Ashley Hotel London

... food, and then wound up at the Maritime Museum until it closed. The next day was Thanksgiving so I woke up early and caught the train out to Winchester.

I was greeted warmly by my very generous hosts, and a very excited hound named Holly. The first thing that one notices about Winchester, aside from the charming old style houses with thatched roofs, is the fact that the grass is greener than any that I've seen so far ...

... Portrait Gallery, right behind the National Gallery. Once again, no photography was allowed, so I can only tell you about what I saw. Unfortunately, I can't even begin to tell you what I saw. There were simply too many famous people and remarkable portraits to fit. I saw Henry VIII, Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth II, Who Cares I, Who Cares II, Who Cares VI, Winston Churchill, Oliver Cromwell, Charles Darwin, Lord Kelvin, Isaac Newton, Henry Purcell, John ...

... see you both and in your usual style you managed to get us drunk and out until the early hours of the morning!!! A few pictures, but time has mainly been spent getting ready for the trip to Oz. We have managed to shed lots of clothes, so are now only carrying half the weight, poor Mum and Dad are carrying the other half back to York on the train!!! And now it's on to the next ...

... Today we should just be hanging around London. Girls are going shopping. We are going to see if we can get theatre tickets to another show, maybe " 39 steps" or a show called " Into the Hood" yes it is making fun of "Into the Woods" . Haven't decided yet. But we will be able to take more pictures and post them now we are back on land. PJML

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson




Day 1 : 8th May 2008 (Thursday) Hitting the ground running in fabulous London! AKA Schlepping across the Thames, thrice AKA Mayhem on the Tube

Today was our first big day, and we might have been a little overly ambitious looking at the list of sights we wanted to ...

... spring to mind - each with one person inside, was depressing. I now see why Ken Livingstone needs to be pig headed and tax four by fours in London. Sitting here in the Bagel Street Deli Café, I am looking out onto the concourse where you queue to get security checked and go to the departure gates. There was a massive queue earlier on, and a guy walking up and down telling everybody in quite a blunt tone that if their boarding time ...

... ticket, than headed to picadilly circus. grandpa told me i had to go there, and so i did. we shopped around and went at the perfect time because we caught a bunch of summer sales. after shopping around we went to 'forebiddon place' which i had gone too before. it was nice. i did soem mroe shopping there too. we didnt actually get to a lot of places but we spent enough time out. we were out for like 6 hours which was nice. a good way to ...

... so I am allowed to like these places. :-D In the Natural History museum there were dinosaurs, rocks, and dead animals. In the Science Museum they had a lot of machines and a large display on the field of medicine, where I spent most of my time. The weather here has been cold and rainy. In fact, yesterday the heat was turned on in the house, something that would never happen at the end of June in Indiana. Otherwise, all is well!

... they bought the art fair and square, and that better care is given to the pieces in London than they would receive in Athens.

I had seen the Elgin Marbles on a previous visit. While I enjoyed the pieces on an artistic level, I was unable to appreciate the collection’s scope because I had no perspective on how much had been removed. Dianne had never been to the British Museum (even though she had been to London before). So, seeing the Marbles was a totally new experience ...