6 Train Connections, 5 Museums, and 2 sore feet
The London map is totally deceptive. It appears that sites are clustered and that you could walk from one area to another. In fact, in a day of traveling, no two sites were ever accessible from one tube stop. After yesterday, my game plan was to sightsee and return to the house, relax, and probably go back out for another round. Lyndsay shattered that idea when she reported that our train line was closed for the day due to “ Closed for Planned Engineering Work.” As she had to leave immediately for work, I would have to leave immediately at 9 am with to accompany her so that she could lead me on the mile walk over a Vero Beach mountain to the nearest other station. That also meant no returning until we met at 6:30 at Travalgar Square. So began and exhilarating, if exhausting day of coordinating a tour book, map, and A-Z(zed) street index (invaluable). With all that unfortunately there was no room for a camera.
From London Bridge station I visited Southwick Cathedral and then the Operating Theater Museum in the Southwark district immortalized by Dickens for its poor indigents (it was the first Women’s Hospital located in the top level of a church; the equipment was deserted and left there in place). Hiked to the Museum of Textiles and Costumes. Then strolled along the Thames Bankside to the Tate Museum (not much on modern art, but the lobster on a telephone was memorable. Then across the beautiful footbridge built for the Millenium to the north bank and St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Went up to Liverpool Station and visited Spielfield’s Market (the vegetable, cheese and bread stands are unbelievable. The produce is all from South Africa.) Off to Tottenham Court Road and the British Museum where the Great Reading Room has been restored (for us librarians this was where Panizzi designed his indexing system). Of course, it’s better known for the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin marbles. By now total exhaustion has set in, with hours to go before meeting Lyndsay. Waited for a column to become free and stretched out to read for a while.
Still time for another museum and fair. Tubed down to Charing Cross for a fair at St. Martins in the Fields, the National Museum, and the high point of the day, soaking my feet in the Trafalgar Square fountains. Met Lyndsay who jumped in with me, then we watched an Indian dance performance. On the way to dinner we went in search of the homeless who had shifted their locations due to the heatwave. Lyndsay regularly feeds them with surplus bakery items. Today she left a shopping bag of goodies with a guy sitting in the tube station. Then we walked to a Lebanese restaurant for dinner.
Late and tired we returned to Ladywell where Lyndsay lives in the SE via a much-appreciated relocation coach. Even at 10:30 it was still in the nineties, so we stopped at the Ladywell pub two minutes too late to be served, but purchased two Becks for the road. Can you imagine being unable to legally drink in the pub after 10:30, but being able to legally drink on the street as we walked home!
From London Bridge station I visited Southwick Cathedral and then the Operating Theater Museum in the Southwark district immortalized by Dickens for its poor indigents (it was the first Women’s Hospital located in the top level of a church; the equipment was deserted and left there in place). Hiked to the Museum of Textiles and Costumes. Then strolled along the Thames Bankside to the Tate Museum (not much on modern art, but the lobster on a telephone was memorable. Then across the beautiful footbridge built for the Millenium to the north bank and St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Went up to Liverpool Station and visited Spielfield’s Market (the vegetable, cheese and bread stands are unbelievable. The produce is all from South Africa.) Off to Tottenham Court Road and the British Museum where the Great Reading Room has been restored (for us librarians this was where Panizzi designed his indexing system). Of course, it’s better known for the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin marbles. By now total exhaustion has set in, with hours to go before meeting Lyndsay. Waited for a column to become free and stretched out to read for a while.
Still time for another museum and fair. Tubed down to Charing Cross for a fair at St. Martins in the Fields, the National Museum, and the high point of the day, soaking my feet in the Trafalgar Square fountains. Met Lyndsay who jumped in with me, then we watched an Indian dance performance. On the way to dinner we went in search of the homeless who had shifted their locations due to the heatwave. Lyndsay regularly feeds them with surplus bakery items. Today she left a shopping bag of goodies with a guy sitting in the tube station. Then we walked to a Lebanese restaurant for dinner.
Late and tired we returned to Ladywell where Lyndsay lives in the SE via a much-appreciated relocation coach. Even at 10:30 it was still in the nineties, so we stopped at the Ladywell pub two minutes too late to be served, but purchased two Becks for the road. Can you imagine being unable to legally drink in the pub after 10:30, but being able to legally drink on the street as we walked home!
posted by Karolyne Lucero, EdD at 11:37 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home