A statue in St. Pancras station in London.
We dropped our bags at the hotel and went out for lunch and first beer. This is an old pub called the Olde Mitre. In the corner is the trunk of an cherry tree where QE I allegedly did a maypole dance.
The first history walk we did was in Spitalfields, an area of many different waves of immigrants over the years, including French Huguenots, which could have included my Jacques family ancestors.
Jewish immigrants built this building as a community center and soup kitchen.
Spitalfields market.
Our guide played the piano in the two of the pubs that we visited on the walk.
Evidence of the presence of French immigrants on the bathroom door in this pub. "Hommes" is French for "men."
We had taken another tour by this particular guide on a prior trip to London. He is extremely knowledgeable.
Cleopatra's needle, along the Embankment.
A Dutch sailing ship.
This is the Cutty Sark, in Greenwich. We didn't actually visit Greenwich this time, we were on the other side of the river on a walk about Brunel who built the first tunnel under the Thames.
Another Greenwich shot from across the river. This is the royal naval college, built in two parts to maintain the view of the river from the Queen's house behind it.
A large tour ship came up the Thames while we were there.
Street art/sculpture, not sure what it was made of but it looked like stained glass.
I probably take this picture at Haymarket on every trip we make to London.
There's an area known as the Bermondsey Beer Mile that consists of many breweries and taprooms located in the arches under railroad bridges.
Sunday morning with sheep in London. The Worshipful Company of Woolmen hold a charter from the Crown that grants them the right to drive sheep across a bridge into London without a toll. They still exercise that right once a year as publicity and fundraising event. There were other worshipful companies present as well, including that make long bows, arrows, wheels and other ancient industrial crafts. It was interesting.
This is the reconstructed Globe theater. We didn't visit this time but walked past it along the south bank of the Thames.
A swan with cygnets, and a few gulls.
Blackfriars bridge
Oh look, there are poor christian nationalists being persecuted in the U.K. as well, because they aren't allowed to persecute others. I have no idea what they were whining about, but I'm sure it was stupid.
I've wanted to do this tour of Tower Bridge for a long time. You can go up one tower and walk across two enclosed elevated walkways that go to the other side. The roadway level of the bridge still opens to allow ships to pass through whenever needed. It's actually a steel suspension bridge, clad in stone for appearance purposes only.
Part of the walkway has a glass floor. Not as scary as you might think.
We also visited the engine room.
A view of the Tower of London from Tower Bridge.
This is the George Inn, the only surviving coaching inn in London. We had lunch.
Sculpture of a dog and probably some saint in Southwark Cathedral.
It wasn't the prettiest church I ever saw, but they had some nice floral arrangements.
Walking along the south bank we came across this reconstructed version of Sir Francis Drake's Golden Hinde, the first English person and ship to circumnavigate the globe. He was a privateer, engaged in the fine British tradition of sailing the globe and stealing stuff.
The Tate Modern museum had a Frida Kahlo exhibition. It was quite good.
This was her first self portrait.
The National Theater at night. We saw probably eight plays during the week, mostly plays in small playhouses. We saw lots of different things and enjoyed nearly all of them.
Bailey after getting back from camp on Wednesday afternoon.
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