. We moved ahead until we reached the Palace, where the flag was flying high - so the Queen was at home! We gawked at the guards in their royal red attire, marching in their stiff legged tradition. Many pictures taken , until the jet lag started to make our feet feel like they’d been placed in cement. So, we found our way back home, got some food to eat, and are now sitting here readying ourselves for another night of coma-deep sleep. I still can't believe we're in ENGLAND!!!