Last look at St. Paul's

It took us over two hours, 2 Tube changes, one train station and a bus ride get to our hotel near Heathrow Airport. I don't think I will complain about DFW airport ever again! We should have only a 15 minute ride to the airport in the morning.

Last night in the UK

Early morning flight back to DFW. Hope to see everyone soon... and then go to Bobby's Taquaria for some good salsa for breakfast after we recover.

We hope to get to Killeen about 5:30 Belton Standard Time.

Last pub night

Sitting in the Mitre Pub in Greenwich. Last pub night, tomorrow night in a cheap hotel near airport. We have had a great time, wish we could have brought everyone with us. Cheerio!

St Paul's, parade

St Paul's Cathedral has the most beautiful interior of any building we have seen yet. Pictures do not do it justice. We were very blessed yesterday to see a special performance there yesterday afternoon. In the morning we watched a 2 hour parade honoring the new Lord Mayor of London. Fantastic parade, military marching bands, many children's groups, and the nice little carriage the Mayor rode in, we loved it!

Would you give this old man a ride to the train station?

Re: laundry

One clarification, this wasn't our first trip to wash clothes on this trip, so we weren't too aromatic!

Laundry morning

Kurt Vonnegut said that bizarre travel experiences are "dancing lessons from God.". After wasting over 2 hours this morning on a wild search to find an elusive laundromat that we were told "you can't miss" we finally discovered it no longer existed. We were desperate to find someplace to get an entire suitcase full of clothes cleaned since we had nothing left to wear that didn't have an aroma. Our quest eventually entailed 2 wrong busses, a mile walk, and a train ride to the laundry back near the hostel we stayed in during the first week of our trip. One load of laundry cost us about 15 dollars, not counting our time. Part of the adventure, but never take clean underwear for granted when you are on the road!

Remembrance Day

What we call Veteran's Day is Remembrance Day in Britain. There are more commemerations here than in most of our country. Also more mention of the large number of Brits killed in WWI. We went to Churchill War Room museum today, very impressive. They left everything just as it was when the war ended. England suffered greatly in both world wars. When you see photos of all the places here that were bombed by Germans it is hard to believe. Saw a protest by neo nazi group called English Defence League. 75 of them arrested right after we went past. There were several hundred police. I have never seen that many police in my entire life. It was a bit scary.

Travelers mercies

Yesterday when we got off the train to walk to the National Motorcycle Museum, we went down the wrong path. It started sprinkling rain and we were completely turned around (basically lost) so I stopped and asked a man working in his yard for directions. He graciously pointed us in the proper direction. About 100 yards down the road, he pulled up in his car and insisted he would drive us the remaining mile to the museum. We were very grateful for his kindness!

Modern travel!

Ann reading on her Kindle and I am writing an article for the Journal (while using wi-fi and Bluetooth on the train). We made it to our hotel about 3 our time after leaving Stratford at 11:20 this morning. Ate at an excellent Vietnamese cafe for early dinner since we missed lunch on the trains.

Old Thatch Tavern, Stratford upon Avon, built 1561

Eight Bells pub, Chipping Campden, built in 1300's, in the Cotswalds

Civilized travel

I am posting this aboard the train to London....this is a very civilized way to travel!

Ann's scoot

Ann is such a good sport, she spent 3 hours looking at classic motorcycles without complaint!

London

Great time today in Stratford. We also went to British National Motorcycle Museumn today. One of the world's most valuable bikes, 1939 Brough Superior. Only one in the world, worth well over 500,000£ if it were for sale. (that is around 800,000 in U.S. dollars!) Over 800 British motorcycles from 1898 onward. We spent 3 hours and could have easily spent more. The 1912 Wilkinson was one of my favorites. They were way ahead of their time technologically, but stopped making bikes and concentrated on razor blades after World War I, what a shame! Tomorrow we head back to London on the train for last few days before we fly home. 3 weeks has flown by! Leave early on the 15 th.

Shakespeare

We toured the birthplace of William Shakespeare today and walked around Stratford on Avon. Nice, relatively quiet town with all things about the Bard. Had to rest our weary legs this afternoon after yesterday's sprint through train station changes in Birmingham. All those stairs are hard on our vintage knees. Continued our tour of the pubs of the UK tonight at the Thatch Tavern which has been in business for over 540 years in the same building. It still has one of the old traditional thatched roofs which are no longer built. Tomorrow we may spend time in the area before going to the theatre in the evening. Plan to visit Oxford while we are in this area. Our month is slipping away and we haven't seen everything on our list. But not because we haven't given it our best shot!

Cavern Club

The inside is like a cavern, side view of the small stage area. The place was packed with people from all over the world. A family from Holland shared our table...those folks can drink beer! Great fun for two nights.

Welcome to Liverpool

Stratford upon Avon

We arrived at Stratford upon Avon about 3:30 Pm our time. We had to change trains in Crew and that train was late so when we got to the station in Birmingham we had to make a mad dash from one train station to another station about three blocks away, we arrived one minute before our next train boarded. Whew! It is getting harder to run up and down stairs with a backpack! Stratford is very quiet compared to Liverpool. We really had a great time in Liverpool and people we're incredibly friendly there, and proud of their city. The Maritime Museum was outstanding. Liverpool was a key port during WW II and was bombed heavily by the Germans.

No voice

Yesterday morning we spent over 2 hours in the Beatles museum. Excellent! I am afraid I am a bit hoarse this morning after Ann and I sang Beatles songs for almost 3 hours at the Cavern Club last night. We had a blast and I could sing as loud as I wanted because no one could hear over the loud music. We are taking the train tomorrow to Stratford on Avon for a change of pace, but we are very glad we came to swinging Liverpool. People here really know how to enjoy life!

Liverpool

We made it to Liverpool, despite getting lost a few times! No more driving on this trip for me. Plan to go to Cavern Club tonight and here some Beatles music, wish y'all were here. Liverpool is a very different area than what we have seen so far. Very working class old port city. Had to take a cab last night and had a classic cabbie who was better than most tour guides. He assured us that we would love Liverpool, friendliest people in UK and recommended his favorite pub. Big Everton football fan. He was older than us and had Seen the Beatles play when Pete Best was their drummer and nobody had heard of them. Ann now has enough photos to publish Vol.1 of Tour of UK.

Scenery on our bike ride today

We had a wonderful experience today viewing the countryside by cycling along a narrow gauge railroad track. The man we rented our bikes from said the trail was easy to follow and would be an easy ride except for a "wee" hill we would have to cycle up! His idea of "wee" and mine are not the same, if you consider a two-mile continuous incline a wee hill. Wayne managed most of the ride on the cycle, but my granny legs had to push the bike part of the way! We stopped to visit a mini Stonehenge--a circle of stones built 4500 years ago! We rode for four hours but enjoyed the most incredible scenery I have ever seen--picture perfect. We stopped at the top of the hill and visited a wonderful woman who gave us water and her binoculars to sit and watch the birds. A much welcomed respite for our tired legs. The rest of the ride was down hill back to Keswick. Then, of course, we visited another pub and had potato/leek soup and a sandwich with our usual pint of beer--Stella this time!

River, downtown Keswick

Ancient Stone Circle, 4,500 years old