London

May 30 London

BBQ today.  Had a great time, although the Pimms and wine tasted way too good!  

May 29 London

Up early and off to watch Dad and daughter run in a Park Run.  Happens every Saturday morning at 9 am.  No charge, and completely run by volunteers!  About 120 to 150 runners!  Dogs, and people of all ages, sizes and abilities!  Was a great event!

Lazy rest of morning!  It is Saturday, so had breakfast then later headed out on the way to do a walking trail in the 'country'.  But raining fairly hard so stopped at a pub.  Very nice, not just the beer, the pub too!  Maybe too much so!  Pillows on couches, and potporri in the toilets!

Then decided to do the walk no matter.  The rain basically stopped.  The walk is the Box Hill walk, which overlooks the town of Docking.  On the hillside there is also a winery!  The walk started off very easy, slowly walking down a grassy slope!  Perfect for a beginner ski run and tobogganing.  The tobogganing does happen.  

Grass was very wet, but oh well.

Then along a creek with a bridge and then the Stepping stones across the creek.  Very nice.  Maggie the dog went for a bit of a swim and then off we went.  Well this was the tough part!  Well that gentle easy slope was now many steps to get back up the hill!  Wow!  Got the heart going, but maybe more importantly, it did not stop it!!!!

Was great exercise!  And the scenery is great, so green at the moment!

Did make it to top, with out incident and the view was worth it!

Then off to another pub, very near a horse race track.  Have to try the beers!  Big derby (pronounced Darby) next weekend, so the set up was already on the go.  They actually have 'horse and rider' crossings, not pedestrian.  And they are set so a ride on horseback can easily push, very high!

May have to stay a long time here, there are just too many beers left to taste test!

Curry from local take away and movies, very nice relaxing night!

May 28 London

Up and off to the Vietnam embassy, and the best part was that I did not have to stand in line!

Headed off to Tower of London.  Got a bargain here.  Different places have 2 for 1, but as single you pay the full price.  I was about to buy my ticket and a woman asked if I wanted to buy the other half of hers!  Perfect.  Worked great!

Tower of London is amazing!  Arrived just in time to get a tour, guided by a Beefeater!  He was very good.  Interesting as the only way to become a Beefeater is to have service in the forces at a certain level.  Beefeaters also must live in the Tower compound!

This is also where many of the Crown jewels are kept.  You are able to walk around and see the various crowns, staffs, sabers, and lots of other gold pieces!

Other places of interest - the chopping block for beheadings, the rack for quartering, and armoury for the cannons, and of course Henry VIII's armour for jousting, and foot battle.  Lots of little places to explore, a lot of steps and low door frames, stone of course, but I some how did not bang my head once!!!!!

Over to the Tower Bridge!  This was great at you actually get to walk across the Thames on the (blue) walk ways, looking both upstream and down.

They also let you into the engine room and have a display of the old steam engine that raised and lowered the bridge!  Very interesting.  Thanks Tom, as I had some idea as to how it worked!

Then wandered around the area.  Neat little streets.  Walk by the city hall which looks like a ball that the slices have slipped!

Then walked across Millennium bridge which is for foot traffic.  This is the bridge that had to be redone as it bounced too much when used!

The bridge leads to St Paul's Cathedral, which was closed by the time I arrived.

Then headed back to house!