This afternoon, our first stop in London comes to an end and we head to Poland. It all went so fast.
Yesterday morning we visited the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum. The War Rooms are simply incredible containing much of the original fixtures and furniture as it was left on VE day in 1945. We spent the afternoon at the Tate Modern Gallery. The collection is certainly impressive, but compared to the Pompidou in Paris it just seemed to lack something. Rounding out the historical and cultural themes of the day, we spent the evening in Soho soaking up a bit of London’s more colourful side.
Sunday began with a trip up the Thames to Greenwich, home of a good friend of mine, the HMS Cutty Sark. Sad to say, ol’ Cutty is undergoing a MAJOR renovation and was hidden behind scaffolding and screens. The Greenwich market was open, though, and I love shooting market food pix. Back down the Thames and a walk to Buckingham Palace. On our way we happened upon marching band in full royal dress followed by gents in Bowler hats and all carrying bumbershoots. This turned out to be some form of honorarium for former guard members. We followed the parade through the fence and onto the barracks grounds and wound up getting temporarily locked inside (this is a recurring theme on our trips.) We ended the day on the London Eye, the enormous wheel built for the millennium celebration. It’s one of those things you sort of have to do once.
Walking or riding around on the bus it seems like you happen upon an interesting and inviting pub on almost every street. We could probably spend the entire day crawling from pub to pub. Haven’t tried that yet, but sounds like a good basis for a future trip. Cheers.