2000 London - Leather Personnel Carrier

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2000 London - Leather Personnel Carrier

The very end of April, 2002, continued

Much of our time in London was walking around. Here are some reasonably random pictures of our adventures. Yes, I think we're in each of the pictures. There are better pictures of the actual sites available on the web, and in your local book-sellers.

Here we are in the middle of Ebeneezer Scrooge's London. (Yes, I know he was a fictional character. We're in the part of London described in Charles Dickens' works.) This doorway is Jamaica House, a one-time importer and exporter to the new world, now a seller of interesting intoxicants. Check out the incredibly worn threshold. How many years of daily use does it take to wear stone down this much?

Here we are in front of the absolutely amazing Westminster Abbey. If you're in London don't miss this building. The verger-led tours of the Abbey make all the difference, as they let you see parts unavailable otherwise (and it's only a pittance). Of all our days in London, this might have been the coldest and wettest. Isaac was doing a great job putting up with our touring.

My favorite parts of Westminster Abbey are the innermost portion, where remnants of the original structure built by Edward the Confessor between 1045 and 1065 are located, and an inscription on a gravestone in the center of the south transept, which reads:

THO: PARR OF YE COUNTY OF SALLOP. BORNE
IN AD: 1483. HE LIVED IN YE REIGNES OF TEN
PRINCES VIZ: K.EDW.4. K.ED.5. K.RICH.3.
K.HEN.7. K.HEN.8. K.EDW.6. Q.MA. Q.ELIZ.
K.JA. & K.CHARLES. AGED 152 YEARES.
& WAS BURYED HERE NOVEMB. 15. 1635.

That's right, Thomas Parr lived for 152 year and 9 months, surviving ten monarchs!

Just down the street, along the River Thames, is the Palace of Westminster. We were hoping to tour the British Parliament, the House of Commons and the House of Lords, but couldn't figure out how. It turns out that there are a very tiny number of tour places available, and they're to be requested more than a month ahead of time. Whoops!

Big Ben, the famous clock bell in the Saint Stephens clocktower, is here too. Ben refers to the 13-ton bell hung in the clock-tower, named after the first commissioner of works, Sir Benjamin Hall. You can see the clock in the center of this picture, and a close-up of the watch face in the upper-left of this page.

Isaac was getting tired of all this cold-weather walkabout, so we headed back to the Tube, the London Underground. We love subways and trains, but I think the Tube is our favorite. Perhaps it's that disembodied voice which cries the helpful phrase "mind the gap!" as one enters and exits the coaches.

Leadenhall Market, established in the 14th century in a manor house with a lead roof, became one of the best places to buy meat, game, poultry, and fish. In 1666 the market was destroyed in the Fire of London. This is one of the "new" buildings erected on the site. Check out the people at the bottom to get a better feeling of the scale of this archway.

Back at our B & B, Isaac unwinds with his toy guitar (which plays a scratchy recording ad nauseaum) while sitting in the newspaper recycling box.

He's ready to go to Greenwich.

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