London Monday 8 June 2009 8th Jun 2009

We got away at about 9:15 this morning with our sights set on doing a walking tour of London with the same company we have done them with in Paris and Amsterdam. But alas, at the designated time and place, there was no-one from the company to be seen anywhere. So we decided to make it up ourselves based on the info from their website. (I just looked up their website, seems that they have changed the time to 3pm since I printed out the info on their tour, mmm next time I will check!! )

We managed to change the route a little to suite ourselves, but we both missed the commentary that is provided on the tours, they give you so much more than just a walk around, you find out about the history and significance of the things and areas you walk by and through.

We started by having a look at a few buildings around the start point, Tower Hill Underground Station. We then walked over the Tower Bridge (we discovered that Tower Bridge is best photographed from afar, its’ dimensions make it hard to get a good close up pic), something we have wanted to do for some time. We then walked along the banks of the Thames to London Bridge (not an impressive bridge at all, modern concrete variety) and back over to the London banks of the river. We then walked to the right and up to “The Monument”. It’s Sir Christopher Wren's flame-topped monument to the Great Fire of 1666. It’s very tall, but unfortunately, it’s now surrounded by many much taller buildings and is sort of out of the way.

We then walked west to find “Mansion House”, the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London, but we couldn’t see it anywhere, so we kept on walking up to “The Temple”. Yes, all you conspiracy theorists, this is the site of “The Knights Templar’s Church in London, made famous (or is that Infamous?) by “that” book. You guessed it, it was closed until 12:30, and we had too much to do rather than hang around for it. The church is now in the middle of a major area of “Law Chambers” (it was the most delightful area, really large, well worth wandering around, I have never seen so many law chambers before there are hundreds of them if not more!) and the gardens around it are immaculate. Deb had a wonderful time with the camera taking pics of the flowers . Once I could drag her away from the gardens we stopped at a local pub for lunch, thinking that because of the neighbourhood, the food should be pretty good. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case, which was a bit disappointing. But we survived!!!

We then walked along The Strand and straight past the Roman Baths without seeing them!!!! But we did find Somerset House! The central court was in the early stages of being set up for Fashion Week, so there were a few workmen around setting up staging. The fountain in the centre court was pretty interesting, with hundreds of individual jets of water. We went into the House and had a look over The Thames from the front balcony, looks like a great place for lunch, and they advertise dusk drinks and snacks, which looks and sounds like a good idea, maybe next time. We also had a look at a photographic exhibition in the house, the photos were great, and Deb delighted in pointing out that one was of the gardens in “Fenton House” that we had seen yesterday. (Somerset house - another wonderful place we stumbled across it was lovely just wandering around)

From there we walked up to Covent Garden. It’s a very busy place, full of shoppers and tourists. We watched a couple of buskers for a while, one who was singing Italian Opera pieces to people dining at one of the cafes, and another tied up in chains outside. We had a look through the stalls and the market, but it was the same things you get pretty well anywhere.

We then started walking towards the British Museum, via Charing Cross Road. We walked along many interesting little laneways and alleys before we got to Charing Cross Road, and then turned right to head towards the Museum. Along the way we diverted off to see where the St Martin Theatre was that we are going to tonight to see “Mouse Trap.

We eventually made our way to the museum and spent some time there mainly looking at the Egyptian Exhibits. They have an amazing collection there, everything from bones and Mummies to what looks like complete walls from temples. (So is your ever in Egypt and are looking at a Temple or monument that doesn’t look quite complete, it’s probably a safe bet that the missing bits are in this museum! ). It is an amazing place that you could spend days looking through.

We then walked up to Tottenham Court Underground Station and hopped back on the trains, and with one change, we were back at the hotel in no time. We decided to spend a little time relaxing in the lounge and helped ourselves to a few drinks and snacks while we read the papers and a few magazines.

Tonight we went to see Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap” at the St Martin’s Theatre. We left the hotel and got a train to Embankment and then changed to Leicester Square. We got there at about 6:50, picked up our tickets and had a quick bite to eat at a sandwich shop. The St Martin’s Theatre is getting pretty old, we had middle front row seats in the dress circle. The only problem was that there was no leg room at all . The theatre was about a third full at best, and it’s the first (and probably last) time I have ever seen people drinking beers while a play was going on in a Theatre. The play was great. We went in knowing it had been around for 58years (and it holds three Guinness Book world records) and didn’t hold high expectations for it. But we were pleasantly surprised at how entertaining it was. Of course every knows that the murderer was ............ (it was 10 years ago that you were in London Ben watching it, was thinking of you )