More Day 4 - Yeah, Yeah, Yeahhhh
Today was a big day for a couple of Mid Westerners, we are taking a Beatles tour with Michael Purvis. He gives an excellent Beatles tour. Met at Baker St Tube then into places we had read about but we would have never found on our own. I am posting some of the highlights. We really got into the back streets and saw the side of London you don't see from Westminster Abbey and Trafalgar Square etc. Trident Studios is so tucked away you would never notice it. Queen, David Bowie, the Stones and even the Beatles recorded here. Saw Jane Asher's house where Paul lived and wrote Yesterday among others. It was supposed to be a 4 hour tour, but we were the only ones signed up so it was private and Michael and I exchanged all of our Beatle facts, even took a break at a Pub right next to where they shot the cover for Ziggy Stardust. Highlight might have been the crossing at Abbey Road. We didn't Get Back to the Ye Olde Days Inn until almost 6PM and we have tickets to see New Orleans Jazz in the Crypt at St Martin at 7PM. Gonna need some down time tomorrow!


Start of the Tour outside of Baker Station with Sherlock Holmes on the watch.

Ringo's house in the sixties. He and Maureen lived here, then he rented it to Jimi Hendrix. The neighbors weren't happy. Hendrix finally moved out and John Lennon moved in and proceeded to get busted for pot! There goes the neighborhood

On top of this roof the Beatles performed live for the last time. It's so much smaller than all of the photos and videos I have seen over the years.

Plaque on the building

Two Beatle Maniacs in the door way. There was a lot of pictures of this door in Peter Jackson's documentary Get Back. This is where the Bobbies were trying to get in to shut down that racket!

Door to Abbey Road. Some of the last shots of the boys sitting on these steps....

Then up and across the famous street. Everything seemed so much smaller

The cover of Ziggy Stardust was shot here but not much left except this plaque

Random Mews where Mick Jagger used to live

The gate to Paul's house. He didn't answer, probably busy

The band at St. Martins-in-the Field. So a great venue.

The band, Fallen Heroes ended with a I Saw Her Standing There, so appropriate.

We were sitting right next to this Stone. Not Rolling anymore. Probably was more into Bach then Dixieland

Final shot of the evening coming out of the Tube at Paddington Station. We put in 23,000 steps today!

Hey rialtogrl - Mission accomplished, dinner at the Heron and was really good and the bar had some great memorabilia as you stated. I collect coins and they had a number of plaques with different coins through the ages. Hopefully will make it back

About three blocks from our hotel, great little pub with excellent Thai food. We talked to the manager about the "different" line up of food and he said that the owner has another place on Southbank with the same theme. People love something different than fish and chips

Day 5 - Recovering from 24K steps
We needed a break today from yesterday. We think we walked about 10 miles! So had a late breakfast. It ends at 9...and they kick you out at 9! We really don't want to do a big walk so we take the bus to Buckingham Palace. It's grand, lots of statues and gates and gardens, but once you've seen it, there's not much to do. Wandered over to St. James Palace which doesn't look like much on the outside but inside it's supposed to be quite fancy. Lunch on Piccadilly street at an Italian place where everyone speaks Italian. No one in London speaks English! OK, that's a gross overstatement, but you hear a lot of languages, it's like you don't have to travel around the World just go to London, they are all there.
Tonight I headed out to Regent Street and Picadilly Circus. Some amazing buildings. Will put in pictures!

Tdiddy12, what a great trip report. I am so enjoying reading this.

Pictures from Day 5

English Ubers! Actually right around the corner from our hotel is the Hyde Park Stables. There is still a lot of horse back riding in Hyde Park. These particular horses left us quite a few presents as we crossed the street. You have to mind more than the gap around Hyde Park!

Continuing with the Horse Theme. This is one incredible statue just at the tip of Hyde Park before getting off on the way to Buckingham Palace. I can't find the name, if anyone knows, please help me out.

Outside the gates of Buckingham Palace, not too crowded today but they have already done the changing of the Guards.

Close up of the Gate. Quite impressive.

Queen Victoria Memorial. As an American, I'm not sure how I feel about the whole monarchy thing. It seems kind of outdated at this point, but thats not my call to make.

Here she is, Victoria. I can never see a picture of Victoria without hearing the Kinks, singing, Victoria on Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire). That album is almost 60 years old!

Regardless of how I might feel about the Monarchy, they supply a lot of jobs, there were 12 gardeners working on this row of plants. We watched each gardener measure the distant between each plant with their trowels. Very precise. This is before...

...and this is after (different plot)

And this is how nice it looks in front of Buckingham Palace

Here's the old digs of the Royals, St. James Palace. Doesn't look like much outside but I've seen inside photos and it's pretty cool

Entrance to Burlington Arcade. Lot's of pretty expensive stuff in here.

We bought some tiaras for the big ball tonight. I'm sure we will be invited. We kept the receipts, right?

Lunch at Cicchetti's. Everyone spoke Italian, I get it, it makes sense, but I've been to Olive Garden and they don't speak Italian

Entrance to the Royal Academy of Arts, really impressive building. Just a heads up, we kept following the signs for "Burlington Gardens", where are these freaking gardens...Burlington Gardens is a street, not actual gardens! Luckily we figured it our before we asked anyone.

Another horse statue...boy they love their horses here.

Regent St. The British are celebrating VE Day, which was in May, so lot's of Union Jacks. I thought it was a Who Concert

Quirky little garden at the end of our street, Sussex Gardens

Thanks so much millie2122. Two more days in London! Haven't even scratched the surface of the surface.

i am glad you made it. There are a LOT of pubs with Thai food in London. In some, I think they rent the kitchen space and co-exist.

enjoy your last days, great report.

Day 6 - In Three Part Harmony / Morning
Not sure how harmonious it was but there were three distinctive parts of our day. The first one was a solo trip around Hyde Park. On top of being huge, Hyde Park is a very peaceful place even filled with people and dogs as it was today.


View of the Serpentine Lake looking back at the Italian Gardens

Another horse statue! This one is on the way to Kensington Gardens in the middle of a big field. It's called the Physical Energy Statue

Mother and daughter banquet

Lot's of Swans on the Round Pond

One of the entries to Kensington Palace

William the Orange or William the third

Looking over the Albert Memorial from the South Flower Walk

Part of the Flower Walk

I saw a mother and son feeding birds out of there hands and she gave me a couple of crackers. These little guys are fearless.

The Albert Memorial. Far bigger and more luxurious than I could have imagined.

Albert sits in his memorial and watches over the Royal Albert hall

A wider shot of the memorial

Queen Victoria, she must have been good, she had the job for 60 years.

Day 6 - Second Part Harmony
We did a Rick Steves walk from his guide book called the West End Walk. It runs from Leicester Square to Soho, but we dropped the Soho part. Took the bus to Piccadilly Square and we are on our way. Stopped at Leicester Square, could have been a number of places in the world filled with teenagers and chain restaurants. Covent Garden was fun, not a garden much anymore. Had lunch in 7 Dials Market area then on to Denmark Street so I could see Regent Sound Studios, home of some of my favorite bands, Kinks, Stones, the Who and at storefront #20 a guy named Reg Dwight wrote Your Song...oh and changed his name to Elton John!




Up on the double-decker, next stop Piccadilly Square

I believe this the God Eros, it sits in the middle of Picadilly Circus. A big magnet for sitting down and getting your photo taken

Mary Poppins in the park at Leicester Square

This guy Shakespeare keeps popping up over here.

Entrance into Covent Gardens

There were a few flowers at Covent Garden but mostly shops and eating

Classic street performer. Bring in a cute young girl to help out his routine and generate more tips!

Walked past this pub and a soccer riot was going on, riot of fun that is, all of these guys were blocking the streets singin

Now the soccer guys are blowing smoke up each others...well you can imagine

Cool old Theater with a Harry Potter play

This is a place called Pick N Cheese, they have portions of cheese on a conveyor belt like dim sum.

7 Dials Market

This is where it all happened. Now this street, Denmark St, if filled with guitar shops, so music is still in the air

It looks like Sunderland fans have started a day early ahead of tomorrow’s play-off final. It’s likely to get more lively tomorrow when everyone else gets down to London. You might find it a bit confusing as their opponents Sheffield United also usually play in red and white stripes. The game is often dubbed the richest game in football, with the winning team guaranteed around £250m.

Haven't read a trip report in a while but am enjoying this. Glad you're having fun in one of my favorite cities. Also, the Pick and Cheese needs to go on my list.

Some great photos and it reminds me just how green London is. I think it claims the largest urban forest title but...

Day 6 - Third Part Harmony, the Graham Nash of our day if you will.
The British Museum, what more can I say. I'm starting to poop out after a 1 1/2 hour walk in Hyde Park and the West End tour but we have tickets and we are going! Really easy entry, it is 3:30PM on a Friday night. Went straight to Egypt. So many things to see, amazing artifacts, statues, coffins, mummies and those are just the people milling around in the Great Hall. Somewhat finished Egypt, went to Assyria...and it was closed for the day. That's it, mic drop, I am done. On the Tube back to Ye Olde Days Inn.


Front of the Massive British Museum

Lion in the Great Hall. The hall is very impressive and we haven't even stepped inside

The Rosetta Stone, apparently discovered by Rosetta and allowed us to transcribe heiroglyphs.

Funny story, after we translated all of this stuff it turned out to be passwords for an ancient Egypt computer

One of many amazing sacorphagus or is sacorphagi?

Gebelein Man, or Ginger to his friends. This man died 5,400 years ago and was buried in the hot sand which protected his body. His posessions are around him, a few bowls and a flint blade. You can still see wisps of hair! Many think he is still waiting for the cable guy to show up

Various murals on display in the stairwell

We got to see the Human-Headed Winged Lions and a few wall carvings but the long hall was closed.

One of the wall carvings we did get to see

Thanks for the Clue John, I have now read about the Sunderland game today. Will be interesting what we will see as we go about our day. They were quite boisterous! I thought a war had ended somewhere, I tried to kiss the woman next to me and got slapped. So unpatriotic.

Coming from concrete LA, it is amazing how much greenery is around and we've had really good weather so it's been nice to stop for a minute in a park

I wish I was in London for this game! So exciting for Sunderland! There are something like 35,000 fans there for the game.

there will also be around 35,000 from Sheffield as well. Just one goal in a game at Bramall lane two weeks ago and I might have been there with my team!

Day 7 - Final Day in London
For our last day we decided to do the Bankside Walk in the Rick Steve's guide book. Took the Tube to London Bridge Station, walked out on the bridge taking in the views from the Thames. Went down some narrow step off of the bridge which brought us to the Southwark Cathedral.. Maybe this Cathedral is not at grand as Westminster Abbey or St. Paul's but it's a worth a look. It goes back to 1207. Left the Cathedral and right into Borough Market. COMPLETE chaos. So many people, eating, laughng, some are even moving when they get a chance. We picked up some cheese and salami and made a picnic at Cafe Nero, right next to the Golden Hinde, Sir Francis Drake's ride. Furhter down the Bankside we saw what is left of Winchester Palace, there is only one wall left, but it has a cool glassless window. Headed to the Tate Modern for the second time this trip. I don't get it, the building is amazing, but the art work is scattered all over, not easy to find, I think they should have the French come over and organize it for them. Took an Uber boat from the Tate to Westminster Square and our trip is finished. Back to Ye Olde Days Inn to pack. Tomorrow Salisbury!

You are now officially in the City of London

That Shakespeare Guy again. He attended Southwark Cathedral

This is chapel dedicated to John Harvard was a rich guy. He inherited a bunch of money, moved to Boston and started Harvard University. What...wait...you are telling me Harvard was started by a foreigner? Interesting

On the curb at Borough Market. Any flat surface can serve as a dinner table

We are at Cafe Nemo because our knees won't let us sit on curbs anymore

Last Wall of the Winchester Palace

Clink Prison was attached to the Palace, hence the name "sent to the Clink"

This guy had it going, mobile pub right on BanksideHere

Tate Modern, maybe too modern for us

Here is our ride across the Thames

Goodbye Eye

Last shot of London, the Elizabeth Tower and Parliament

Travel Day - Salisbury
Lessons learned on the British railways. The first thing we learned is that they do not announce the Platforms until about 5 minutes before departure. I don't know if it's because they don't want queues or they just don't know the track. So you have all of these people staring at the departure screens and then a mad rush to your platform. You have enough time to board so you don't need to make a mad rush, but it's human nature. Get on the train, GWR, find a couple of seats, store our luggage, sit down when a woman comes up and says, nicely, you are in my seat. How do you know? Well, some seats are "allocated" which means you are given a seat number. On the allocated seats there is a red light on the column. Un-allocated seats have green lights. Ok, I wish the ticket seller would have mentioned this. We scramble for seats and can't find any green ones together plus now are baggage is at the end of the train car. Not a big deal. Our train is running behind. Second lesson, when we bought our ticket I noticed on the schedule we had 8 minutes to get the Salisbury train in Reading. That should be cool. The conductor says, sorry folks we are running 8 minutes behind...you guessed it, missed the train to Salisbury. Not a biggy another one in 45 minutes and Reading has a nice waiting room with bathrooms and water station. Next time though I might look for a train with a longer layover. Get to Salisbury, it's beautiful. We are staying at the Peartree Apartments which you can practically see from the station. All is well.



Ok I've already used this picture but you can see a GWR train here. My instinct said to go all the way to the end of the train, hoping people stopped along the way. We actually got on about midway. Would change that next time

Loved the South Western train, less people, seats were bigger and it was smoothe ride

Check in to Peartree was self check in. There was a screen, put in our names and a key dropped out of the box. So convenient.

Took a little walk , one of the canals, actually I think they might be rivers

Swans chilling out along the river

This was actually in front of someone's house looks out on a little part of the waterway, so cool. Get my book, I'm staying here!

Lots of water in this area.

I'm thoroughly enjoying your adventures and am exhausted at everything you accomplish in one day. You're making this fun and exciting to read. Carry on.