London! Better than I imagined

Oh, my goodness!  It was wonderful.

Our train was at least an hour late getting started on Friday because of a horrible accident that we were told happened earlier that morning.  We were beginning to worry because of all the bobbies who were gathered around the platform.  When I asked if there had been another "incident" like the one at Parsons Green, the Southern Railroad representative said no, but someone had been hit by a train earlier which was causing the delay of several trains.  [Later, our host told us that there are quite a few incidents like this because people throw themselves in front of trains or the subways.  We seem to have several similarities to England in the Pacific Northwest, but for us it is the bridges.]

But, after a small breakfast, we arrived at Victoria Station in London at almost 1 pm and hopped onto one of the Original London Tour buses.  They are big, double decker, and bright red, white, and blue and it was just fascinating!  Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable and explained some important things to us; like, the police officers in England are called bobbies and peelers, not as a derogatory, but as a nickname because the first Scotland Yard was directed by Robert Peel; or the flag of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland) is only called the Union Jack when it's at sea, otherwise it's the Union Flag (red horizontal cross on white for England, white X cross on blue for Scotland, and red X cross on white for Northern Ireland); or Big Ben is the bell, probably named for Benjamin Hall who oversaw it's installation.  There was also the moderately gruesome story of how Admiral Lord Nelson was killed in a battle on the high seas, he wasn't buried at sea as is customary due to disease concerns, but orders from high up required his men to return his body to be buried in England.  To solve the preservation problem the officers put his body in a huge cask of brandy for the 8 weeks voyage back and kept it secret from the crew.  Little did they know that the crew was sneaking drinks from the brandy cask, which was found to be more than a third low when they arrived.  Yuck!  Oh, and the story about the "Walkie Talkie" building (see partial photo) is that in the beginning it was a building with a concave glass wall that looked top heavy and resembled a walkie talkie. But, one day a guy discovered his expensive sports car melted where it was parked underneath that building.  It took him a little while to discover what happened.  The sun reflected and intensified from that wall of glass melted the car.  He went to the management of that building and told them they owed him a car.  They laughed.  So, the next day, he brought a frying pan and an egg to work, went over to that building manager and brought him down to the street, laid down the frying pan, cracked the egg into it, and it fried immediately.  The manager agreed that he owed the man a car.  Soon after, they covered the whole face of glass with some kind of light shielding that made it look even more like a walkie talkie.

So, here the best of my photos.

Victoria Station where our train came in.

This is what our tour bus looked like, with an open-air top.

An entrance to Buckingham Palace.

The Parliament building.

The Lady Chapel, one of the only churches Henry VIII did not destroy, said to be because it was a gift to his first wife.

Westminster Abbey

Statue of Boadicea, the warrior queen of the Iceni tribe of Britons.

Christopher Wren wanted to build churches, so he built this government building to look like a church.

I just like this dragon, but I think it marked the spot where, by law, the monarch has to stop and wait for the permission of the Mayor of London in order to enter the city.  I'm told that this was written into law after the Magna Carta to keep the king/queen from coming into London and taking all the gold.

This art deco building was built in the 1920s and still looks great.

That spire you see in the center is St. Bride's Church rumored to be the inspiration for the original wedding cake.

The Walkie Talkie building in the center.

Green Park.

Per our host, King Charles II and his Queen were walking in this park.  She plucked a flower and told him to give it to the most beautiful woman he saw.  Unfortunately, he chose to give it to a beautiful serving girl.  The Queen was so angry that she declared that there will NEVER be flowers in that park again.  It is law and it has been for 300 years.  Never underestimate the anger of a woman scorned.

New Scotland Yard.  Original Scotland Yard was named for the area, which used to house the court of the  King James, the son of Mary Queen of Scots and eventually ruler of England, too.

No, the tardis is blue, a police call box, and there weren't any that I could find.

Boadicea again because I'm obsessed with her.

Also obsessed with Big Ben, now called the Elizabeth Tower.  No ringing of the bell for 2 years now because the tower is leaning and needs to be fixed.  Parliament apparently was built on a bog.

The London Eye

Westminster Abbey because I went around on the bus again.

Bag piper playing outside Westminster Abbey and he was very good.

Unless you watch Love Actually again, you won't see the outside of 10 Downing Street.  There is a huge gate and automatic weapons there now.

I think this may be Windsor Palace.  The guard is housed nearby and is changed a couple times a week.  Sunday was the next changing of the guard and this was Friday.

Darn Americans!  These NFL Ravens bus was obnoxiously shouting all over London with a brass band.  Apparently, the NFL wants a more wide-spread audience.  I suspect this isn't the way to do it in the UK.

This is the Queen's wine merchant of choice.  Note the seal above the shop windows.  That allows the shop to charge $50,000 per bottle for some of their wines.

Roll on Thames!  I understand that the Thames is much cleaner than it used to be.  There is a boat that goes up and down literally aerating the river water.

Covent Garden was fascinating: entertainers everywhere, lots of shops and restaurants.

Steve found a friend in Covent Garden.

St. Paul's Church in Covent Garden.  This entertainer was about to test this boy.  If it worked out the boy got to keep the 2 pound coin.  Hmmmm...

Meat pasties (pass-tees) purchased from the Pie Shop, and of course mashed potatoes and gravy.

St. Paul's again in Covent Garden.

Yes! If only I could go to this stage production of Kinky Boots.  Rats!

Waiting for an important call.  But, Who?

We just couldn't resist them.

Ancient little buildings in-between the new.  I think this is the place the journalists and writers met in the "olden days" in London.

  

Last, look close, gorgeous wisteria is growing over the arch of that doorway.

An afternoon and evening are not enough to do London justice.  We missed a lot of things we wanted to see.  However, the Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station and the Thames river cruise, among others, will have to wait for our next visit.  I'm sorry, Meghan.  But, we will be back.

Eastbourne, again...

There is a lot to see here.

This morning, we completed our phone SIM card research and decided to wait until we get to Spain to get our new SIM cards.  Vodaphone was recommended to us as one of the best services to use.  We compared them with Tmobile EE UK and found that 1) we wouldn't be able to retain our phone numbers with Tmobile EE, 2) the Vodaphone "Pay as you go" plan/SIM card only was much more generous than Tmobile EE (4 G, 3000 talk, unlimited text, 20 GB data) for L30/mo each, 3) Vodaphone is all over Spain and the rest of Europe (TEE is not), and 4) we don't want to sign up for a 30 pound month if we are only going to be in UK for a few more days.  Our current service is not great, but it is working slowly.  [Also, if you do not have an in-country address and an in-country bank account, you can't pay your monthly bill online.  You have to physically go in to the shop to pay each month.]  Any other (cheaper) plan would require at least a 12 month contract and we didn't want to do that.  Since we will need a SIM card for each country we go to, we are going to wait to get a pay as you go plan in Spain - that's where we plan to stay for about 3 months and the exchange is better for Euro to Dollar (1 USD  = 1.19 Euro).

So, we didn't make it to London today.  We'll probably just do one trip to London tomorrow, leaving early and get the most out of it.  The train from Eastbourne will cost us 23 pounds each, which by our choice includes free use of the underground and buses for the day.  We plan to find a red double decker tour bus asap and do the circuit, stopping to check out various sights.

However, we did visit the Eastbourne waterfront again after breakfast at the Roots Cafe (where they serve locally grown ingredients) and our phone shopping.

The Eastbourne Bandstand has been there since the 1930's, replacing the original built in 1893.  I understand that one of the bandsmen from the Bandstand orchestra was in the band that went down on the Titanic.

The Grand Hotel, built in 1875, is known as The White Palace and is the only 5 star hotel on the English coast.  Our host says it looks like a wedding cake and I agree.

Beachy Head is huge chalk cliff headland near Eastbourne.  It is the highest sea chalk cliff in Britain.

Beautiful gardens that start at the Bandstand and go all the way down to that last hotel.

Our host told us that the shingle beach material was brought in because the original sand beach was washing away.  They also put up these vertical bulkheads to limit the erosion.  It seems to be working.

As you can see, the weather wasn't ideal.  It as been overcast, rather cold, and rainy off and on since we arrived.  Of course, that is what we are used to and we dressed accordingly in layers.  But, really, we want to feel the sun and find a warmer place.  So, after London and a bit more exploring, we are going to head to Spain - our planned destination - and see if we can camp out for 3 months or more.

Eastbourne and Hastings - Hastings from Foyle's War and William the Conqueror

Yesterday after we landed in London Gatwick Airport was a rather hazy blur, but I do remember arriving on the doorstep of our AirBnb about 4 hours early for checkin (because we were dopey and didn't remember we check in at 3pm).  Our host was kind and let us leave our luggage while he finished his preparations.  So, after a 10 hour flight, an hour train ride, a taxi ride, and walking around Eastbourne killing 3 hours and loading up on caffeine to stay awake, we dropped into bed like rocks at 5pm Eastbourne time on September 19.

Today, we exhausted ourselves doing laundry at the local Launderette, taking the train to Hastings for a nice long walk, and then walking all over Eastbourne again.  Here are the best photos from today and yesterday.

Eastbourne, East Essex, UK is not as old as some cities in the UK.  It is only a few miles from the larger and noisier Brighton and was developed when the Duke of Devonshire had 6 villages merge together in 1859. (Our host tells me that the wily Duke also owned all of Eastbourne outright and, when he sold it because he needed money, he retained the Covenants, which meant if anything was built his permission had to be obtained/bought.)  The Eastbourne pier was opened in 1870 and completed in 1872.  The majority of buildings seem to me to be very old.  Our host tells us that the home we are staying in is an interesting combination of Victorian and Edwardian architecture, fortunately more of the former.  (I gather Edwardian architecture was rather cramped.) The upstairs toilet that we use (don't call them bathrooms, the shower is in another room all together) currently requires the rod hanging from the ceiling to be pushed up and held, in order to flush the toilet.  The house has that not unpleasant scent of age that you rarely find anywhere that I have been in the U.S., even these old streets have the scent.  Parts of Alexandria, VA and Williamsburg come close, but not the same, in my opinion.

On our arrival yesterday, it was sunny and beautiful in Eastbourne

Today was overcast, 50-66 degrees, and rainy. This is one end of the street from the Launderette.

This is the other end of the street.

But, at sunset, the Eastbourne Pier glowed.

The street along the waterfront is full of hotels and condos.  This is one end of the street.

This is the other and it is a VERY long walk back to our Bnb from here.  If I don't get more fit, it won't be due to lack of walking.

Hastings, East Sussex, UK is the site of the 1066 battle with William the Conqueror (and, not as importantly, the site of the house that was used for Foyle's War, the British WWII police mystery TV series).  The ruined castle on the bluff overlooking Hastings was destroyed, not by the War of the Roses or either World War, but by a terrible storm in the 14th century that caused part of the castle to come down in an avalanche to bury a large part of Hastings, according to a woman at the local Council office.  She said that Hastings was an important economic and political site until that catastrophe.  Afterwards, it was "just a fishing village", as she said.

This looks like Diagon Alley to me.

Someone else thought so, too.

Steve finally found Foyle's house.

Old Town Parrish - St. Clement's Church.

Steve sat here for a very long time contemplating the Universe and Hastings.

There isn't much left of the castle, but what there was had kids all over it.

Tomorrow, we get new phone sim cards (ours are not working like Tmobile USA said they would) and a tour of London, if we have the strength.  We are thinking that we could ride the train and then ride the big red London tour bus most of the day - no walking to speak of - perfect.