Skip to main content

Aug 19-20

 Our trip started extremely smooth. NO traffic thru Portland at 7 AM. Couldn't figure it out, but were appreciative for the blessing. Easily through check-in/security, going through the new beautiful lobby. 




Flight uneventful, which is a good thing. Great seats, and great food. Once at Heathrow, we found our way to the Picadilly line of "the tube" which we rode to Kings Cross (platform 9 3/4 located here.) 



Walked 3 blocks to our hotel and took a nap! Then out for some food where we had our first installment of fish and chips. Then some local exploring.  The first pictures are of the St Pancras hotel/condo/apts/conference center. Built in 1873 and then transitioned to the train offices in 1935. In the 80's it closed  and then was redeveloped 2005. 




Then onto the British Library, which would be somewhat equivalent to our Library of Congress. We were hoping to wander through one of the rooms which displays some really old books and bibles, but that room was closed. Most of the collection is stored in the 4 floors located underground. To see and use the material,  you have to put in a request and a professional brings you the item. Right in the middle of the library was King George III's library. It filled 6 floors of shelves. We were amazed at the number of people studying there. 










 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pretrip practice

 Hello my friends and family. This is just a practice "run" of posting on our Britain blog. I always have to relearn the steps.  So.... we leave on Monday Aug 19th mid morning flying thru Seattle and then straight to London. We arrive Tues morning around 9:50 am London time (which is 8 hrs ahead -or about 1AM our time) A rough itinerary  London Edinburgh  Inverness Edinburgh  York Keswick ( Lake district of England) Shrewsbury Swansea ( Wales) and on to Cardiff Bath Wareham ("Jurassic Coast - south west coast) Oxford Cotswold Oxford London If you only see this page, there should be links somewhere on the page to get you to the other postings
Post a Comment
Read more

Sunday Sept 8th London

 We decided to visit the Churchill War rooms today. We figured out the tube (the underground) and traveled to the Westminster area. Met some folks from Ohio while standing in line waiting for our entry time. One of the gentlemen served at Kodiak in the navy. He and Dennis had a great "military in Alaska" chat. The War rooms and museum were great. The war museum was almost overwhelming with the amount of information displayed                                            Clementine Churchill's room underground  Afterwards we walked around the Parliment square garden adding photos of Big Bend, Westminster Cathedral,Westminster Bridge, the Parliment building and ALL the tourists. The clouds had cleared and it was beautiful.  (Last nights forecast for today had been up to 75% chance of rain!) We sat at the park and then strolled up Whitehall street up to Trafalgar square...
Post a Comment
Read more

Friday September 6th. The Cotswolds

  Today we booked a tour of the Cotswolds. Cot inferring small and wolds connected to the sheep trade. The area is full of rolling green hills with villages and small towns nestled among the hills. The entire area is home to only about 170,000 people. Thats about one person per 2 sheep in the region. The first village we visited, Snowshill, had a population of 184.  It had a church, a pub and a telephone.  (Joke from our driver Steve). In order not to bore you with little details here is an overview. Several of the other towns would have more like 3000 to 5000 population. We visited Chipping Campden, Bourton on the Water, Stow on the Wold, Bibury and started at Moreton in Marsh. We drove through Dover's hill, Broadway, Great Barrington, Ablington, Winson Village and Coln St. Dennis.                                     Old original market in Chipping Campden A majority of villages hav...
Post a Comment
Read more