Saturday, August 31, 2013

Windsor


We headed out into the countryside one more time.


We found a great parking spot at the train station and walked past this odd tree to the down town area.


First we went shopping at the Windsor Royal Shopp, then we had lunch before heading to Windsor Castle.


The crowds were much smaller than we had seen on previous days.




The castle complex houses a cathedral - who knew?


We had to do this.


We also had to pack one final time.


For supper we had a slow cooker meal. Very tasty. 
This has been a great vacation. It's off to the airport tomorrow morning.









Friday, August 30, 2013

Outside London


In the morning we walked to a wool shop to see if there was any interesting wool to be found.  We decided there wasn't any and walked most of the way back to the house, but were picked up by Susan and the girls enroute.


We drove out into the countryside.


To Stonehenge. We walked on a path all around the ancient monument. 

The powers that be are making Stonehenge less accessible and in a few years the main entry will be about a mile away with a new visitor centre. 


After seeing this world heritage site we drove a bit further to Woodford.


We had lunch at the local pub - in this case called the Wheatsheaf Inn. We ate outside in the garden because they have a playground out there which the girls wanted to play in.


The town was not actually a tourist town.  People really live in thatched cottages.


We visited the local church, which was obviously actively in use even though the building is ancient.


Then we drove down the highway a bit further to Salisbury to see the cathedral. Just outside of the parkade is a big floral arrangement.


The Salisbury Cathedral wasn't too busy.


It is also in daily use by parishioners as well as tourists.


The cloisters were beautiful.  We also saw an original Magna Carta in the Chapter House - no pictures allowed there.


A detail of the wall around the cathedral complex.
The traffic back to London was pretty thick, but not too bad.  After an exciting day we ordered Indian take away and James showed off some of the strange artifacts he's received from working overseas.













Thursday, August 29, 2013

London


James gave us a detailed sheet with directions for today's sight seeing tour. The details were very helpful as we easily made our way around central London.  We took the train in to London, just the two of us.


Our major stop was the Victoria and Albert museum. They have a real diversity of things to see. 


One room was jam packed with what you see here.


The museum takes you through many stages of arts and crafts including fashion, cinema, drama and invention.


The inner court yard houses a pool which you may not swim nor sit in, but are allowed to paddle in. We aren't sure what they meant by that, but many children were sitting and swimming in it.


We tried to take a quick peek into the Natural History Museum, but there was a sign indicating the line was one half hour long, so we didn't wait around. From there we took the underground to Temple.


There is a Templer church hidden amongst a warren of barrister offices which was used as part of the setting for Dan Brown's "Da Vinci Code". 


The church has beautiful doors.


Close by is one of the lesser known attractions.


There is a basement of a building full of bank vaults full of silver. If you collect silver, this would be your paradise. We don't, but it was still very interesting.  From there we walked through Lincoln's Inn and a park to our next destination. 


Covent Garden, which is more touristy, was our next stop. We didn't take any pictures of it for some reason so you will just have to imagine tourists, markets and cobblestones. 


We walked over the Hungerford Bridge on our way to Waterloo Station.


On the way we saw a bunch of mobile trees some of which are available for "adoption" - whatever that means.  We took the train back to Teddington and stayed the evening.


Our video for the evening was a recruiting video by Shell for people to work in Saudi Arabia. Our host is a star in it.













Wednesday, August 28, 2013

London


We had another late start leaving the house in the morning. Our first stop was a local Syrian shop where we bought baklava and falafel for supper.


The display case looks very tasty.


To buy ful beans we had to go to Tesco.


It's always fun to see what grocery stores look like in different countries.


We had lunch at an Asian fusion restaurant not too far from Teddington.


The town square is closed to vehicular traffic.


We took a short walk to the Thames to see some swans.


We also went shopping.  It's fun to look at other people's malls too.


We made a Sudanese supper which went over very well with the four of us who had been to Sudan.
Later we watched a BBC episode showing Michael Palin going through Sudan in 1992. This was also a lot of fun for the four of us who have been to Sudan.








Tuesday, August 27, 2013

London

The day got off to a slow start with doing laundry and discussing various day trip option, but by noon we were all ready to go.


Our first stop was Bushy Park and a walk through the woodland. Here the girls are demonstrating the crocodile tree.


It looks like we had the park to ourselves, but it was a Bank Holiday, so hundreds of families were out enjoying the fine weather.


We had a snack of sausages in buns.


Hampton Court Palace was our destination for the day.  It was Henry the VIII 's castle.


The castle is a great museum with people in period costumes doing all kinds of things like roasting big hunks of meat over a fire.


Kate and James in one of the alleys.


The great hall.


The wall art is made out of muskets and knives in this room.


I got to stand beside the king who was swilling actual beer.


We had fun getting lost in the maze.


The park is full of deer which are quite tame.


Back at home reading before supper.