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The first phase of this trip was a Road Scholar program in southern Ireland – Mainly Cork and Dublin with run outs to various famous sites. Following that program we hopped over to London for a few days. We were accompanied on this venture by our good friends and traveling companions Steve and Billie.
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After a leisurly fairwell to Francesco’s Full English Breakfast We said good by to our friends at the Alhambra and toddled off to the tube stop. An hour later we were deposited at Hethrow where we did the airport thing. We had allowed ourselves 3 1/2 hours for that process so when it took less […]
Today was Tower of London day. We tubed over, picked up our “skip the line” tickets. (Of course, at that hour there was no line, but, hey. And made the recommended bee-line to the Crown Jewels These are the real jewels so they take guarding them very seriously. They also take a dim view of
The day started (after breakfast, of course) with a trip to Westminster Abbey. It’s interesting to view the Parliament/Abbey complex right now. We were told that this is a 3 year restoration effort necessitated by the fact that the buildings are currently sinking. Between the tube stop and the Abbey we crossed Parliament Park. Here
The museum doesn’t open till 10:00 so we had a nice relaxing morning. Rather than taking the underground (There isn’t an underground station closer to the museum than the closest bus stop.) we took the bus – and walked a few blocks from the stop to the museum. Once inside we got maps, agreed on
Early morning this morning so we snarled a quick breakfast and hit the tube down to Victoria Station to meet our tour bus. Once on board we headed out on a very pleasant 2 1/2 hour journey to Bath. Along the way we enjoyed the lush rolling hills of the downs and southern Cotswolds. Along
First a note. Cheryl has posted comments on days 6-11. Much information that I left out. They make for interesting reading. Now, on with the story: What better way to start the day at the Alhambra hotel than with one of their Full English breakfasts? Filled with English Goodness we headed out to meet our
Today was transit day. We were up, breakfasted, packed, and on the bus to the airport in good time – so good that we arrived at our gate 2 hours early. Oh well, better that then… The flight was mercifully short and uneventful. Arriving at Heathrow we used the Steve Smith Airport Trick and found
Today we were totally free until the fairwell dinner so we decided to take a civilized approach to the day. Later than normal breakfast, leisurly preparation, take life at a slower pace. Eventually we headed out the door and caught a bus to the oldest part of town. Thus far we have learned lots about
Following Breakfast we gathered in the lobby with our fearless leader Alan. Once the headcount was right we headed out to walk down to the river and up to Trinity College (~.6 mile). There we were joined by an official university tour guide (Mike, a grad student from upstate New York) who took us on
The alarm went off. We threw our bedclothes in the suitcases and had them outside our door by 7:30. After the obligatory visit to the breakfast room we returned to our room to grab our backpacks and saying a fond fairwell to the Metropole Hotel we boarded the bus to continue our adventure. The first