London - May 26 - Monday

It was a bank holiday here today, which means a lot of places were closed just like Memorial Day back home. But also a lot of places were open so we ventured out, having seen all the things we set out to, well, except for Abbey Road but I'll get to that in a bit... so we thought we would preview our trip to Kings Cross Station tomorrow morning for our 11:00 train to Edinburgh. We are still not getting up so early and want to set the alarm clock in plenty of time, as we have to check out of here by 10:00. I thought we would just Uber or take a cab over there as it's only 2.2 miles, not hassle with the bags, but as it turns out, we just went out to the bus stop near our apartment and the 17 bus comes by every few minutes and gets to Kings Cross in about 15-20 mins, and we have already paid for Oyster Cards so it won't cost anything. The buses kneel and have a place for strollers and luggage, i asked the driver if it was ok to roll luggage on he said sure if it's normal size luggage no trouble. So we went to the station (didn't get a pic of the outside maybe tomorrow) and there are only 11 platforms, well 12 if you count this one

We saw the boards with all the departures, the LNER (London Northeast Railway) to Edinburgh for today, they list the platform about 15-20 minutes before departure. So that's a snap, and we already have e-tickets saved in apple wallet and they have a first class lounge with complementary beverages and snacks we can stay in as we do have first class tickets. And that was about all we really did today, rode the bus over, then rode the tube around back to blackfriars station and M went for a nap. Then i went out on a bike ride, of course it started to rain as i got ready but oh the hell with it i'm going and soon after i found a forest e-bike it stopped. Well i rode north like crazy for through Camden, up Marlborough road, Islington, Whittington, went way too far to Hampstead Heath north of town, then it started to rain again... and it was a big steep hill to climb up even with the e-bike it was serious work, but i made it, thankfully there was one other guy struggling up the hill once i passed him i had to keep going right? Well this Hampstead Heath is a huge green area that goes on for a few miles, all green forest and horse trails, hiking trails, and nice nice homes and a school, very high rent district nice cars. And only one road went through well i missed the turn and kept going, you have to share the lane with cars they go by pretty close but are respectful for the most part, but your on the wrong side of the road it's a trick to make a right turn from the left curb cuz the oncoming traffic is all on the right too, and where you aren't sharing the lane you are in a bus lane so sharing with the buses so not having a helmet or rear view mirror it was a little nervy so just keep going. Finally i got to turn left and start south again and went through some very nice residential area's fancy places to shop and eat, oh we did stop earlier in the day on our bus rides we stopped at Kensington High Street well omg we went into a second hand shop a charity benefit right? First clue, in the front window first thing you see as you walk in, here's a Louis Vuitton handbag for only £1,100 ... that's $1,485 ... in a second hand shop! so.. M is looking at stuff... well i looked at 2 things a hugo boss shirt for only £80 ($108) and a pair of pants for about half that, so i'm out of there. There was another shop a couple doors down same thing only designer stuff, used at that, at outrageous prices (well to me anyway) there were people shopping in there... so wrong neighborhood we caught the next bus out of there... I finally found Abbey Road crosswalk...

lol no thats not it, the "real" one is about 50 feet away to my right in this picture, it was a joke, it was a crosswalk just like this one, but there were about 30 people waiting in line to walk across and have one of their group video them and snap a photo, well, the cars have to stop for peds in a crosswalk so there was a line of about 50 cars going each way getting pissed about this so i thought i would have to wait forever (and it was still misty threatening to rain more) and i was not comfortable to wait, then have to stop the cars just for that, and besides i had no one with me to video a still selfie was all i could get, so there was a crosswalk just near this Y in the road i snapped this photo, so technically it is an abbey road crosswalk just not "the" abbey road crosswalk... ok.. so it was cold rainy i said hell with this it was a bust i rode til i saw edgeware road tube station and parked the bike, well not so fast i could not park it there forest has designated places you have to park it... which was about a half mile down edgeware road... so i finally parked it walked back up was going to stop in a pub for a pint and there was one right there, but... no i decided i'd just walk up the road didn't want to pay $10 for a pint when you can get them anywhere for $4 or $5 and not have to sit around a stranger there and that part of town it's a busy road all the businesses are immigrants lots of arabs wasn't real comfortable so walk to the station right before it here's a Mark and Spencer, well we've had good luck with them and i go into the food section and got some corn chips and they had all there "low" alcohol cocktails in little cans so i got a Gin and Tonic with .5% alcohol and sat on the wall by the train station had my snack it was just fine. Oh they also had those little shortbread fingers not the ones in the red packages, their own brand M&S for £1.10 a pack ! that's $1.49 well they are at least $5 in schnucks or dierbergs cuz i just bought some for M a while back so i got a pack of them too... took the tube back to the apartment showed M...

well it was my turn to pick where to eat dinner tonight so we both wanted salad n greens of some sort so I suggested we go to M&S food for dinner and we did, rode the tube over just one stop from St Pauls, oh another thing they do at M&S is markdown their ready made salads sandwiches everything on the due date so we got really nice salads like i had sweet potato and brocolli with quinoa for $1.50... M got a grilled chicken salad and a greek salad she said was best she ever had, and i got some falafel and hummus and a pint of Fullers London Porter, which they claim is the Best Porter in the world... oh and a couple chiabatta rolls so we came back to the room had a nice cozy dinner as we need to pack up tonight it should be a early night... yes the porter was good but i had had some draft porter both in southern oregon a pin up porter, and in juneau alaska their local brewery had a good porter too... so i checked in with chat gpt how can they say that... she said well it's a big claim, but they have won numerous awards including the World Beer Awards - Worlds Best Porter so ok yes it was good i would like another but nope not tonight...

Then on the way back from there, walking from the tube station to here there was this statue that was just put up yesterday we were watching them crane the pieces into place, it's to raise awareness about wildlife and the hundreds of species that are becoming extinct due to human causes...

M says snap a pic of that...the kids will like to see it... then we next come to St Pauls Cathedral which we have not taken a full pic of the front yet so here's that..

so now you are up to date tomorrow is a travel day next pics will be from Edinburgh or along the train route... oh we love M&S and yes they are in edinburgh for more shortbread cookies which is says on the package "Baked in Edinburgh"!

London - Sunday May 25

Another busy day as we were out to Mark & Spencers by 11, they open at 11:30 for browsing, Tills (cashiers) open at 12:00... but they were able to take the security tag off M jacket before 12 then we shopped for a while M got a new pair of pants I looked at mens dept saw some nice jackets and pants but the ones i liked were all just like the ones i brought so no i'll wait till Scotland see how cold it is if i need a warmer jacket i'll get it up there, i have plenty of layers shirts and neckwear and head covers so fingers crossed what i got works. Then we went for food in the M&S food department, all kinds of ready made sandwiches, wraps, soups, drinks, pastries, breads you name it they got it... so i settled for a cous-cous & tabouli salad and M had the BLT sandwich, we walked over toward the British Museum we had booked free entry tickets for 1:50pm so we stopped on a bench at Bedford Square

which has a nice park in the middle of a square but it was locked up private only for locals that live there i guess, signs said it's patrolled no trespassing! but they had a number of nice benches outside so we had lunch there, then went round the corner to the massive British museum, and the lines to get in... maybe 8 wide and a block long, for those with ticket reservations... oh no we are not doing that, not today anyway... we bought the audio guide to all the tours and everything is online too so figure that will be much less hassle. As we walked towards Holborn the nearest underground station Holborn, we passed a house Bertrand Russell lived in for some time, they have these blue plaques on buildings where famous people lived there are hundreds around town... anyway, heres's a shot of it...

So back to the room, put a load of laundry in the washer / dryer machine she has washes and gets things pretty dry, then you put them on a drying rack for a few hours good to go. Then M to nap for 2 hours and i finally got out on a e-bike from Forest, never got Santander to work they are the city official bike share partners but their software is poor, never could connect with them only by phone well they never sent me a code and i could not get through to their number... Forest, on the other hand, has phone, email, and live chat.. which i didn't need cuz their software was so good, put in your credit card, scan the rf id on the ebike, and away you go.. It was my first time riding an e-bike i liked it pedal a couiple times it zooms about 15 mph you can coast a lot don't have to pedal all that much but 100 minutes i got a nice workout my legs still felt it pretty good. They have bike lanes everywhere or you share the bus lanes and car lanes but cars are good about sharing and all the traffic signals they have a box in front of the cars for bikes and they all have separate bike signals which turn from red to yellow before green, so you get a head start then the car lights turn green a few seconds later... I rode 15 miles south across Blackfriar bridge to start then i tried to go east I got on bike superhiway 7 first but lost it somewhere in a hm not touristy neighborhood,

I thought i would go to waterloo then up to Abbey Road but i rode for bout a half hour you know lots of turns this and that well the second time i pass the Elephant & Castle underground station i figured i did a big circle... ended up at Waterloo bridge then it was really windy dusty today got stuff in my eyes pretty bad and my cap flew off once but otherwise a good time. Started up towards Abbey road when i came across waterloo bridge to Westminster

and past Buckingham palace, but i ended up on a good bike route along the river next thing i went through Chelsea to Battersea Bridge so back south and west through battersea park which was really nice childrens zoo lots of people fountains, right along the river bank

... then i got on Cycle Superhiway 8 which brought me back to Blackfriars Bridge so i parked the bike right where i found it and walked up the hill. Get a quick shower we're just going local for thai food to Wagamama it's a chain but they have dishes we both like. After dinner we jumped the 15 bus towards Tower Bridge and the Tower of London pretty much finished our day as it started to get dark...

May 24 - London

Oxford Circus crowds

Westminster Abbey

Buckingham palace

Take time to smell the flowers

M in front of Buckingham Palace

Toilets at Japanese Noodle shop

Where we are staying black door

where we come out to the street

Me on millenium footbridge across the Thames

 It was a busy day tho we didn’t get started til 11, I went out for a walk for a hour down through the alleyways and passages to the river, then across the Southwark Bridge and south of the river for a while, then back across the millenium bridge, tried for over half an hour to get a rental bike going with Santander i paid 3 times lol dam thing would not send me a confirmation code don’t know what the problem is and i could not get through to them calling from my phone either so it may be my Mint Mobile International plan anyway so i said chuck it walked back got M we went out for quite a few excursions, first…

to Oxford Circus now we are looking for a warm jacket for M since it is turning colder and rainy here and will be even colder up in Scotland everyone tells us… so H&M first stop, nope, then we did make it all the way up to Selfridges nope it was too high priced designer stuff and didn’t have anything practical at all, designer jean jacket lol closest thing, new part of it, with old jean jacket another part of it, some japanese name on it what? didn’t even look at the prices there it was crazy looking so we bailed out, down the street to another H&M nope, there were 3 H&M’s within a few blocks of each other and everything else, saw 3 Apple Stores so far, anyway, crowds were so thick the sidewalks buses trains all choc a bloc like crammed in everywhere a jumble of people. 

Finally we made it to Mark & Spencers and they had about 6 choices the first one was just the right size luckily there were only 2 of them in that size… so we got it for a fair price and we had seen a Japanese Udon noodle place on our walk around so we went back there had a really good lunch and rested up a bit, cuz then it was time to go to Westminster Abbey for the 5:00 Evensong church service. Well the notice we had on the web said west gate entry well no it was the north gate a long way to walk around there but we did get in just as they were starting the service which went for a hour choir singing along with the preacher in between… it was a nice place kind of like some of the places we saw in Florence St Croce lots of statues of people around the walls and plaques on the floor such as so buried here lots of earls and lords and navy heros from way back. Got out of there walked about a 1/2 mile to Buckingham palace it was crowded there in front too, and a long walk through St James park beautiful old old trees ponds with ducks and swans pretty place. Got a bus to a train station well we had to transfer from the victoria line to the central another one of those long long hamster tunnel connections with lots of steps up and down finally got to the central line and back to the studio apartment. 

Just had a light dinner grafted sourdough bread, cheese, tomatoes and olives with feta… well it was a big lunch at that noodle place and it’s working out well to have the big meal earlier and breakfast here in the apartment just muesli w fruit, tea toast and coffee for M, tea for me. 

Figured out our schedule til Tuesday as we are not getting up til 11 or so, we have to adjust cuz our train tuesday is at 11 from Kings Cross St Pancras station so we will need to be up by 8-830 to make that so starting tomorrow we wake up 9, then 830 Monday, 800 Tuesday, tho Tuesday will be an easy day just 3.5 hours ride first class car up to Edinburgh and we get there in time to take a taxi to the apartment and check in anyway… no plans for tomorrow well yes, we get back here and M tries on the jacket well the clerk left on a security tag which did buzz when we came out the door but the guard waved us on… but its on the zipper so we have to go back there to Mark & Spencer to have it removed and M says oh goodie they will probly have some other nice things there i can use… 

The river buses arent running now they don’t start til later into the tourist season but wow it was so crowded all up there oxford circus, westminster abbey, picadilly circus, trafalgar square all were wall to wall don’t see how it could get much more crowded but glad we won’t be here when it is, it was very tiring all day every bus and train and sidewalk so jam packed it wears one out… surprising tho every time someone would bump into you or get in your way or something like that they always would apologize Oh sorry, one thing about here the brits are very polite in all the stores and shops and restaurants the workers are very polite and well mannered act like they are genuinely happy to help you. 

I’m still working on pics just still some trouble getting them sized right and exported to a format google drive will accept… hang in there a couple more days i’ll get it… oh i went out tonight to get a beer we were going to stop for a pint i really enjoyed that dark ale last night at the blues club so i walked around some in the city I got a few blocks past St Pauls Cathedral it being saturday the city is shut down it was all big office buildings deserted execpt for a few “rough sleeper types” and an occasional stray tourist like me.. ok well it’s nearly midnight the cathedral bells will ring soon and the alarm is set for 9 so… goodnight for now, well i got some photos to upload… tomorrow should be better… 

May 23 - London

 Earlier start lol by 11 we were out headed to find tights for M to go with her dress, everyone has only black yesterday we tried Boots and Superdrug no luck, so we thought Harrods or Selfridges would be a good bet, so on the way to Westminster City and Kensington we pass Harrods get off go in there OMG it’s so fancy i only got a pic or two but it is way over the top i was nervous to even be in there… it’s only designer stuff, no they didn’t have any tights in there… i got a few pics of dresses party dresses like super fancy elegant could not even guess prices, anyway, 

finally got out of there, caught the bus (they are all double deckers) to Kensington Park next to Hyde Park… where Kensington Palace is and Kensington Gardens, that’s the palace Princess Diana lived in, royals been living there forever, theres a cottage the current prince and duchess live in… anyway, the palace is a huge building complex 840,000 square feet they say, 542 rooms… and gardens to go with it. Anyway, we didn’t want to do the whole tour thing for $30 or whatever, we just walked around the gardens for a while, went the wrong way from the train station walking couldn’t find the 342 bus stop so a long walk to get there, very chic neighborhood maseratis porsches mercedes bmw’s range rovers and the people that go with it, lots of tourists like us too of course many younger ones. 

Anyway after a while in the park stopped for a orange and energy bar well the public toilets are way across the park and it’s a huge park, so nearest one was whole foods we were told and went there decided why not eat there got hot bar food and salads, sandwiches sat on the window watched the street action as we ate. 

Then well Kensington High Street station was right around the corner and on the way here is an H&M and of course they will have brown tights and they did… so a little while in there then we come out well here’s another Mark & Spencers they would have tights too, so no need to go to Selfridges tho we wanted to see it, but no time for a rest cuz we are going to go out to Ain’t Nothing But the Blues bar for the 930 show so

 back to the room we had some food there i had bought some mushroom risotto soup from Pret A Manger and we have that great loaf of bread so i went got some cheese and tomatoes and olives with feta from the CO-OP little store we had a good light dinner and by this time it’s 830 time to roll out to Oxford Circus and find the place,

 it’s tiny small with very little seating they say get there early or you won’t get a seat well we didn’t get there til 910 it was already packed and outside too but we pushed in there only £8 cover charge to go inside so I flip her a £20 keep the change and we are in… 

so crowded we got in about 15 feet it was choc a bloc but here was a tiny spot on the wall with a ledge for drinks I get to the wall next to a tall fair looking lass right away she starts talking where you from, so we had a good conversation with her never did get her name she was about 30-35 we figured, well in a minute here comes her guy Peter, they are from Liverpool just down for a day trip but decided to stay over night come see some blues. So we had good conversations going me with Peter, M with the lass Peter offers buy me a pint of dark ale sure why not Anslays Dark or something i’m not sure but it was good and by now the music was playing it was good new orleans chicago type blues had to shout to converse but we all did, place got more and more crowded people jostling around us some wierd guy stops to shout how he been coming there since he was 16 or something now he’s 53 started showing us pictures of some carnival festival up on Nottingham hill 8 years ago… lol… anyway finally he goes away well some big dude in a suit comes pushing through don’t know what happened but he says something to the lass and next thing you know they are like OK we are leaving bye nice to meet you? Anyway, we don’t know what happened if the guy goosed her or what but sad to see them go i didn’t get a chance to buy Peter a pint. 

Well we stayed another song or two it was getting hot in there so we decided yes it was cool and all but we have seen similar lots of places like New Orleans, St Louis, Chicago, Phoenix so we had enough walk back through the crowded party streets of Soho to the tube station and get back to St Paul station… 

and now it’s 12:53 am Saturday morning time for lights out. Tomorrow we will go somewhere first half of the day, if I’m lucky i’ll get a rental bicycle from Santander at Blackfriar station down the hill and ride for a hour or two while M rests up, then a busy afternoon out to Westminster there’s a boys choir at Westminster Abbey she wants to go to at 5:00 and it’s right by Buckingham Palace so we’ll go see that and mess around by the river, there’s a floral show in Chelsea and that area so we may go see some of that too…well now here goes the bells from St Pauls Cathedral why do they ring 3 times when it’s 1:00!!!

 fill you in tomorrow I mean later tonight! Good Morning ! 

May 22 - London

 Sleep til 11 I get up had bfst went out exporing for a while, walked a few blocks to the Thames, crossed on the Millenium footbridge to the Tate Museum of Modern Art, they were filming a movie on the bridge and in front of the museum pretty crowded so i kept moving on the south side of the river promenade under the Southwark Bridge to Borrough Market which is a huge market/shopping/eating area kind of like soulard market if it went for two or three blocks a lot more jam packed, under a train bridge and london bridge is at the end of it. 

Took the 17 bus back across london bridge saw an amazon fresh mini food store but didn’t go in, there are a bunch of those little supermarkets / convenience stores they dont have a lot but basics some fruit and vegs pre-made sandwiches salads soups bread cheese liquor all the things you really need to get by so i had already picked up fresh bread and butter muesli milk yogurt and our host Sophie provided coffee tea spices oils so we are pretty well set food prices are cheaper than expected so we likely won’t be cooking much. 

By the time i got back M was up we rode the buses to Picadilly Circus kind of like Times Square entertainment area shopping dining all that busy crowded, we walked up to Covent Garden more upscale area, stopped into a Singapore puff place had some curry puffs like a old fruit pie but filled with potatoes and veggies and spicy curry, went through the Covent Marketplace it was ok but didn’t see anything to buy so then on to the tube up to Edgeware Road a regular neighborhood about 4 blocks pleasant walk to Seashells of Lissing, “best fish and chips in london” and yes it was very good, we didn’t go into the fancy restaurant side cuz they had a take away on the corner with some high tables we sat in there prices were about 1/2 the cost of the restaurant same kitchen lol… so we had a good meal with a pint of some local ale all for about $50 which we thought was fair it was very good had all the trimmings tartar sauce, tray with vinegar and ketchup and hot sauce, wooden bio forks and knives. 

Nice walk back to the tube station tho it was a bit scruffy right around the train station beggers and street sleepers and stuff, nobody bothered us, the mayor has pledged to end “rough sleeping” in the whole city by the end of 2026 or so… campaign promise he made… 

back to the room and to bed by midnight we are still not adjusted to the time difference. 

Still working on pics too… i have some, just not easy to get them posted yet… 

May 21 Arrival - Jet lag - London

 Takes a few days to get over it now as we get older, here’s a recap since we landed 700 am Wednesday morning, we were fortunate our Air Bnb host allowed us to check in early rather that wait til 3pm so we rode the tube from Heathrow to our nearest station which is Blackfriars, on the District and Circle lines. They have about 20 different lines here so a little to get used to but after 3 days we have been on half a dozen so far and about half a dozen different bus lines as well. 

The transit is very good contactless card payment everywhere we had bought the oyster cards which are good on any transit it is capped at £8.90 per day which at $1.35 per pound comes out to $12.00 so pretty reasonable you don’t think about it just go where you want to go jump on a bus or tube they are very frequent trains run every 2 minutes and buses 8-12 mins on most lines, busy lines more frequent so the double decker buses we have been on are fun you can see a lot just jump off if you see something another one will be by soon. 

We are near St Pauls Cathedral a huge old place with lots of tourists but its on major transport routes and the London Visitor center which we visited for maps and pick up a few little things. After we napped a while we went out about 5 to eat and the places we walked by coming in, here in “the city” which is the main financial / business district, they were all closing at 5 so we started walking and within a block or two were some food tents bangladesh falafel sandwiches were huge and tasty. Then we rode buses around a bit down across Waterloo bridge to the train station and went into Boots (Walgreens bought Boots) there picked up some essentials… then could not find our bus stop to get back so we end up taking a train back to Bank St Station then a long tunnel got us back to St Paul station and we got back about 9. I went out to a mini-grocery store for breakfast basic stuff and so ended that long day. 

Trouble uploading pics maybe in a day or two

WE ARE OFF TO THE UK AND IRELAND

 Off we go, i’m on the early flight to Boston, Marian comes later , well travel on free tickets isn’t always perfect, but we meet up in Boston for the overnight to Heathrow. 

I’m just getting ready to board in St Louis, and thought i would post the itinerary for everyone to find easy here… 

WELL that didn’t work google won’t support my apple mac created pdf so maybe i’ll try to figure it out later, meanwhile, we are getting over jet lag and a new post will be soon.